Thomas Albert Blamey was born at Lake Albert near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales on 24 January 1884.  He was the seventh child of Richard Blamey, a contract drover.  In 1899 he became a pupil teacher and taught in schools in the Wagga area.  In 1903 he joined the Western Australian Education Department and taught at the Fremantle Boys School until 1906.  In 1909 he married Minnie Millard.  After her death in 1935 he married Olga Farnsworth in 1939.  He had two sons byhis first marriage, Charles and Thomas.

In 1906 Blamey sat for a Commission in the Australian Army.  He was posted to Victoria as a Lieutenant on the administrative and
instructional staff.  In 1911, with the rank of Captain, he studied at the Staff College at Quetta, India.  He then gained experience by serving with the Wessex Territorial Division and the War Office in London.

In December 1914 Blamey joined the Staff of the 1st Division in Egypt as General Staff Officer III (Intelligence).  He landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and served there until August when he was appointed to the Staff of the 2nd Division.  He returned to Gallipoli with the 2nd Division and remained there until the evacuation.  He had short periods in Command of the 2nd Infantry Battalion and the 1st Infantry Brigade.  He was Chief of Staff to Lieutenant-General Monash when Monash commanded the Australian Corps in France in 1918.

After the war Blamey returned to Australia and held the posts of Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Australian Representative in London on the Imperial General Staff and 2nd in Command of the General Staff.  He held the rank of Brigadier-General.
 
Blamey retired from the Army on 31 August 1925 to become Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Police.  He resigned from the post in 1936.  During this period he continued as a citizen soldier commanding first the 10th Infantry Brigade and later the 3rd Division.  Blamey was knighted in 1935.
 
Late in 1938 Blamey became Chairman of the Manpower Committee (CA 297) and Controller-General of the Recruiting Secretariat and on the outbreak of war he was appointed General Officer Commanding the 6th Division and Ancillary Troops of 2nd AIF with the rank of
Lieutenant-General.  On 4 April 1940 he became General Officer Commanding the 1st Australian Army Corps.  

On 10 December 1940 he was appointed General Officer Commanding the AIF in the Middle East and became General Officer Commanding the ANZAC Corps in Greece.  After the fall of Greece he was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East on 23 April 1941 and became a General on 24 September of that year.  

General Blamey arrived back in Australia in March 1942 and was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Australian Military Forces and Commander, Allied Land Forces under General Douglas MacArthur on 27 March 1942.  In September 1942 General Blamey went to Papua and exercised command in the field until the following January when the Japanese thrust had been repulsed. He acted as Commander-in-Chief of the South West Pacific Area for the rest of the war, supervised demobilisation and retired from the army on 30 November 1945.

On 8 June 1950 General Sir Thomas Blamey was made a Field Marshal.  He was Chairman of the State Savings Bank at Victoria from 1950.
On 27 May 1951 Sir Thomas Blamey died after a long illness.
 
Sir Thomas Blamey was created Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1943;  Knight Commander of the Bath in 1942, knight Bachelor in 1935;  Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1919; Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1918, and Companion of theDistinguished Service Order.


Sources

Who's Who in Australia, 1950
Australian Encyclopaedia, 1964, Vol 2 'Blamey'
The Government and the People 1939-41, 1965 P Hasluck
Hetherington, John Blamey, The Biography of Field-Marshal Sir Thomas
 Blamey (F W Cheshire, Melbourne, 1954)
 

Agency associated with person unregistered

19 Nov 1919-31 May 1920: Chief of the Central Staff - Director of
                         Military Operations
15 Nov 1923-       1925: Army Headquarters Branch of the Chief the
                         General Staff - Second Chief
01 Sep 1925-       1926: Citizen Military Forces, 3rd Military
                         District - unattached list
       1926-       1937: 10th Infantry Brigade - Commander
       1927-       1931: Governor-General of Australia - Aide-de-camp
       1931-       1937: Third Division, Australian Forces -
                         Commander