Lewis Blackmore

Lewis Gordon "Lou" Blackmore (21 May 1886 – 23 July 1916) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Lewis Blackmore
Second Lieutenant Blackmore,
First Battalion, AIF, France 1916
Personal information
Full name Lewis Gordon Blackmore
Date of birth (1886-05-21)21 May 1886
Place of birth College Park, South Australia[1]
Date of death 23 July 1916(1916-07-23) (aged 30)
Place of death Pozières, France
Original team(s) Melbourne Grammar
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1905–07 Essendon 7 (10)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1907.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Family and early life

Blackmore's father, Edwin Gordon Blackmore (1837–1909), an Englishman from Bath, the son of a doctor, had fought as a volunteer in the "Maori Wars" with the Taranaki Rifle Volunteer Corps from 1863 to 1864, and had moved to South Australia and had established himself in Adelaide. He was a co-founder of the Adelaide Club, the Adelaide Hunt Club, and served the Clerk of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1886 and, later, served as the Clerk of the Federal Parliaments.[2]

Blackmore's mother, Eleanora Elizabeth Farr (1847–1901), was the eldest daughter of ven. Archdeacon George Henry Farr (1819–1904), M.A., LL.D. and Julia Warren Ord.[3]

Blackmore had four older brothers, Gordon Patteson Blackmore (1872–1941), George Edward Blackmore (1874–1936), James Gairdner Blackmore (1876–?), Edwin Ord Blackmore (1879–?), two older sisters, Jane Gordon Drummond Blackmore (later, Mrs. Granville Sharp) (1881–1942), Eleanor Mary Blackmore (1884–1891), and one younger brother, John Coleridge Blackmore (1888–?). His older brother Quartermaster Sergeant George Edward Blackmore (No.85), had served in the Boer War with the Third South Australian Citizens' Bushmen Contingent.

Education

He attended St Peter's College, Adelaide, and moved to Melbourne Grammar School in 1903. He was a prefect at Melbourne Grammar, and played cricket and football for the school's First XI and First XVIII in 1904.[4] and 1905.[5]

In 1906, Blackmore entered Trinity College, and began a study of engineering at the University of Melbourne.[6] While at the university, he was awarded a "full blue" in cricket.[7]

Footballer

Recruited from Melbourne Grammar School, when still a student there, he played on the forward line, and kicked four goals from five shots in his first senior game against St Kilda, at the Junction Oval on 2 September 1905.[8] He played in the next two games, the last match of the season, and the first Semi-Final, both against Fitzroy. Fitzroy won both matches. Blackmore kicked one of Essendon's four goals in each of the matches.

He played in the second, third and fourth games of the 1906 season, and in the second game of the 1907 season.

Soldier

Prior to his enlistment he was farmer and grazier, working with his brother, John Coleridge Blackmore, at Wattamondara, near Cowra, in New South Wales. He enlisted in Adelaide on 23 September 1914; seven weeks after the declaration of war.

On 21 December, having finished his basic training, he was promoted from Trooper to Lance Corporal; and, on that same day, as part of the 6th Light Horse Regiment, A Troop, A Squadron, he embarked from Sydney on board HMAT Suevic (A29).

After further training in Egypt, he was sent to Gallipoli, where he was wounded in action (on 14 July 1915);[9] among other injuries he had a broken right arm.

He was evacuated to Malta; and whilst there, in the September, he contracted "enteric fever" (typhoid). He was immediately sent to Cardiff, Wales, in the UK to recover and, once he was well enough to do so, he returned to his unit, in Egypt, in January 1916.

Death

Second Lieutenant Blackmore was killed by machine gun fire in France, just after midnight, whilst taking part in an attacking advance as part of the 1st Infantry Battalion during the Battle of Pozières on the morning of Sunday, 23 July 1916.[10] He was hit in the forehead by a machine gun bullet and died instantly, at 30 years of age.[11][12][13][14]

His body was never identified, and the precise location of his grave is unknown. He is commemorated at the Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial, in France.[15]

See also

Footnotes
  1. "Family Notices". The Express And Telegraph. XXIII (6, 729). South Australia. 29 May 1886. p. 2.
  2. Death of Mr. Blackmore: A Great Constitutionalist The Advertiser, (Tuesday, 23 February 1909), p.8.
  3. Marriages: Blackmore—Farr, South Australian Register, (Thursday, 4 January 1872), p.4.
  4. A School Match, The Argus, (Tuesday, 20 December 1904), p.7.
  5. Public School Match: Melbourne Grammar School v. Wesley College, The Argus, (Saturday 25 November 1905), p.18.
  6. University of Melbourne: Annual Examination Results: First Year Diploma in Mining, The Argus, (Friday, 7 December 1906), p.11.
  7. Roll of Service Overseas 1914–1918: Roll of the Fallen: Blackmore, Lewis Gordon 1906, The University of Melbourne Record of Active Service of Teachers, Graduates, Undergraduates, Officers and Servants in the European War, 1914–1918, University of Melbourne, (Melbourne), 1926, p.4.
  8. St Kilda Die Gamely, The Argus, (Monday, 4 September 1905), p.6.
  9. 61st Casualty List: New South Wales: Wounded, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph, (Saturday, 7 August 1915), p.13.
  10. (!96th Casualty List) New South Wales: Killed in Action, The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph, (Saturday, 19 August 1916), p.10.
  11. The Roll of Honor: The Late Lieutenant Lou Blackmore, The Cowra Free Press, (Saturday, 12 August 1916), p.2.
  12. Lieut. L. G. Blackmore (Obituary), The Sydney Morning Herald, (Wednesday 16 August 1916), p.12.
  13. Died on Service: Blackmore, The Argus, (Saturday, 19 August 1916), p.13.
  14. Legal Notices (Probate of Will), The Advertiser, (Thursday, 3 May 1917), p.2.
  15. Second Lieutenant Lewis Gordon Blackmore, Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

References
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