Anzac means many things to a great deal of people, but the word is of special significance for the Drane family, who have taken up a tradition of naming their children ‘Anzac’ to honour the memory of Gallipoli veteran Thomas Edward Drane.
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Thomas Edward Drane was the first person in Forbes to sign up for the Great War, the same day that Great Britain declared war against Germany and Australia pledged its allegiance to England – August 4, 1914.
T.E. Drane, or Tom, was in fact the 53rd Australian to sign up to the war effort and happened to be part of one of the units who landed at Gallipoli on the morning of April 25, 1915.
Tom Drane went on to survive the Gallipoli landing and when he returned to Australia sought permission from the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth of Australia to name his first child ‘Anzac’ as a middle name.
In 1916, the commonwealth government passed legislation preventing the misuse of the word ‘Anzac’ for commercial or other unsuitable purposes (which is still in place today) however this did not apply to personal use for family names.
Tom listed a number of reasons for his wanting to use the name Anzac;
“I myself left Australia … in Oct 1914, and was wounded on Gallipoli which cost me a leg, also I was the first to volunteer from this town, and my child is the first to be born here with an Anzac for his father.”
Tom also stated that his brother-in-law had also “lain down his life at Gallipoli”, which is why the name held personal significance.
Official records state that Tom was in fact the first person to use the name for personal use, naming his three sons with the middle name ‘Anzac’, including George Anzac Drane, Albert Edward Anzac Drane and Thomas Anzac Drane.
Thomas Anzac Drane is the grandfather of Andrew Drane, who discovered the meaning behind his grandfather’s middle name and decided to restart the tradition of naming sons middle names ‘Anzac’.
Andrew’s four year old son is named Leo Anzac Drane, who is the first of Tom’s great great grandchildren to have the name.
Andrew said the reason he and his partner Jessica decided to name their child Leo Anzac Drane was due to the history surrounding the name and their family connection with it.
“It was a tradition that I wanted to carry on in memory of my great grandfather who fought at Gallipoli and also my grandfather who fought in the second World War,” he said. “I also felt it was important for my children to have an interest in their Anzac heritage and by providing Leo with a name with such historical and family significance I knew it would one day inspire him as much as it has inspired me.”
Andrew’s cousins then also decided to carry on the family tradition, and now there are a total of four great great grandsons with the name Anzac; Leo Anzac Drane, Archie Anzac Thomas, Sam Anzac Drane and Hugh Anzac McAnalley.
While Sam Anzac Drane’s older brother doesn’t have the name Anzac, he was named Tom after Thomas Edward Drane.
The name Anzac will now forever have a special place in the memory of the Drane family and future descendants of Thomas Drane.