'Best of the local bunch': Sir Thomas Blamey

Anyone with more than a passing interest in Australia's involvement in World War Two, will have come across the name of Sir Thomas Blamey. Blamey signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender and personally accepted the Japanese surrender.

He is the only Australian to attain the rank of Field Marshal (the highest rank in the Australia Army). He is also a Wagga boy!

Blamey was born in the Lake Albert area on 24 January 1884. He attended the Wagga Superior Public School (now Wagga Public) and Wagga Wagga Grammar, and started his working career as a student teacher at South Wagga Public School and the Lake Albert Public School.

He joined the army as a lieutenant in 1906, becoming became a Captain in 1910. With the outbreak of war overseas in 1914, Blamey was well placed to make his mark on the world.