Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rufus Charles LANSDOWN (Service Number 5608), known to some as ‘Bob’, was born at Harden on 21st November 1887.  He joined the NSW Government Railways in August 1903 as a probationer in the Traffic Branch (in which his father was serving) in the Newcastle District.  In 1905 he advanced to junior porter, then in 1909 to porter. Six months later he was made a junior clerk at Newcastle.  Three months after that he was transferred to Waratah in the same capacity. In September 1910 he was transferred to Newcastle Goods Station (the equivalent in that city of Darling Harbour in Sydney). 

He was especially skilled in shorthand, winning honours in examination in that subject.  In July 1912 he was promoted to clerk. In September he was  transferred to Darling Harbour Goods Yard.  For most of his time there, he worked with outwards correspondence.  In February 1916 he was granted leave to enlist in the AIF, doing so at Bathurst, and giving his ‘trade or calling’ as ‘Civil Servant’. his next of kin was his father, who by this time was station master at Teralba.

He embarked from Sydney in September 1916 with reinforcements. He landed in England in October.  He had been appointed Acting Corporal in camp in Australia, but in England reverted to the ranks. A week later he was made acting Lance Corporal.  He reverted to Private again the day before leaving for France in December 1916.  He joined the 20th Battalion in France in December 1916. He had two weeks off duty with a back injury in February.

He was reported ‘missing in action, believed killed by explosion of a mine’, on 25th March 1917.

What had happened was told later in a letter from a comrade:

‘Poor old Rufus was particularly unlucky. On 25 March, 1917, we were in the town of Bapaume, in the Somme district, having been about eight days in occupation, and amongst the first troops to enter this important town.  On the afternoon of the 25th, our battalion received orders to move up to the front line, about five miles further on.  Rufus came to me and told me he had a piece of luck, in that he had been put on the Town Major Staff.  This meant that he would not have to go up to the line, which is always regarded by us as a bit of luck. He accordingly took up his quarters in one of the cellars of the Town Hall.  We all lived in cellars in Bapaume, as the Germans were still shelling the town with big stuff at long range… That evening, somewhere about midnight, a clockwork mine left by Fritz as a trap, blew up the Town Hall, burying in its ruins a large staff, with Rufus amongst them.  We were all very much broken up…’ 

A Court of Enquiry held in December 1917 finally determined officially that he had been killed in action.  His remains were never recovered, and he is remembered with honour on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.  He was also remembered in a ceremony at Darling Harbour on 21st November 1918, when the staff of Darling Harbour Outwards assembled for the unveiling of a photo of their late comrade.  The ceremony was fully reported in the NSW Railway & Tramway Magazine, 1/1/1919.

- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.