Jack Drake (footballer)
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John Montague Drake (15 March 1904 – 23 April 1941) was an
Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
er who played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League.


Early life

The son of Frederick David Drake (1857–1941) and Mary Elizabeth Drake, née Falvey (1868–1956), John Montague Drake was born in Perth on 15 March 1904. The Drake family moved to Melbourne before he reached school age and Jack Drake was educated at Xavier College.


Football

Drake joined Hawthorn during the
1926 VFL season The 1926 VFL season was the 30th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 1 May until 9 October, and comprised an 18-gam ...
and scored a goal on debut against Fitzroy, but was also injured and missed the next six weeks. He played two more games at the end of the season but failed to make the senior squad for the 1927 season.


World War II

Jack Drake enlisted to serve in the Australian Army during World War II in December 1939. After completing training at Seymour he was deployed to Palestine and then Greece, his division providing support for Allied troops as the German forces swept through Greece in April 1941. Drake was killed on 23 April 1941, aged 37, while defending a bridge at the Bralos Pass, Thermopylae, Greece against German artillery. A
Lance Bombardier A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier (lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike sim ...
serving on a field gun position, both of his legs were amputated below the knee by a shell blast, fatally wounding Drake. The same blast killed and wounded several other gunners.


See also

*
List of Victorian Football League players who died on active service Since the inception of the Victorian Football League in 1897, many of its players have served in the armed services, including the Anglo–Boer War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War (in which Melbourne's Geoff Collins served as a f ...


References


External links

* 1904 births 1941 deaths Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Hawthorn Football Club players Old Xaverians Football Club players Australian military personnel killed in World War II Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian amputees Australian Army soldiers People educated at Xavier College {{AFL-bio-1904-stub