SINCLAIR, Roland Osborne
| Service Number: | 2983 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 May 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 19th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Bimbi, New South Wales, Australia, January 1895 |
| Home Town: | Bimbi, Weddin, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in action, Belgium, 6 November 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Bimbi War Memorial, Grenfell Great War Memorial, Quandialla War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 16 May 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, 2983, 55th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Oct 1916: | Involvement Private, 2983, 55th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '19' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Oct 1916: | Embarked Private, 2983, 55th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Sydney | |
| 5 Apr 1917: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 19th Infantry Battalion | |
| 3 May 1917: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2983, 19th Infantry Battalion, Bullecourt (Second) |
Help us honour Roland Osborne Sinclair's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Roland Sinclair was the son of George and Lizzie Sinclair of Bimbi, New South Wales. His older brother, 2521 Percy Raymond Sinclair 53rd Battalion AIF, returned to Australia during 1919.
Roland was taken on strength of the 19th Battalion in the front line on 5 April 1917. He was wounded in action at Bullecourt only a few weeks later. He was evacuated to England with a gunshot wound to his right hand and returned to his unit in the front line in Belgium on 14 October 1917. He was killed in action only a few weeks later.
A witness stated, “Pte. Sinclair, was attached to the section that I was in charge of and was killed by a shell that exploded in the dug-out that he was sleeping in on the early morning of Nov. 6th 1917. We were on the Ypres Front at the time and out Battalion was holding a sector of the Front line, a series of out-posts just over the crest of Zonnebeke Ridge, on the right of Passchendaele. Sinclair and I were on the same Post and with another man named Ryan, shared the same Dug-out, a little shelter dug-out, on the side of the trench, roofed with boards and earth. Just before dawn on the date mentioned I was standing about ten yards away from this shelter, when it received a direct hit from a small shell, both men Sinclair, and Ryan being killed in their sleep.”
His remains were lost and he has no known grave.
His brother Percy tried very in correspondence with the Red Cross to find more details of his death and burial, with some success, but Roland's grave was never located after the war.
His father received a death plaque in 1922 and wrote to Base Records, “I received the Plaque with thanks, it is very nice and shows we are not forgotten.”
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