Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rowland Frank Eugene LOMAS was born in Balmain in 1884

His parents were Fred & Jane LOMAS but his birth record cannot be located in NSW

He married Annie McMurtie GRAHAM on 19th August, 1910 in Queensland

From Francois Berthout

Pte 7594A Rowland Frank Eugene Lomas,
15th Australian Infantry Battalion,
4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division
 
Through the fields of the Somme, solemn and silent, stand side by side, thousands of white graves among the poppies that remind us that more than a hundred years ago, on these sacred grounds, was shed the blood of so many young men who, in the trenches and in the middle of the barbed wire, fought and fell, mowed down too early in the prime of their lives which they gave for their country and for France, united in camaraderie in the names of peace and freedom for which, in fury and chaos, in mud and fire they gave their youth and their today to end all wars and through their sacrifices were sown the seeds of their hopes and dreams of a better world for which they paid the highest sacrifices.Forever young, these young men, still standing side by side, rest today in the peace they fought and fell for but still live tall and proud behind their eternal epitaphs that tell us who they were and what they did for my country and for each one of us who carry in our hearts and in our hands their faces and the flame of remembrance that I will always carry proud and high walking with gratitude and respect on the battlefields and cemeteries of the Somme to keep strong and alive, to perpetuate the memory of these heroes to whom we owe so much so that they will never be forgotten,so that their names will live forever.

Today, it is with the utmost respect and with the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these men, of one of my boys of the Somme who gave his today for our tomorrow.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 7594A Rowland Frank Eugene Lomas who fought in the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, 4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division, and who died of his wounds 105 years ago, on March 29, 1918 at the age of 34 on the Somme front.

Rowland Frank Eugene Lomas was born in September 1884 in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia, and was the son of Frederick Lomas and Jane Elizabeth Lomas (née Coker), of Rockhampton, Queensland, and had one sister, Emily Lee Coker (1892 -1914). He was educated at the Boys State School, Queensland, and after graduation, served in the Army Medical Corps in Rockhampton for eight years. Shortly after the end of his military service, he married Annie Lomas (née McMurtrie) on August 19,1910, in Cairns, Queensland. Together they had four children, Frederick (born in 1911), Phyllis Rowena (born in 1909), Jane Emily (born in 1913) and Rowley (born in 1916).

Before the outbreak of the war, Rowland worked as a coach builder for the Cairns Railways.

Rowland enlisted on January 13, 1917 in Cairns, Queensland, in the 9th Australian Infantry Battalion, 25th Reinforcement, and after a period of five months of training at "Showgrounds Camp" in Brisbane, he embarked with his unit from Sydney, New South Wales ,on board HMAT A20 Hororata on June 14, 1917 and sailed for England.

On August 26, 1917, after being sick at sea, Rowland and his comrades arrived in Liverpool, England, and marched to join the 3rd Training Battalion at Durrington, with which he remained for just over two months, then on November 8, joined the 1st Training Battalion at Sutton Veny, between Salisbury and Bath, in Wiltshire where he completed his training under realistic war conditions then proceeded overseas from Southampton to France on January 23, 1918.
On January 24, 1918, Rowland arrived in France and was disembarked at Le Havre where he joined the Australian Infantry Base Depot and was transferred to the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, 4th Brigade, 4th Division, then under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Cannan.On 26 January, Rowland marched out to unit and was taken on strength on January 29 in Hollebeke, in Belgium, a relatively calm sector where Rowland remained only two days and on January 31, with his unit, marched for the "Tournai Camp", in the north of France where they underwent a period of training including raiding party exercises, gas helmet drills, musketry drills, bayonet fights, and were employed in the improvement of the camp where they remained until February 19.

On 20 February 1918, Rowland and the men of the 15th Battalion left Tournai Camp and moved back into the Hollebeke sector with the support of the 16th Australian Infantry Battalion but saw little enemy activity except for light artillery fire and machine gun fire during the nights but on 24 February the Germans raided the flanks of the 15th Battalion through a wood called "Belgian Wood" and was recorded in the battalion's war diary as follows:
"On February 24 at 4am,the enemy attempted a raid on one of the posts in Belgian Wood (our left outpost group) in two parties of 12 and 9. They approached the post silently without artillery support. Our post challenged them when they were close in,on which the enemy threw bombs and immediately disappeared in the wooden broken country when our post opened fire with Lewis Guns and bombs. A party from the post pushed out after them but could find no trace of them."

The days following this raid were relatively calm and quiet despite some enemy shells being fired at Australian lines, an activity recorded in the battalion's war diary as follows:
"Enemy's attitude is alert and his artillery and his machine guns fire is active and accurate.He registered quietly,all over the sector,mostly with field guns and mortars.His aircrafts flew low nearly every morning over our front and reserve lines.His patrols were not aggressive and not many were seen. Ours easily kept command of no man's land."

On March 3, 1918, Rowland and the 15th Battalion were relieved by the 9th Australian Infantry Battalion and left the trenches of the Hollebeke sector for the "Shankhill Camp" at Neuve Eglise where they built a firing range and followed exercises of musketry,of bayonet fighting interspersed with periods of rest and sports competitions including football matches but a few weeks later, on March 21, 1918, the Germans launched their spring offensive in the Somme and orders were received for the 15th Battalion to join the front line to prevent the Kaiser's army from taking the city and the vital railway junction of the city of Amiens.

On the evening of March 26, 1918, Rowland and the men of the 15th Battalion finally arrived in the Somme, at the devastated village of Hebuterne and immediately organized patrols which reported that the Germans were occupying the South Eastern outskirts of the village, the northern corner being held by a company of the 9th Battalion of the Welsh Regiment.In this hotly contested sector, the 15th Battalion was supported by the 13th Australian Infantry Battalion on their right flank and by the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry on their left flank and during the night of March 26-27 intense machine gun fire was exchanged in the glow of tracer bullets and during the day of March 27, the Germans pounded the village with heavy artillery fire but the Australians held on with exceptional courage and repelled two enemy attacks whose men fell in large numbers against determination and heavy fire from the machine guns of the 15th Battalion.

Unfortunately, it was the following day, on March 28, 1918, that Rowland met his fate and was seriously wounded by a shell during an enemy raid which the battalion's war diary recorded as follows:
"On March 28,under cover of heavy artillery and trench mortar barrage enemy party 50 strong attacked one of our post.It was repulsed with heavy losses. At 5pm under cover of a smoke barrage an enemy party approached our right post and was driven off with rifle and machine gun fire,our guns inflicting heavy losses."

After being seriously injured, Rowland was immediately evacuated and admitted to the 56th Casualty Clearing Station in Gezaincourt where he died the next day,on March 29,1918 at the age of 34.

Today, Rowland Frank Eugene Lomas rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Gezaincourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme.

Rowland, young and loved with admiration and tenderness by your wife and your children who did not have the happiness of growing up by your side, it is with courage and determination that you answered the call of duty to preserve their future and, for your country, for your comrades, you have served with honour, with loyalty and pride in carrying high the colors of the Australian nation whose sons and daughters fought with the greatest courage through the fields of poppies which were the solemn shroud of so many exceptional men who, animated by a fighting spirit, united by the ANZAC spirit and by the most beautiful bond of camaraderie, stood tall and brave under their slouch hats and who, side by side, united in the same suffering, faced the bullets and shells rained down on them by machine guns and devastating artillery that transformed once peaceful valleys into abominable slaughterhouses that, in tears and screams, shattered destinies of men in the prime of their lives that they gave for the men who stood by their side and for their loved ones who waited for the return of their sons, their husbands, fearing each day to receive the sad letter telling them that They had been killed far from home and followed their men through the trembling lines and the mud and blood stained paper they received from their men, from their heroes who on the sacred grounds of the Somme, faced the enemy attacks and raids in which they lost their youth and their innocence and which, in brutality and fury, ended in appalling bloodbaths in which friends and enemies killed each other with bayonets, rifle butts and trench shovels and who together fell weapons in hand into the mud and the blood filled shell holes and who for four years saw death take the lives of their friends, of their brothers who walked in faith etc confidence in the battlefields thinking that they would live the greatest adventure of which they had been told so much, that they would find glory in these cauldrons of hell but in the trenches, in the mud and the barbed wire, they found only the despair and the madness of a world which was set ablaze and in these mass graves, found only a death lurking slyly beyond the parapets and the broken trees in which hung men and horses who were swept away by horrible deflagrations who made the hearts of all those men so young and so courageous who, despite this hell in which they were plunged, continued to fight in the name of freedom and peace in the fraternity which forever bound them to their brothers in arms and who, despite their fears, despite what they suffered and went through without ever complaining, charged bayonets forward while watching over each other, in an eternal camaraderie that gave them the strength and the courage to go over the top and to advance facing the rifles and machine guns which made them fall one after the other but who, proud to have done what was right, without regrets closed their eyes and found in France, under a solemn white grave, the eternal peace and the silence of a friendly country for which they did and gave so much and who, in the love and gratitude we have for them, became more than men who came from so far away, they became and will be forever our sons, our heroes, my boys of the Somme over whom I will always watch with the utmost respect so that their memory never fades and so that their names live forever but also to honor friendship which unites Australia and France of which I feel deeply honored and proud and which I will always carry high like an eternal flame.Here, in the Somme, the souls of the Diggers, the ANZAC spirit and the greatness of the Australian nation will live forever.

Thank you so much Rowland, for all you have done for us and for my country which will forever be deeply grateful to you.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.