Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Published Biography – Australian Dictionary of Biography
Pauline Payne, 'Rodger, Geoffrey James (1894–1982)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rodger-geoffrey-james-15613/text26816, published first in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 30 October 2017.

Additional Biography

As the biography (see document) and the obituary at the end of this document give many details of Geoffrey’s life and work, the profile below will mainly add details of Geoffrey’s early and University life plus relevant newspaper articles and some comments from a J.D. Somerville Oral History Collection interview with Geoffrey recorded in 1973.

Early Life

Geoffrey James Rodger was born on 4 July 1894 at Kensington, South Australia, eldest child of James Rodger, accountant, and his wife Bridget (Bebe) Mary Agnes, née Murphy.

Schooling

Geoffrey attended Christian Brother’s College from at least 1905 and he passed his Junior Examinations there in 1909 followed by Senior Examinations in 1910.

Geoffrey then joined the South Australian Lands Titles Office but saw an opportunity to get into the Forests Department and did so. His father had books on South Australian trees and Geoffrey ‘devoured these books at great length’

Adelaide University

Geoffrey commenced studying at Adelaide University in 1912 and he completed his studies in early 1915 with a supplementary examination pass in Inorganic Chemistry. He was awarded his Bachelor of Science in Forestry in April 1915.

University Sport

Football

Geoffrey played football for the Adelaide University B Grade in the Adelaide Students Association and was a member of the team that won the Premiership that year.

Pre-War Career

After completion of his degree Geoffrey was appointed as an assistant forester at Bundaleer Forest, 9kms south of Jamestown, SA.
World War I

Geoffrey enlisted on the 20th of December 1915, with pay from the 7th of January 1916 (SN 11104). He was 5’ 5¼“ tall and weighed 124 lbs and had a fair complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. His father was listed as his next-of-kin.

Geoffrey departed Australia as a Driver with the 3rd Divisional Train on the 9th of June 1916 onboard the HMAT Afric A.19 and arrived at Southampton on the 24th of July 1916.

He then attended officer training at Balliol College, Oxford and was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant with the 25th Battalion on the 1st of March 1917. In mid-March Geoffrey proceeded overseas to France. On the 19th of July Geoffrey was appointed a Lieutenant. Geoffrey was then seconded to the 7th Australian Light trench mortar battery.

Geoffrey received gunshot wounds to the left ear and scalp on the 21st of September 1917, but the wounds appear to have been minor.

In February 1918 the following letter from Geoffrey to his mother was published in the Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 – 1954), the letter was dated 8th December 1917.

Geoffrey did not return home immediately after the cessation of hostilities, instead he undertook employment which the authorities called ‘non-military employment’, with the British Forestry Commission and studied their forests and their working plans as requested by the Commission. Geoffrey commented that the soldiers call this work ‘non-military enjoyment’.

Geoffrey returned to Australia onboard the SS Raranga which departed from England on the 8th of September 1919. Geoffrey was transferred to the Reserve of Officers in 1922.

Career

After WWI, Geoffrey went to New South Wales as a forest assessor on the south coast in New South Wales and on the Southern Highlands. In his own words ‘I rode from Tobago on the South Coast up through over the mountains at Kybeyan through the trackless natural forests and the unmarked high summer plains on to Cooma. From Cooma I went by road then to Adaminaby to Kiandra down the Talbingo Hill to Tumut. From Tumut out to Mecalong. Total distance of about 200 miles.’

Geoffrey made the following comments about working in Tasmania:- ‘there were no roads there at all and you had to go by train to Queenstown. From Queenstown I got a horse and I rode out east into the mountains making my examinations as I went because I was -employed by the Development of Migration Commission to report on the Tasmanian forests and the reorganisation of the forest service.’

World War II

Geoffrey was 47 years of age and living at 38 Lynington St, Tusmore, SA on the 25th March 1942 when he enlisted in the A Coy, 3rd Battalion of the Volunteer Defence Corps.(SN S69586). He was appointed a Lieutenant and was discharged on the 26th October 1944.

Geoffrey considered one of his finest achievements was ‘getting the heads of the other forest services to join me in meetings - in regular meetings - at least once a year, sometimes more often. We got rid of that parochialism which was tending to pervade the forest services in those days.’ He also had the opportunity to represent Australian forestry overseas in Denmark at the second FAO conference and he was able to visit Norway and Sweden. He also visited Rome with the first eucalypt conference, which he chaired, and attended an Asia Pacific conference, a section of FAO.

Family Life

On the 9th of November 1929, Geoffrey married Alice Valerie Armstrong the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Armstrong of Moruya, NSW. A Son, John Geoffrey Rodger, was born in 1931.

On his retirement in 1959 Rodger returned to South Australia with his wife and son, becoming a director and forestry consultant for a private forestry and timber company that became known as Softwood Holdings Ltd.

Death

Geoffrey’s wife, Alice Valerie Rodger passed away in 1969. Geoffrey James Rodger passed away on the on 27th of December 1982, in Adelaide, South Australia, at the age of 88 and was buried in Centennial Park Cemetery.

Author EE (Beth) Filmer

For the complete profile including photographs, newspaper articles, documents and sources prepared for the AUFC/AUCC WWI Memorial Project (in the period 2015-2019) please see the document attached.