Anzac Day has a particular significance for the rowing community

Sports clubs were targeted by World War One recruiters, as their members were fitter than most, and they were team players.  Rowers, in particular, responded.

1380 Victorian rowers enlisted of which 263 died during service

• 324 MUBC Members volunteered of which 42 died during service
• 44 Hawthorn members volunteered of which 8 died during service
• 131 Adelaide RC members served of which 24 died during service

Thomas Anderson Whyte was a South Australia Rower.

He attended St. Peter’s College in Adelaide and developed a passion for rowing and lacrosse. He represented South Australia four times in the interstate VIII+ during the years leading up to the war and was once described as being “the best oarsmen South Australia ever produced.”

Whyte enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force within weeks of the outbreak of war. He was posted to the 10th Battalion alongside many of his friends from the Adelaide Rowing Club. Like many who responded to the call, Whyte left behind a young fiancée, Eileen Champion. The two exchanged regular letters, and on 22 January 1915 Whyte wrote:

“I build castles in the air every day about our reunion.”

The 10th Battalion was among the first Australian units to land on Gallipoli in the early hours of 25 April 1915. Just hours before the landing, Whyte wrote a letter to be given to Eileen in the event of his death. This letter was to be his last. Whyte volunteered to row one of the boats. Three of his friends were on the boat - Arthur Blackburn, Lance Rhodes (also rowing and from Adelaide RC) and Phil Robin. Arthur Blackburn wrote:

'The most dangerous position of the lot was that of the men who were rowing, as they of course could take no shelter. They could not even crouch down in the boat, but were compelled to sit up and row. The dangers of such a task were so apparent that officers hesitated to order men to expose themselves to the work of rowing. Tom immediately grasped the situation, and, as everyone knew he would, volunteered his services as a rower.'

As the boat reached the shore, Whyte slipped over the side. He had been shot through the pelvis, and although he was taken to a hospital ship for immediate treatment, he died on the way to Alexandria. Blackburn later wrote:

'The poor fellow was killed before he had fired a single shot, but there is no doubt that it was largely due to the courage and endurance of Tom and his fellow-rowers in all the boats that everyone was landed with the minimum of loss.'

Whyte was buried at sea. Today his name is listed on the Lone Pine Memorial on Gallipoli, along with some 4,900 other Australian and New Zealand soldiers with no known grave who died in the campaign.  Of his three friends, Blackburn went on to win a VC and Rhodes a Military Cross, while Robin was killed later on the day of landing.