Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Sergeant Harold Christopher Rodda (Service Nos:VX23132/V5748) served with the Army, initially enlisting in the AIF on 18 June 1940 as a Gunner with 2 Anti Aircraft Regiment. Sergeant Rodda transferred to the ACMF on 29 August 1940 as a Private with 2 Infantry Training School. Promoted to Sergeant on 24 July 1943, he served with 17 Garrison Battalion, 2/2 Pioneer Training Battalion and 6 and 7 Infantry Training Battalions. Sergeant Rodda was attached to 3 Infantry Training Battalion at Discharge on 11 December 1943. He had served in the AIF in WWI. Sons Wilfred and Ivan also served in WWII.

Harold was born in Daylesford, Victoria in 1890, seventh of fifteen children of John Rodda (b1860 in Creswick, Victoria) and Annie James Botheras (b1860 in Bendigo, Victoria). John (a Bootmaker) and Annie married in 1880 in Daylesford, where they settled and raised their family and John was a Labourer and Farmer.

Harold was a Farmer (Potatoes and Dairy) in Thorpdale via Moe, and following his service in WWI, in 1919 in Trafalgar via Moe he married Alice Mary Stirling (b1896 in Bendigo, Victoria). Harold and Alice lived at Thorpdale before moving to Melboune in the mid 1920s, where Harold was a Labourer. By the mid 1930s they were in Wodonga and Harold was a Blacksmith, and by 1940 when he enlisted in the Army, he was a Farmer/Grazier in Sale. Through the 1940's/1950/s the couple lived in Morwell and Tynong where HArold was a Farmer and in the early 1960s they moved to Melbourne where Harold was a Process Worker. Harold died in 1967 and Alice in 1971.