Alec Campbell went to Gallipoli at the age of 16

Of the 8,000 Australian soldiers who died in Gallipoli, 2,000 were killed on the first day - 25 April, which is now known as Anzac Day.

For Australians, Gallipoli was a defining moment in the fledgling country's identity, and that is why they are mourning Alec Campbell.

A father of nine, he died peacefully on Thursday at a nursing home in Hobart, capital of Australia's island state of Tasmania, with his second wife Kathleen by his bedside.

Flags flew at half mast around Australia on Friday and newspapers devoted their front pages to Mr Campbell's death. He is to be given a state funeral with full military honours in Hobart next Friday.

Mr Campbell appeared frail but in good health when he led Hobart's Anzac Day march from a car just three weeks ago.

He had lied about his age to enlist at 16, and landed on Gallipoli in October 1915. He was evacuated about two months later suffering war wounds and partial paralysis brought on by mumps, which affected his right eye for the rest of his life.

'Dangerous work'

Mr Campbell was finally discharged as medically unfit and returned to Australia where he worked on a cattle station then as a carpenter before taking an economics degree and joining the civil service.

Allied casualties at Gallipoli

Britain 120,000 France 27,000 Australia 26,000 (8,000 dead) New Zealand 7,500

In recent years he rarely spoke of his time in Gallipoli - often spent carrying water to the front lines.

"It was very dangerous work," he said. "Every day at least one carrier got hit."

He said he had joined up because "it was the fashionable thing to do."

"Once we were there, we didn't expect to survive, but it didn't play on our minds," he said.

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament: "Not only is he the last Australian Anzac, he is also the last known person anywhere in the world who served in that extraordinarily tragic campaign".

The last Turkish veteran, Adil Sahin, died in 1998.