‘It is heartbreaking to see such beautiful young lives taken.’
Allen Marten Blackburn (1929 – 1938) was an outstanding sportsman at CGS during his schooldays before World War II. In 1938 he was the Captain of the First XI (cricket) and First IV (tennis) both of which won Associated Grammar School (AGS) premierships in that year. In addition, he was a star player in the 1st XVIII (football) team, as well as being a member of the Athletics team, both of which also won AGS premierships in 1938. Allen was a Prefect and the House Captain of School House, now called Archer.
Upon leaving school, he became a professional squash player and began work as a Physical Culture Instructor at a gymnasium in Collins Street Melbourne. He also commenced a correspondence course in accountancy through the Hemingway and Robertson Institute.
Allen enlisted in the RAAF on 2 February 1941 aged 21 years and 17 days and following initial training at Lindfield in NSW, he sailed to Ontario in Canada. Here he trained on aircraft such as the Tiger Moth and Harvard before qualifying as a Spitfire pilot. On 3 March 1942 he was posted to RAAF 452 Squadron at Redhill in the UK where he served as a pilot. The squadron had seen much action and was involved in a variety of operations including offensive patrols on German bases, and escort flights for shipping and bomber missions. After a few months of active service with this squadron, on 6 May 1942, Allen transferred to RAAF 457 squadron. The squadron’s duties included shipping protection patrols, escorting bombers on raids, conducting fighter sweeps over northern France and generally contributing to the defence of southern England. In mid-August 1942 some RAAF squadrons, including 457, were returned to Australia to boost home defence and Allen arrived in Sydney in mid-August 1942. The squadron’s Spitfires were unavailable, so the pilots trained and practised their flying in whatever aircraft were available.
Sadly, Sergeant Allen Blackburn was a passenger in a Wirraway aircraft which struck some wires while flying at a low level and crashed into the Hawkesbury River, near Sackville, Sydney on 29 September 1942. Both Allen and the pilot were killed.
Allen’s Squadron Leader wrote to his parents and said,
‘I had flown with your son both during his training and during his operational flights over the continent and can fully appreciate the loss of so keen and a capable pilot as he was. But he will most be missed as a friend to all who knew him.’
Caulfield Grammar School acknowledged Allen’s death, and the Headmaster Mr Archer also wrote a letter of condolence to Allen’s parents. On 7 October 1942, his mother Catherine replied.
“Dear Mr Archer, I desire to express my many thanks to yourself, Mr Lamb-Smith and Mr Morcom for your very sincere kindness to Mr Blackburn and myself in the very sad loss of Allen. It is heartbreaking to see such beautiful young lives taken. We need them so much in this great struggle of humanity. I was always very proud of Allen, and I felt that Caulfield Grammar and the Headmaster were an inspiration to the boys, and I am sure you are proud of them too.
Greater love hath no man than this. That a man lay down his life for his friends.
Yours very sincerely. Catherine E Blackburn.”
Allen was their only child.
In 1958, to acknowledge the supreme sacrifice of all Caulfield Grammarians who had died in war, Catherine Blackburn commissioned a beautiful Book of Remembrance which contained all their names. Hand-written by an expert calligrapher, it is housed in a specially marked cabinet in the foyer of the Cripps Centre as a permanent reminder of the 153 Caulfield Grammarians who have died in Australia’s wars since 1900.
LEST WE FORGET
Written by Dr Daryl Moran. (1966 – 70. Staff 1981 – 93)
