Alec Campbell

Infobox Military Person
name= Alec William Campbell
lived= birth date|df=yes|1899|02|26 - death date|df=yes|2002|05|16
placeofbirth= Launceston, Tasmania
placeofdeath= Hobart, Tasmania


caption=
nickname= The Kid
allegiance= flagicon|Australia Australia
serviceyears= 2 July 1915 - 22 August 1916
rank= Private
branch= Australian Army
Australian Imperial Force (AIF), 15th Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade
commands=
battles= World War I: Battle of Gallipoli
awards= 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, 80th Anniversary Armistice Remembrance Medal, Centenary Medal
laterwork=Jackeroo, carpenter, mechanic, builder, boxer (Tasmanian Flyweight Champion), sailor (six Sydney to Hobart Yacht Races) and unionist

Alec William Campbell (26 February 1899 – 16 May 2002) was the final surviving Australian participant in the Battle of Gallipoli during the First World War. His death broke the last living link of Australians with the Gallipoli story.Shaw, John, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E7D61438F933A15756C0A9649C8B63&fta=y "Alec Campbell, Last Anzac at Gallipoli, Dies at 103,"] "The New York Times", 20 May 2002.]

Biography

ANZAC soldier

Alec Campbell was born in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. At the age of 16, claiming to be two years older and enlisting without his father's permission, he left his job as a clerk with the Colonial Mutual Fire Insurance Company and lied about his age in order to enlist in the army. [http://www.rsa.org.nz/review/art2002june/cover_story.html "The Last Anzac"] , "RSA Review" (Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association), June 2002.] He joined the 15th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force in 1915. Not even being old enough to shave, Campbell gained the nickname "The Kid"' during his training in Hobart. One of his cousins had died already at Gallipoli and the idea of Campbell's deployment terrified his parents. He landed at ANZAC Cove in early November 1915 and assisted in carrying ammunition, stores and water to the trenches. He received a minor wound in the fighting at Gallipoli. When he was evacuated from Turkey with the rest of the Australian forces in 1915, he became ill with a fever which caused partial facial paralysis. He was subsequently invalided home aboard the HMAT "Port Sydney". He was formally discharged in 1916 [http://www.auspost.com.au/download/bull_254.pdf "Australia Day: Australian Legends"] , "Stamp Bulletin" ("Australia Post"), p. 3.] -- a Gallipoli veteran at only 17.Cahill, Rowan, [http://www.rtbu-nat.asn.au/69.html "Alec Campbell, the last Anzac, a unionist"] , "Workers On-line" (Australian Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union), 2000.] He only fought in the war for two months; and he later explained tersely,:"I joined for adventure. There was not a great feeling of defending the Empire. I lived through it, somehow. I enjoyed some of it. I am not a philosopher. Gallipoli was Gallipoli.

Civilian life

Campbell had a crowded life. In South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania, he was variously a jackaroo, carpenter, railway carriage builder, mature-age university student, public servant, research officer and historian. He received vocational training in motor-body building at the Hobart Repatriation Trade School. He was a union organiser in the Lauceston and Hobart railway workshops and an organiser with the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners (now part of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union) (CFMEU). He became president of the Tasmanian branch of the Australian Rail Union between 1939 and 1941, and president of the Launceston Trades and Labor Council between 1939 and 1942. He also worked on the construction of Old Parliament House in Canberra.

After the Second World War, Campbell completed an economics degree at the age of 50. He worked with the Department of Labour and National Service.

A lover of sailing, he became an accomplished boat-builder; and he competed in six Sydney to Hobart yacht races. In 1950, he circumnavigated Tasmania aboard the "Kintail". Campbell married twice -- both wives were named Kathleen; and he fathered nine children -- the last one being born when he was sixty-nine.

His was an uncommonly vigorous life. Only in the final few months of his life was he was confined to a wheelchair. In the end, a chest infection led to a deteriorating condition; and the 103-year-old war veteran died peacefully. His second wife, Kathleen, who survives him, observed, :"Alec has become national property, although I'm not sure he realizes it."He was survived by thirty grandchildren, thirty-two great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

Australian "legend"

In 2000, Campbell was recognized as one of the "Australian Legends." His name and photograph were honored as part of an annual series of commemorative postage stamps issued by Australia Post since 1997. The stamps commemorate living Australians "who have made lifetime contributions to the development of Australia's national identity and character" [ [http://www.auspost.com.au/BCP/0,1467,CH4444%257EMO19,00.html "Racing Legends are first past the post,"] , "Australia Post", 2007.] . Campbell lived to fully enjoy this honor.Goldstein, Richard, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E7D61339F931A35754C0A9679C8B63&scp=7&sq=New+Zealand+anzac&st=nyt "Roy Longmore Dies; Australian 'Legend,' 107,"] , "The New York Times", 2 July 2001.]

Campbell's 45-cent Legend stamp displays the soldier's portrait as a young man, photographed just prior to his departure for Gallipoli. Formal photographs of the other two ANZAC centenarians complete this stamp set. In addition, a fourth stamp features the 1914-15 star medal which was presented to all those who fought in campaigns during those war years. [http://www.auspost.com.au/BCP/0,1467,CH3007%257EMO19,00.html "Previous Australia Post Australian Legends"] , "Australia Post", 2005.] These stamps, designed by Cathleen Cram of the Australia Post Design Studio, commemorate the story of events and people shaping contemporary Australia. [ [http://www1.auspost.com.au/priority/index.asp?area=features&article_id=707&issue_id=33 "156 years collecting Australian graphic art,"] , "Priority" ("Australia Post"), 2000.] The Campbell stamp honors him as an individual and as a representative of all 68,000 soldiers at Gallipoli whose actions affected Australia's evolving self-image. [Australia Post: [http://www.auspost.com.au/philatelic/stamps/index.asp?link_id=2.70 "Stamp Bulletin Online No. 254: Australian Legends - The Last Anzacs,"] , 21 January 2000.]

In one of his last public appearances, Campbell led the 2002 ANZAC Day Parade in Hobart. As he sat in his car before the parade, he especially seemed to enjoy shaking hands with the dozens of young children who came up to greet him. In the month before he died, it seemed that he could have ridden at the head of an old soldier's last parade.

Campbell's birth in 1899 was just shortly before the Commonwealth of Australia became independent; and at his death, the nation honored him with a Commonwealth-sponsored state funeral at Saint David's Anglican Cathedral in Hobart on 24 May 2002.

In the context of Campbell's death, then Australian Prime Minister John Howard observed that Campbell was the last living link to that group of Australians that established the ANZAC legend. Howard also acknowledged that Gallipoli was "a story of great valour under fire, unity of purpose and a willingness to fight against the odds" and that Campbell "was the last known person anywhere in the world who served in that extraordinarily tragic campaign."Campbell never understood the intense public attention on his later life and his longevity and was unhappy at times that he was lauded by conservative politicians who ignored his later union activity. After his death he received many tributes including from Tasmanian Returned and Services League (RSL) State President Ian Kennett, said that Mr Alec William Campbell was a great Australian and that he "led a full and happy life and put his energies, upon returning to Hobart, back into his career and family".

At some point between 1996 and 2002 as the ranks of Anzac survivors thinned and Campbell's own health failed, his name rose to prominence. Assertive nationalist and martial forces sought to turn hime into an icon as "the last of the Anzacs." Campbell himself resisted the myth-making. Campbell himself observed that there was nothing really extraordinary in being the last; rather, he pointed out the simple fact that he had been one of the youngest at Gallipoli.

With the passing of the last survivor of Gallipoli, the words of General Sir Ian Hamilton resonate with new meaning: :"Before the war, who had ever heard of ANZAC? Hereafter, who will ever forget it?"

Medals and honours

* 1914-15 Star
* British War Medal
* Victory Medal
* 80th Anniversary Armistice Remembrance Medal (awarded 21 April 1999).
* Australia Post Australian Legends Award, 2000.
* Centenary Medal (awarded 1 January 2002)

ee also

* Roy Longmore, one of last two surviving veterans of Gallipoli.
* Walter Parker, one of last three surviving veterans of Gallipoli.
* Veterans of the First World War who died in 2002

References

External links

* "Australia Day: Australian Legends," [http://www.auspost.com.au/download/bull_254.pdf "Stamp Bulletin" (Australia Post).] No. 254. March-May 2000.
* "156 years collecting Australian graphic art," [http://www1.auspost.com.au/priority/index.asp?issue_id=33 "Priority" (Australia Post).] Issue 32, 2000.
* Anzacs.org: [http://www.anzacs.org/campbell.html Alec Campbell]
* AWM: Photo of Campbell's military decorations
** 1914-1915 Star (AWM: [http://cas.awm.gov.au/TST2/cst.acct_master?surl=720103172ZZZCAQXTKOAVE29179&stype=3&simplesearch=&v_umo=&v_product_id=&screen_name=&screen_parms=&screen_type=RIGHT&bvers=5&bplatform=Netscape&bos=Win32 ID REL30869.001] ).
** British War Medal 1914-1920 (AWM: [http://cas.awm.gov.au/TST2/cst.acct_master?surl=720103172ZZZCAQXTKOAVE29179&stype=3&simplesearch=&v_umo=&v_product_id=&screen_name=&screen_parms=&screen_type=RIGHT&bvers=5&bplatform=Netscape&bos=Win32 Pte. ID REL30869.002] ).
** Victory Medal (AWM: [http://cas.awm.gov.au/TST2/cst.acct_master?surl=720103172ZZZCAQXTKOAVE29179&stype=3&simplesearch=&v_umo=&v_product_id=&screen_name=&screen_parms=&screen_type=RIGHT&bvers=5&bplatform=Netscape&bos=Win32 ID REL30869.003] ).
** 80th Anniversary Armistice Remembrance Medal (AWM: [http://cas.awm.gov.au/TST2/cst.acct_master?surl=720103172ZZZCAQXTKOAVE29179&stype=3&simplesearch=&v_umo=&v_product_id=&screen_name=&screen_parms=&screen_type=RIGHT&bvers=5&bplatform=Netscape&bos=Win32 ID REL30869.004] ).
** Centenary Medal (AWM: [http://cas.awm.gov.au/TST2/cst.acct_master?surl=720103172ZZZCAQXTKOAVE29179&stype=3&simplesearch=&v_umo=&v_product_id=&screen_name=&screen_parms=&screen_type=RIGHT&bvers=5&bplatform=Netscape&bos=Win32 ID REL30869.005] ).
** Gallipoli Star (AWM: [http://cas.awm.gov.au/TST2/cst.acct_master?surl=720103172ZZZCAQXTKOAVE29179&stype=3&simplesearch=&v_umo=&v_product_id=&screen_name=&screen_parms=&screen_type=RIGHT&bvers=5&bplatform=Netscape&bos=Win32 ID REL30869.006] ).