Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Roderick Stock Drysdale was a much loved son, father and husband to his three children, Jack, Joyce and Cynthia, and his wife Sylvia Myrtle Drysdale nee Purvis of Yea.

The family folk-lore story tells that Roderick Stock was seen demonstrating his outstanding horse riding skills by the Army recruiting officers who had come to Yea to find talented army personal just prior to WW1, he was singled out to join the 1st Remount Unit.

  Roderick had returned to the family farm on Dairy Creek Road Homewood, just outside of the township of Yea after his time in the war to manage the mainly sheep and dairy farming property left to him to manage by his parents John William Drysdale (b1853) and Catherine Jane nee McLeish (born 1863). Having survived the perils of war, Roderick set about developing the farm with his wife Sylvia and raising his three small children.  In 1935 he developed a serious chest infection, the cause of which remained undetected, until the infection overcame his health and he died in hospital in Fitzroy, Melbourne in 1936. Later it was found that a grass seed had lodged in his lungs causing his death. He was only aged 46 years of age. 

  Myrtle went on to raise the three children and run the property with some help from family and the local community.  The farm then passed on to their only son, Jack Drysdale, and is still run by Jack's children and wife Lillian.