| Regimental number | 2869 |
| Place of birth | Balmain New South Wales |
| School | Smith Street Public School, Rozelle, New South Wales |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Occupation | Slaughterman |
| Address | Perrett Street, Rozelle, Sydney, New South Wales |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 25 |
| Height | 5' 6.25" |
| Weight | 134 lbs |
| Next of kin | Father, William James Roser, 17 Perrett Street, Rozelle, Sydney, New South Wales |
| Previous military service | Nil. Previously convicted for gambling. |
| Enlistment date | |
| Place of enlistment | Sydney, New South Wales |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 36th Battalion, 6th Reinforcement |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/53/2 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A72 Beltana on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 36th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 26 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 25), Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
| Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 127 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: William James ROSER, 20 Moore Street, Rozelle, New South Wales |
| Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked Sydney, 25 November 1916; disembarked Devonport, England, 29 January 1917. Marched in to 9th Training Bn, 6 March 1917. Found guilty, 15 March 1917, of being absent without leave from Tattoo, 9 March, to 3 pm, 13 March 1917: awarded 12 days' field Punishment No 2; forfeited a total of 18 days' pay. Proceeded overseas to France, 29 May 1917; taken on strength, 36th Bn, in the field, Belgium, 18 June 1917. Reported 'missing in action', 12 October 1917; subsequently declared 'killed in action, 12 October 1917'. Statement by 2765 Pte R. BEDFORD, 36th Bn, 12 February 1918: 'I knew No. 2869 Private Roser L.G. 36th Battalion. He was killed on the 12th October 1917. I saw the deceased's body on the 13th October 1917. This was at Passchendaele.' Statement by 801 Sgt G.P. KIME, 36th Bn, 30 January 1918: 'On October 12th 1917 when in action at Passchendaele (Ypres) I was in charge of the Section to which Private Roser belonged. At about 7 a.m. I saw Roser struck in the left temple by a machine gun bullet. By all appearances the wound caused instantaneous death. I have not seenthelate Pte Roser since.' MBV |
| Sources | NAA: B2455, ROSER Lionel George |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
