Alec Campbell

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Alec William Campbell (26 February 1899 – 16 May 2002) was the final surviving Australian participant in the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I. His death broke the last living link of Australians with the Gallipoli story.

At the age of 16, Campbell left his job as an insurance clerk and lied about his age to enlist in 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. Illness forced his evacuation in December 1915 and Campbell was formally discharged in 1916. He only fought in the war for six weeks. Like many veterans, Campbell was reluctant to talk about his experience at war.

Later in life, Campbell was a union organiser in the Launceston and Hobart railway workshops and an organiser with the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners (now part of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union). He was 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. He completed an economics degree at the age of 50. A lover of sailing, he built boats and competed in six Sydney to Hobart yacht races. Campbell fathered the last of his nine children at the age of sixty-nine.

When it was realised that he was one of the few remaining Gallipoli veterans, he led the ANZAC Day Parade in Hobart. In 2002 he sat in his car, before the parade, and shook hands with dozens of young children. In the final few months of his life, he was confined to a wheelchair.

Suffering a chest infection, the condition of the 103-year-old deteriorated and Campbell died peacefully beside his wife. He received a state funeral at St David's Anglican Cathedral in Hobart on May 24, 2002.

As Australia's last ANZAC he represented the last physical link with the campaign that forms a large part of Australia's national identity described by Prime Minister John Howard as "a unity of purpose and a willingness to fight against the odds". 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".

Campbell is survived by his wife, Kate, thirty grand-children, thirty-two great grand-children, and two great-great grand-children.