2126 Private Rowland Lenthall - Bairnsdale Died of wounds 29 June 1916

….. survived Gallipoli to die at Messines

Rowland Lenthall was born in 1894 in Waverley NSW and as a youth had come to Bairnsdale to live with extended family. He was the nephew of Mr R.G. Brownlow of Eagle Point (his mother Edith was a member of the Brownlow family) and of Mrs A.N. Macarthur of East Bairnsdale. He had lived for some years with the Brownlows at Eagle Point and attended St Andrew’s College before going to Trinity Grammar in Kew and later to Dookie College. He was reported as being a champion shot when he represented Dookie against Wesley College during a school shooting competition. He enlisted from Bairnsdale on 21 April 1915 when he was 21 years old and saw action at Gallipoli. He was hospitalised with fever just days before the start of the evacuation. After recuperating in Cairo he rejoined the 8 th   Battalion on the 11 May. On 29 June he was at a post in the trenches manning a Lewis Gun near Messines when he received a stomach wound from a shell that exploded almost on top of the post. He was removed to the nearby Canadian Casualty Clearing Station but his injuries were such that he died at 12.45pm that night.