Digger of the Day - Vale Hawthorn FC player Lance Bombardier Jack Drake

Former Hawthorn FC Player, Lance Bombardier Jack Drake. NAA

On this day 75 years ago, Lance Bombardier Jack Drake of the 2/2nd Field Regiment was fatally wounded defending the Brallos Pass in central Greece.
Jack was born in Perth but had an aptitude for Australian Rule Football. He would play for Melbourn's Hawthorn Football Club in its 1926 season.
Having moved to to Hawthorn, he enlisted in the Australian Artillery at the recruitment centre in Hawthorn.
Jack was part of the artillery defending Brallos Pass as the German's pressed their invasion of Greece south. The guns of the 2/2 played a key role in inflicting serious damage on the German forces crossing the Sperkios River and advancing up into the Brallos Pass. A number of gunners were killed and wounded.
Jack was fatally wounded on the 23rd April. He was 37 years old.
He is buried at Phaleron Military Cemetery in Athens.
Jack is one of three Aussie Rules footballers we know who died in the battle to defend Greece and Crete.
This weekend as we commemorate Anzac Day and the Anzac Day football games are played, we should remember Jack Drake, an Australian sportsmen who was fatally wounded 75 years ago in Brallos pass, Greece. Vale Jack Drake.

Jack Drake's grave in Athens. Photo Liza Koutsaplis 2016

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
& Member, Battle of Crete and the Greek Campaign Commemorative Council