To any Australian family, sending a loved son, brother, father or any other close relative off to war is surely one of the most harrowing of experiences. In two World Wars, the Carlton Football Club family watched with pride as our sons served with valour in all parts of the globe. And we mourn still, for those who did not return to us.
The earliest recorded
More than 600 Australian volunteers died in the fighting in that faraway place, before the sheer weight of numbers and superior equipment won the day for the British and colonial forces. Happily, Henry survived his time with the Australian contingent, and returned home to play senior football with
Despite Federation of the six colonies in 1901,
The five horrendous years of the First World War (1914 – 1918), cost
Included in that awful casualty list were 115 young men who had played at least one game of VFL football, but would never again hear the roar of the crowd on a Saturday afternoon. Almost all of them now lie in foreign soil where they fell – many with no known grave.
Of the 41
George Challis, 25. 70 games, 16 goals. (1915 Premiership player)
Dave Gillespie, 29. 5 games, 2 goals.
Tom Hughes, 26. 6 games, 1 goal.
Tom McCluskey, 27. 4 games.
Fen McDonald, 24. 10 games, 4 goals.
Stan McKenzie, 25. 14 games, 6 goals.
Jim Pender, 39. 15 games, 4 goals
Alf Williamson, 23. 11 games, 2 goals.
Each of these men had short, yet remarkable lives, and each of them would have risked death or injury in the service of their King and country for differing reasons. For some, no doubt it was a sacred duty in defence of the Empire, for others, a promise of adventures in foreign lands. The reality, unfortunately, was vastly different.
In August of 1918, the Allied forces, boosted by the belated entry of the United States into the war, absorbed one last German offensive, and at last began pushing the exhausted invaders back from whence they had come. Australian troops played a decisive role in the desperate battles of
Sadly, the horrific lessons of the ‘War to End all Wars,’ were not well learnt. Post-war economic sanctions against
Hitler’s rise to power inspired his Italian counterpart, Benito Mussolini, and by 1938
This time it would be a larger, more widespread and overall, even costlier war than the last. From 1940 to ’45,
By the time that this second conflagration ended, with Europe in ruins and two of
In all, 137 Blues signed up for service in World War 2, of whom five gave their lives for their country. Those who fell this time were;
Wilf Atkinson, 23. 1 game.
Jim Knight, 25. 15 games, 7 goals.
Norm LeBrun, 36. 5 games, 2 goals.
Jim Park, 32. 128 games, 5 goals. (1938 Premiership player)
Henry Thomson 1 game.
As had happened during the previous conflict, news of the death of these young men - who were not only loved by their immediate families, but likewise admired and respected by supporters of other teams – added to the widespread sorrow across Australia, and led to a determination to ensure that because ‘they gave up their tomorrow, so that we may have today’, their sacrifice must not be allowed to fade from our nation’s memory.
So as Anzac Day draws near again, we ask all Carlton supporters - and indeed all Australians – to spare a few minutes in contemplation of the thirteen special young men who wore the Old Dark Navy Blue into battle on the football field, before giving up their lives in the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Men like George Challis; a star wingman in our 1915 Premiership team, who was twice rejected for military service on medical grounds, but who persisted in his quest to serve his country at the cost of his life.
And Jim Pender, who enlisted aged 38, leaving behind a wife and two children. When his officer was caught in barbed wire during a raid, Jim refused to stay in the trenches. He went out on a lone rescue mission and found his man, only to be killed trying to free him.
A comprehensive list of all Blues to have enlisted during wartime, and the circumstances of the deaths of those we lost, can be found in the Blueseum via this link:
Since August 1945, when the Second World War ended with the unconditional Japanese surrender to the Allied nations, Australians have been called upon to take up arms again in smaller wars in
Happily, Carlton Football Club has not had to mourn the loss of any more of our sons since the end of the Second World War. But that should not for one moment diminish the responsibility that we all hold as members and supporters, to honour for all time the memory of our fallen.
You who come after them – forget not their sacrifice.
Claim as your heritage a portion of their spirit.
And in peace or in war, take up their sword of service.
So shall the living and the dead be for all time
Joined in one brotherhood.