Apr 2001 Volume 82 Number 4
"serving the protectors"
Lest we forget
| Apr 2001 Volume 82 Number 4 "serving the protectors" |
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Lest we forget A bond among police |
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The SA Police Anzac memorial service will this month honour a fallen officer whose name has never appeared with the war dead listed on brass plaques at Fort Largs.
John Blackie – born near Edinburgh, Scotland in 1886 – immigrated to Australia and joined SAPOL in 1912. He lived in Surflen St, Adelaide and served as a city foot constable until 1915. Then, like many before him, he felt compelled to enlist in the 50th Infantry Battalion. He was then a 29-year-old husband with an infant child.
The battalion was trained in Egypt and later heavily engaged in the continuing Battle of the Somme. There, it fought its adversary in a bitter contest over areas in which the enemy had held high ground for 18 months.
Aggressive trench warfare led the enemy to strengthen its defences. At the same time, however, vast and elaborate preparations were made to counter its advantage.
Blackie was twice wounded in action and sent to England to recover. He returned to the field but was killed in a night’s action at Villers-Bretonneux on April 25, 1918. He has no known grave.
Blackie’s name is recorded at the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery and the Adelaide War Memorial.
To hold the worn, stained pay book this former police officer carried in the field – and research his life in the National Archives – is to bridge a gap of many years. It also retains a palpable bond among South Australian police officers.
Anyone may attend the SA Police Anzac memorial service, which will be held at Fort Largs at 10:30am on Sunday April 22.
- Dorothy Pyatt
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