Thomas Blamey Memorial statue of Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey in Kings Domain , Melbourne . See also Field Marshal ( Australia ) Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey , GBE , KCB , CMG , DSO ( 24 January 1884 – 27 May 1951 ) was an Australian General of World War II , and Australia 's first Field Marshal . He commenced his soldiering as a 'citizen soldier' , and served as a commander at Gallipoli . The pinnacle of his career was during World War Two , as Commander-in-Chief , Australian Military Forces , serving simultaneously in international command as Commander-in-Chief Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific Area ( SWPA ) under American General Douglas MacArthur . On 2 September 1945 , Blamey was with MacArthur on USS Missouri ( BB-63 ) and signed the Japanese surrender document on behalf of Australia . He then flew to Morotai and personally accepted the surrender of the remaining Japanese in the South West Pacific . Pre-First World War The seventh of ten children , Blamey grew up near Wagga Wagga , New South Wales . After some earlier farming failures , his father ran a small farm and worked as a drover and shearing overseer . Blamey acquired the bush skills associated with his father’s enterprises and became a sound horseman . He was a keen and efficient member of the army cadets at his school.He passed a test and became a police officer , the test included shooting targets etc . Blamey began his working life in 1899 as a trainee school teacher in the Wagga Wagga area before moving to Western Australia in 1903 to continue his teaching career . He was involved in school cadets as a teacher at Wagga Wagga and in Western Australia . Somewhat surprisingly in view of his later reputation as a womaniser and heavy drinker , he was then a teetotaller heavily involved in the Methodist Church and had been since childhood . By early 1906 he was being encouraged by the Church leaders in Western Australia to enter training as a minister , which he was disposed to do . However , upon the creation of the Cadet Instructional Staff of the Australian Military Forces he saw a new opportunity . He sat the entrance exam and came third in Australia , but failed to secure an appointment as there were no vacancies in Western Australia . After persuasive correspondence with the military authorities he was appointed to a position in Victoria with the rank of lieutenant , commencing duty in November 1906 with responsibility for school cadets in Victoria . Blamey married Minnie Millard on 8 September 1909 . His first child , a boy named Dolf , was born on 29 June 1910 . His second child , a boy named Thomas , was born four years later . Blamey was promoted to captain in 1910 . In 1911 , after previous candidates had failed it , he was the first Australian officer to pass the demanding entrance test for the British Staff College , which trained officers for higher command . He began his studies at the Staff College at Quetta in India in 1912 , accompanied by his wife and first child . He performed very well , completing the course in 1913 . First World War Blamey served in the 1st AIF in the First World War . In mid- 1914 Blamey had been in Britain on the staff of the Wessex Division . In November he sailed for Egypt , along with Harry Chauvel , to join the Australian contingent and became intelligence officer on the staff of the Australian 1st Division for the Battle of Gallipoli . During the landing at Anzac Cove , Blamey was sent to evaluate the need for reinforcements by Colonel M'Cay 's 2nd Brigade on 400 Plateau . In July 1915 Blamey was promoted to lieutenant colonel and joined the staff of the newly forming Australian 2nd Division in Egypt . When the Australian forces moved to France in 1916 , Blamey returned to the 1st Division staff and was involved in the Battle of Pozières . Blamey briefly held battalion and brigade command posts in late 1916 and early 1917 but as an experienced staff officer was considered too valuable for a combat post . He was promoted to brigadier general on 1 June 1918 and became chief of corps staff of Lieutenant General Sir John Monash 's Australian Corps . He played a significant role in the success of Monash 's corps in the final months of the war . Indeed , Monash rated him as one of the key factors in his Corps ' success . Inter War Years Blamey returned to Australia in late 1919 . Blamey then became director of Military Operations at Army Hedquarters . In May 1920 became Deputy Chief of General Staff . Blameys first major task was the creation of the Royal Australian Air Force . In August Blamey was sent to London to be Australia 's representative on the Imperal General Staff . In 1923 the Chief of General Staff ( CGS ) Major General Sir Cyril Brudenell White retired . Blamey was expected to become CGS. However the Inspector General Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel was made CGS , Blamey was made second CGS . On the 1st of September 1925 Blamey resigned from the regular forces and was appointed as Commissioner of the Victoria Police , where scandal first found him . During a raid on a brothel , a friend of his was found to be in possession of Blamey 's police identity card . As Police Commissioner he directed the 'political police squad ' to break up Unemployed Workers Movement meetings at Sydney Road in working class Brunswick . Blamey 's treatment of the unionists was typical of his hardline anti- communist beliefs and as such his relations with left-wing governments were tense . Along with many senior army and ex-army officers , he was a leading member of the clandestine far-right wing organisation League of National Security . The LNS was reportedly a response to the rise of communism in Australia , its members ready to seize arms from army depots to stop a communist revolution . Second World War Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey - Relief from Blamey Square , Canberra . Blamey travelled to the Middle-East with the Second AIF as its commander in chief . He notably insisted to the British commander in Egypt General Archibald Wavell that Australian forces remain together as cohesive units , no Australian forces were to be deployed or engaged without the prior consent of the Australian government , and that he ( General Blamey ) be the sole commander-in-chief of all Australian forces . Australian forces did indeed remain together for the Siege of Tobruk , the Balkans Campaign and the Syrian campaign ( against the Vichy French ) until the Second AIF was withdrawn in 1942 . Some of Blamey 's most controversial actions concern the period after the Japanese declared war , and United States General Douglas MacArthur retreated to Australia . MacArthur had a low opinion of Australian fighting men , and was highly criticial of their performance during the early battles in New Guinea . Blamey appeared to be keen not to antagonise MacArthur or publicly hold a dissenting view . For example , during a speech to 21st Brigade , 2nd AIF in 1942 , he accused the men in it of being `` rabbits who run '' . This accusation of cowardice against the men who had turned back the Japanese on the Kokoda Trail was received by them with intense bitterness , and was widely seen as reflecting his own inability to stand up to MacArthur . His treatment of senior officers was also controversial . Biographers of many of Blamey 's World War II contemporaries , including Generals Lavarack , Rowell , Allen and Morshead , as well as Brigadier Potts , have all claimed that their subjects were dealt with unfairly , and in some cases atrociously , by Blamey — in ways ranging from holding rivals back from promotion , through to their dismissal from command appointments in order to cover up Blamey 's own shortcomings . Blamey left the Army in 1946 , and was promoted to Field Marshal on his death-bed . Posthumous reputation Blamey is honoured in Australia in various ways , not least by the square named in his honour around which is situated the Russell Offices headquarters of the Australian Defence Force and Department of Defence in the national capital , Canberra . A larger statue is in Kings Domain , Melbourne . Nevertheless , Blamey 's posthumous reputation is not high , and he has been eclipsed in the public memory by figures such as Sir John Monash , who is usually described as Australia 's greatest soldier , and Sir Edward Dunlop , the wartime surgeon . Opinions about Blamey are polarised . While some historians and contemporaries view him as an inspired general , whose energy , skill and political acumen built the Australian Army into the highly professional organisation it became , others have judged him as a spiteful , immoral and ultimately cowardly man who was ready to sacrifice anyone in order to preserve or advance his own position . Dates of rank Lieutenant - November 1906 Captain - 1 December 1910 Major - 1 July 1914 Lieutenant Colonel - 26 July 1915 Colonel - 1 December 1916 Brigadier General - 1 June 1918 Major General - 23 March 1931 Lieutenant General - 13 October 1939 General - 24 September 1941 Field Marshal - 8 June 1950 References Blamey  : Controversial soldier  : A biogr. of Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey / Hetherington , John. - Repr. [ of the ed. ] Canberra 1973. - Melbourne  : Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey Fund , 1983 External links General Officers of the 1st AIF : Thomas Blamey Categories : 1884 births | 1951 deaths | Australian World War I people | Australian World War II people | Field Marshals of Australia | Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath | Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire | Companions of the Distinguished Service Order 