100th anniversary: Quetta college remembers its Australian graduate

QUETTA:

Vice-Chief Australian Defence Force Air Marshal Mark Binskin visited the Command and Staff College in Quetta, to mark the 100th anniversary of the graduation of Australia’s most senior soldier from Pakistan’s most historic military institution on Monday.

Captain Thomas Blamey graduated in 1913 from the Staff College in Quetta.  Blamey, the only Australian ever promoted to a five-star rank also participated in the First and Second World Wars and was Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Military Forces from 1942 to 1945.



In his speech Air Marshal Binskin highlighted not only the historical linkages which bind Pakistan and Australia.

He said Australia was pleased to offer training courses to some 140 Pakistan personnel each year.

He presented the college with a Second World War photograph of Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey and Major-General George Vasey, both Quetta graduates. The Commandant of the Australian Command and Staff College has also loaned Blamey’s wartime ceremonial cane to the college museum for a year. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2013.