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| Stanley Seymour Argyle, Premier of Victoria. Portrait from Parliament of Victoria. |
Today we honour the service of the only Gallipoli veteran who served on Lemnos in 1915-16, who returned to Australia and was later elected a State Premier - Stanley Argyle.
Born in Kyneton and resident at Cotham Road in Kew, Stanley was a medical practitioner working at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital (where Lemnos' Matron Grace Wilson would later serve after the war).
Stanley enlisted in the AIF in November 1914 and was appointed to the 2nd Australian General Hospital. Later he would be transferred to the largely South Australian-raised 1st Australian Stationary Hospital and would come join it at its East Mudros location on Lemnos on 26th April 1915. Here he would see installed an X-Ray machine and seventy electric lights powered by a new generator - serving the patients at the hospital, who sometimes rose to number 400. Stanley was known as the "AIF radiologist" and had been one of the pioneers of this new technology in Australia, working as the radiologist at the Alfred Hospital prior to his enlistment.
Stanley served in Egypt and France, returning to Australia in 1917 and resuming his position at the Alfred Hospital.
Entering Victorian politics as the member for the electorate of Toorak in 1920, Stanley would serve as Victoria's Premier from 1932 until 1935.
In so doing, Stanley is the only Gallipoli campaign veteran to have led a State Government in Australia.
Another Gallipoli veteran - Stanley Melbourne Bruce - would serve as Australia's Prime Minister - but he served with the British Army and not the Australian forces during the campaign.
Another important connection between Australia's Anzac story and Lemnos.
Jim Claven
Secretary, Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
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