LUCAS, Robert George
| Service Numbers: | 2382, 2382A |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 March 1916, Mount Gambier, SA |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 5th Pioneer Battalion |
| Born: | Kapunda, South Australia, Australia, 28 February 1897 |
| Home Town: | Mount Gambier, Mount Gambier, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Mount Gambier High School |
| Occupation: | Nurseryman |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 10 May 1917, aged 20 years |
| Cemetery: |
Vaulx Hill Cemetery I G 8 |
| Memorials: | Adelaide Attorney General's Department WW1 Honour Board , Adelaide National War Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Mount Gambier High School Great War Roll of Honor, Mount Gambier War Memorial, Unley Arch of Remembrance |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Mar 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2382, 5th Pioneer Battalion, Mount Gambier, SA | |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Aug 1916: | Involvement Private, 2382, 5th Pioneer Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '5' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Itria embarkation_ship_number: A53 public_note: '' | |
| 14 Aug 1916: | Embarked Private, 2382, 5th Pioneer Battalion, HMAT Itria, Adelaide | |
| 10 May 1917: | Involvement Private, 2382A, 5th Pioneer Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2382A awm_unit: 5 Pioneer Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1917-05-10 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Graeme Roulstone
Robert George Lucas was born on 28 February 1897 at Kapunda, South Australia, the son of Aleck Richard and Edith Lucas. He was enrolled at Mount Gambier High School on 9 October 1908 by his father, Alick Richard Lucas, nurseryman at the government nursery in Mount Gambier (which was in the Lakes area). He left the school on 31 March 1910. He had served 4 years with senior cadets and 1 year with the local Commonwealth Military Forces prior to enlisting.
He enlisted (19, nurseryman, single, Methodist) at Mount Gambier on 16 March 1916, having previously been rejected due to a deformed second toe on his left foot, naming his father Alick Richard Lucas (who worked for the state Forest Department) of Mount Gambier as his next of kin. He embarked on the ‘Itria’ from Adelaide on 14 August 1916 as a private attached to the 4th Reinforcements to the 5th Pioneers, disembarked at Plymouth, England, and was attached to the Pioneer Training Battalion.
He was sent overseas to France on 31 December 1916, and had an ‘A’ added to his regimental number on joining the 5th Pioneer Battalion on 11 February 1917. In the following months the battalion was busy extending the light railways and mule tracks, constructing new trenches and repairing damaged ones. Lucas was one of twelve men from the battalion killed in action by enemy shelling of the lines on 10 May 1917. His remains were later exhumed and reburied in Vaulx Hill Cemetery, Vaulx, Picardie, in France.
Published in Ours: the origins and early years of Mount Gambier High School and Old Scholars who served in the Great European War by Graeme Roulstone
Click images to start slideshow.