Thomas Blamey - Early Life

Early Life

The seventh of ten children, Blamey was born on 24 January 1884 in Lake Albert, near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. He was the son of Richard Blamey, a farmer who had emigrated from Cornwall at the age of 16 in 1862, and his Australian-born wife, Margaret Blamey née Murray. After farming failures in Queensland and on the Murrumbidgee River near Wagga Wagga, his father Richard moved to a small 20-acre (8.1 ha) property in Lake Albert, where he supplemented his farm income working as a drover and shearing overseer. Blamey acquired the bush skills associated with his father’s enterprises and became a sound horseman. He attended Wagga Wagga Superior Public School (now Wagga Wagga Public School), where he played Australian football, and was a keen member of the Army Cadet unit. He transferred to Wagga Wagga Grammar when he was 13, and was head cadet of its unit for two years.

Blamey began his working life in 1899 as a trainee school teacher at Lake Albert School. He transferred to South Wagga Public School in 1901. In 1903 he moved to Western Australia, where he taught for three years at Fremantle Boys School. He coached the rifle shooting team of its cadet unit there to a win in the Western Australian Cup. Blamey was raised in a Methodist family and was involved with his church. By early 1906 he was a lay preacher, and Church leaders in Western Australia offered him an appointment as an associate minister in Carnarvon, Western Australia.