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Brigadier-General Leane, late of the AIF, has for half a century been connected with commercial affairs, and has held several important positions.  He was departmental manager and buyer for the firm of D&W Murray Ltd of Perth and was later director of the Economic Stores Ltd trading at Fremantle, Kalgoorlie and Boulder.  At the latter place he was propietor of business organisation, wholesale and retail trading and is particularly experienced in buying and selling.

On his return from active service he was appointed Commissioner of Police for South Australia. He stood for election as director of the Army and Navy Stores in Dec 1920. He was chairman of the Sailors and Soldiers' Distress Fund.

Raymond Lionel Leane was born on 12 July 1878 in Prospect, South Australia, the son of a shoemaker, Thomas Leane, and his wife Alice.

One of eight children, he was educated at North Adelaide Public School (/explore/memorials/606) until age 12, when he went to work for a retail and wholesale business, which sent him to Albany in Western Australia. He moved to Claremont where he was elected to the local council. In June 1902, Leane married Edith Louise Laybourne.

Leane joined the militia and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 11th Infantry (known as the Perth Rifles) in 1905.

In 1908, he bought a retail business in Kalgoorlie and transferred to the Goldfields Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to Captain on 21 November 1910.

On 25 August 1914, Leane enlisted in the AIF as a company commander in the 11th Infantry Battalion, with the rank of Captain.

On 25 August 1914 he enlisted in the 11th Battalion as a Captain and Company Commander.  The Battalion went ashore with the Covering Force during the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and Ray’s C Company moved into the Plugge’s Plateau sector.

On 4 May he led an attempt to capture Gaba Tepe fort, a Turkish position close to the beach which enfiladed the Australian trenches.  Charles Bean considered him the ideal choice for this hazardous enterprise.  After landing at dawn, Ray’s small force was pinned close to the beach by heavy fire, so that no advance could be attempted.  Having been given full discretion to depart from his orders as he thought fit, he organized a withdrawal and successfully brought off his men and their wounded with the aid of the Royal Navy.  For this he was awarded the Military Cross.

Ray was slightly wounded on 28 June in an assault on Pine Ridge, and again on 31 July when he led a successful attack against Turkish defences, and held the position thereafter against heavy counter-attacks.  This position became known as Leane’s Trench.  Promoted temporary Major on 5 August, he commanded the 11th Battalion from 11 September, and was promoted temporary Lieutenant Colonel on 8 October.  He remained at Gallipoli until evacuation on 16 November.  He was twice mentioned in dispatches for service at Anzac.  While there, he had been nicknamed ‘Bull’; his “tall square-shouldered frame, immense jaw, tightly compressed lips, and keen, steady, humorous eyes made him the very figure of a soldier”.

In Egypt on 26 February 1916, Ray was confirmed as Major and appointed Commanding Officer of the 48th Battalion (the ‘pup’ Battalion of the 16th Battalion).  Promoted Lieutenant Colonel on 12 March, he took his new Battalion to France in June.  After a week at Fleurbaix, the Battalion moved into the Pozières sector, and on 7 August repulsed a heavy German counter-attack having earlier relieved the 27th Battalion in place around the Windmill feature, which the 27th had captured on the 4th August.  The 48th served at Mouquet Farm and Gueudecourt in 1916, and at Bullecourt, Messines, Wytschaete and Passchendaele in 1917.  At Bullecourt Ray’s younger brother and Battalion Second-in-Command, Major Benjamin Bennett Leane was killed on 10 April.

Severely wounded at Passchendaele on 12 October, Ray did not resume duty until late January 1918.  He commanded the 48th Battalion at Albert in March-April.   Under his command, the 48th Battalion was prominent in halting the German advance on Amiens at Dernancourt on 27 March and on 5 April at Villers Bretonneux.  He was appointed temporary Colonel commanding the 12th Brigade on 19 April, and was confirmed in rank and promoted temporary Brigadier General on 1 June.  He commanded the 12th Brigade at Villers-Bretonneux in April-May, in the attack on Proyart on 8 August, and in the battles of the Hindenburg outpost line in September.

Ray had been mentioned in dispatches eight times, and his decorations included the Distinguished Service Order and Bar, the Military Cross, and the French Croix de Guerre.  He was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1918, Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1919, and Knight Bachelor in 1944.  His brother Ben, three nephews, and several other relatives had served under him in the 48th Battalion, which led to its being known throughout the AIF as the ‘Joan of Arc Battalion’ (Made of All Leanes, a play on words of Saint Joan of Arc Maid of Orleans).

As a commander, Ray won the affection of his men by his constant concern for their well-being.  He gained their respect by his strength of character, firm discipline and high sense of duty.  In action he was cool and alert, directing and encouraging, heedless of danger.

He returned to South Australia as a distinguished war hero.  He was appointed Commisioner of Police, a role he held until his retirement in 1944, at which point he was knighted.  He led the SA Police force with distinction introducing sweeping reforms to police education, promotion on merit and conditions of service.  He set a pattern which was repeated after WW 2 when another Army Brigadier, John McKinna, was appointed Police Commissioner.

During World War II Ray commanded a group in the Volunteer Defence Corps.  After his retirement he lived quietly at Plympton SA until his death on 25 June 1962. The Leane family generated a remarkable collective record of service.  See the attached image and caption.  

For more reading please click on the Australian War Memorial links to left of the page...

Australian Dictionary of Biography link here - Sir Raymond Leane ADB (adb.anu.edu.au)

Wikipedia Link - Sir Raymond Leane (en.wikipedia.org)

This Chapter is perhaps the most heart felt and hard earned a honouring from a other ranks soldier of his senior commanding officer that I have read.  Hence it should be read with 'Bull' Leane's record of service.


Chapter Twenty-seven: ‘The Bull’
Source: ‘Western Mail,’ 21 September, 1939.

They Simply Fade away
By John A. Williamson (48th Infantry Battalion)

Any account of Forty-eighth Battalion activities would be incomplete without some reference to its Commanding Officer, Colonel (afterwards Brigadier General) Sir Raymond Lionel Leane, CB, CMG, DSO (and Bar), MC, VD – a man, whom the war left covered with honours and worthy of every one.

The son of a Non-conformist minister in South Australia, he had originally intended to follow in his

father’s footsteps and qualify for the ministry, but Chance or Fate diverted him from that purpose. The world of commerce claimed him, and when the Great War broke out, he was following in Western Australia the humdrum and unheroic occupation of dry-goods salesman.

Yet long before this, soldiering had made its appeal to him. For many years he had taken an active part in the Commonwealth Citizen Forces, eventually attaining therein to commissioned rank. Although on medical grounds he was rejected for service in the South African war, nevertheless when the Great War burst on the world he was, at the age of 35, accepted and with the rank of captain left Australia in the first contingent.

As a company commander in the 11th Battalion, he underwent the rigours of training in Egypt, and took part in the epic adventure of the Landing. On the Peninsula he led several desperate ventures, including a second landing at Gaba Tepe, and staged some hairbreadth escapes. In one engagement he was slightly wounded.

Already he was acquiring a reputation as a skilful, courageous officer, and a leader of men, his services on Gallipoli being recognised by the award of MC and DSO. He was also promoted to the rank of major, and for a period prior to the Evacuation he commanded his battalion.

At Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt on March 3, 1916, the 48th Battalion came into being, thrown off, like one star from another, from the Old Sixteenth, though it was leavened later by reinforcements from South Australia.

For the command of this new unit, Major, now Lieutenant Colonel, Leane was selected, and this command he continued to hold through many stressful and colourful days almost to the end of the war.

With the other Australian units, the battalion arrived in France in May, 1916, and from that date onwards the colonel shared most of its varied fortunes, involving, with intervals of lighter moments, a vast amount of anxiety, hardship and tragedy, glorious failures and final triumph. Through the drumfire horror of Pozieres, the mud of Mouquet Farm, the cruel winter of 1916-17 at Flers, at Bullecourt, where the supposedly impregnable Hindenburg Line was first breached, at Messines, at Passchendaele of unhappy memory, before Amiens, at Monument Wood and Villers-Bretonneux, and in the subsequent triumphal advance towards the east, the battalion and its gallant chief together strove and suffered and bled.

The colonel’s absences from the battalion were few and, with one exception, of short duration, occurring generally when the unit was at rest in billets. The exception referred to resulted from the serious wound he received at Passchendaele. That entailed an absence of three months, but even then the battalion was enjoying its long ‘spell’ at Peronne.

What manner of man was our commander? What were the characteristics that earned for him the honours that were showered upon him, and his resounding reputation as a soldier and a leader? Physically, he presented a splendid picture of manhood – over six feet in height, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, straight as a gun barrel, rugged and muscular.

The lines of his face – thin, firm lips, iron jaw, penetrating, serious eyes, prominent nose, beetling brows – the head and shoulders of a lion, all betokened strength of character, determination, courage, even aggressiveness. He looked every inch the soldier and the leader that in actuality he was, radiating courage, confidence, success.

In the battalion he was often referred to as ‘The Old Man,’ sometimes as ‘The Big Fellow,’ but most frequently as ‘The Bull.’ How or when or why this name arose is not on record, but it may be that his big voice, when he ‘beefed out’ his commands to the battalion on parade, or when, ‘seeing red,’ he ‘roared’ at one or other of its deficiencies, suggested the byname. Of course, in a large body of men, so outstanding a personality, so strong a character, could not possibly escape some pithy title that would typify at least, his most prominent traits. At any rate, to this day in battalion circles he remains, proudly and affectionately, ‘The Bull.’

He was, indeed, a dominant personality; he towered head and shoulders, in more senses than one, over every other man in the unit. All under his command looked up to, respected and admired him. From him the battalion drew its strength, character, inspiration; without him it was simply not the Forty-Eighth. A French war-classic, in a vivid description of the operations round Villers-Bretonneux (when he had been promoted to the command of the brigade), refers to him in these terms – ‘The huge figure of their brigadier dominated the whole neighbourhood of the town.’

Of his many sterling qualities, that which appealed to the men first and foremost was his fearlessness, his contempt, his seeming unconsciousness, of danger. Men will forgive much in a leader who is at least game – but then our chief had no cause to seek from his men forgiveness on any count. Time and time again his courage had been tested and proved; we knew that whatever he asked us to face, he was himself doubly ready to face. And his courage was not studied pose, no reckless, theatrical dare-devilry – he had too much common sense for that. It was the most natural thing in the world – we simply could not associate him with ‘windy’ weakness.

The men esteemed him, too, as a practical soldier. He made himself thoroughly acquainted beforehand with every detail of any task or position allotted to his unit. To inform his mind he did not depend on the reports of others, but on close, personal investigation.

Like Lord Kitchener, he hated foppery and effeminacy in men, and it is on record that he treated with scant respect certain officers of the ‘haw-haw’ type, with whom he came in contact. On more than one occasion he treated as spies British staff-officers of immaculate appearance who could not satisfactorily or coherently expound their business with him.

Describing the subject of this sketch, Captain Bean in Volume I of his ‘Official History’ says of him ‘… the head of the most famous family of soldiers in Australian history, and the fighting general par excellence.’

Colonel Leane was a splendid judge of men. An acuteness of perception, a tenacious memory, reinforced by a long and varied experience of the world in civil life and in the field, enabled him to form a sound estimate of a subordinate’s worth. He chose his officers with nice discrimination. He believed that the essentials for promotion to commissioned rank were fitness, physically and mentally, gameness and – youth.

He had a passion for Youth in his team. And, in general, his ‘pups,’ as they came to be called, served him well.

The officers of any unit were responsible in large measure for the shaping of its destinies and for the building of its character and reputation. It can thus be seen how important is the matter of their selection. In this connection, it might be said, that fewer officers of the ornamental type entered into the composition of the Australian than the British forces, nor did there exist the same immeasurable gulf between officer and man. In the AIF leader and led belonged more or less to the same class; they were one in outlook, character and upbringing, lovers of the out-of-doors, given to sport and hard living. A large percentage of its officers, indeed, were promoted from the ranks on active service.

A common bond of understanding existed between commissioned and non-commissioned ranks; less was exacted from the men by impersonal cast-iron discipline than by human treatment and by example. And to this may be due in some measure the success of the AIF.

In the war it was noticeable that the nearer the troops approached front-line conditions, the less formal the relations, the lower the barriers, between officers and men became. In face of the grim, stark realities of

warfare and real character, the inner nature of men was revealed, stripped of the trappings, the veneer of our modern ‘civilisation.’ In this respect the trenches proved a great leveller, a great experimentum crucis. It was not unknown, even, at a time when the whirr of angels’ wings could be heard, that the officer looked to the men for light and leading, but that had little application to the 48th Battalion – its CO chose his officers too well for that.

A strong point in the character of our chief was his high sense of duty. In the care and direction of a battalion of men under active service conditions he had a heavy responsibility, but he discharged his task to the limit of his powers. He was unsparing of himself and undeviating in any course, however exacting, by which he felt Duty led him. Naturally, he expected from his subordinates the same devotion to the ‘Stern Daughter,’ and woe betide the man, and especially the officer, who wilfully disregarded Her ‘timely mandate.’

In such a mischance, his wrath blazed up to sublime heights; like a Hebrew Prophet of old, roused to righteous anger, he thundered his denunciation.

Yet, stern and uncompromising as he was in the execution of duty, at less stressful times, in lighter moments behind the lines, he was the essence of kindliness, consideration and good fellowship. No ascetic himself, he liked to see his men ‘taste Life’s glad moments, while the wasting taper glowed.’ By his presence and by actual participation, he encouraged them in their sports, their concerts, their dances, into which he himself entered with his usual zest and heartiness. At play he was a great, irrepressible Digger – still, in fact, a Chief of Diggers.

Four brothers of Colonel Leane also served in the AIF, all attaining to high rank. One of them, Major Ben Leane and a nephew, Captain Allan Leane, and several other relatives of this indomitable breed, threw in their lot with the 48th, a fact which led some wag to dub it the ‘Joan of Arc’ Battalion – because it was ‘Made of All Leanes!’

At Bullecourt the colonel underwent a particularly harrowing experience. Besides seeing so many men of his command mowed down, he lost both his brother Ben and his nephew, Allan, in one fell stroke of fate.

Our Padre Devine, in his admirable story of the battalion, says of this incident: “It is remembered how on that occasion he searched among the dead bodies for that of his brother; how he carried in his arms the remains of poor Ben and set up a rude cross over the grave which he dug himself; how he continued to give himself entirely to the care of his unit in that trying engagement. Those tragic bereavements never hardened him, and he who truly and literally scorned death ever showed something approaching a parent’s emotion at the death of his men.”

He had at least the satisfaction of knowing that his men in that affair had assisted in the first breach of the hitherto reputedly invincible Hindenburg Line.

Close on the first anniversary of Anzac Day they had accomplished, against fearful odds and at tragic cost, all that had been asked of them, and in so doing had covered themselves and their leader with undying glory.

No man in this imperfect world is entirely without fault or blemish, but if our colonel failed in any particular, such was not apparent to us in the ranks. Indeed, with us ‘The Bull’ could do no wrong. The veriest outlaw in the battalion (and every battalion at sometime or other had a ‘warrigal’ in its ranks) held him in wholesome respect. Officers and men alike, all admired, trusted, honoured, gave their devotion to him whom they considered the proudest possession of the 48th Battalion, for all could say – … the elements

So mixed in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world: ‘This was a man!*

* William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar,’ Act 5, Scene 5, Mark Antony describing Caesar.