Obituaries Australia

Gordon Fink, by unknown photographer, c 1915

Weekly Times (Melbourne), 10 July 1915, p 31

Not least mourned of those whose careers have been closed in the flush of vigorous youth is Private Gordon Fink, news of whose death in a night attack in Gallipoli has been received by his parents, Mr and Mrs Theodore Fink.

It was at first believed that Private Fink had been captured by the Turks, but that slender hope was ended by a private cable message from Colonel John Monash, Commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, announcing that careful inquiries had forced him to the conclusion that Private Fink had met his death in action on the night of May 2.

The photograph shows two comrades in-arms—Private Harry W. Leake, of Bast Kununoppin, W.A., and Private Gordon Fink, both of whom were attached to No. 1 Company, 16th (South and West Australian) Battalion of the Fourth Brigade. Private Fink was one of a large number of men officially reported missing in the official casualty list published on June 14, and some time necessarily elapsed before his fate could be definitely ascertained. Although he was a graduate of the Melbourne University as a member of the bar, and was on the military retired list as a former lieutenant in the Victorian Field Artillery, he enlisted in West Australia as a private, sharing the risks and daring the dangers faced by the rank and file. When the war broke out, he was, together with Mr Carl Pirani, a son of Mr Samuel Pirani, the well-known Melbourne solicitor, farming in West Australia. The two young men joined the 16th Battalion together, but Private Pirani was invalided in Egypt, and had to enter the Heliopolis Hospital. Private Leake, who is standing beside Private Fink in the photograph. has been reported wounded. He founded in peace a friendship that was tested in war. These two, who had often met in West Australia, where their acquaintance began, stood side by side to face the Turkish guns which ended, their comradeship.

Sincere sympathy is felt for Mr Theodore Fink, who is a member of the legal firm of Messrs Fink, Best and Hall, and is chairman of directors of "The Herald" and "Weekly Times" Ltd., and for Mrs Fink, in the loss they bear in the death of their eldest son.