Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ronald was the youngest of Richard Lucas and Marion Rose Provis’ three children. He was born in the coastal town of Port Lincoln, on the 3rd May 1917. His siblings included a half-brother, Ernest Roy Brodie, Jean Mary and Bess. His father, Richard worked for the South Australian Railways as an examining fitter.
Post school, 18-year-old Ron joined the Militia whist working for Eudunda Farmers’ Co-Operative in Adelaide. He graduated to working in a Grocery Warehouse and as a packer until the outbreak of WWII. Aged 23 he enlisted on the 24th June ’40 where he was allocated the number SX7854 and placed in the newly formed 2/48th Battalion. Following intensive training at Woodside in the Adelaide hills, Ron had brief pre-embarkation leave before he boarded the Stratheden on the 7th November ’40, arriving in the Middle East on the 17th December.
The following year marked the beginning of the legend of the Rats of Tobruk. Designed by Lord Haw Haw to destroy morale and encourage the troops to surrender, rather than live in their fly and rat-infested dusty dugouts, his taunt that they were living like rats, had the opposite effect. The soldiers adopted the term as a badge of honor.
During the fierce fighting for Tobruk in mid-April ’41, Ron was on patrol with W.O. Noble, SX8469 Bill Hoare and SX7878 Bill Manley. In John Glenn’s book, Tobruk to Tarakan, Bill described how an enemy tank approached, but the driver was killed and passengers fled. As the patrol moved to the truck, they found and searched six German packs stacked very neatly, hoping to find documents. They also found a dual-purpose anti-tank gun, which they then towed back to headquarters. However, as they approached Post S7 a command to ‘open fire on command’ was given. In an understatement the patrol told their mates exactly what they thought of them going ‘back a generation or two and succeeded in leaving no doubt that they were Australian’. The truck eventually reached Headquarters where it was carefully examined. It was a fortuitous find as the anti-tank gun and its unusual ammunition was new technology and eventually, accompanied by Corporal Montgomery, handed over to the British authorities and sent back to England.
By January ’42 Ron was with the Intelligence School before returning to Australia via Melbourne in April and then being based at Warradale where he gained his Group III Clerk qualifications. He and Laurel Olga Shepherd, from Kent Town announced their engagement in August that year. They married on the 18th September ’43 at the Holy Trinity Church on North Terrace in an evening ceremony whist Ron was home on leave and granted compassionate leave. Just two months later, Ron’s father, Richard died on the 30th November at his Mile End home and was buried in the North Road Cemetery.
The following year Ron was transferred to service firstly in the Northern Territory, then in May ’44 to New South Wales before then heading to Queensland and service at Morotai. Following abrasions and a haematoma to his right knee which resulted in a stint in hospital, Ron eventually returned to South Australia to be discharged on the 2nd November ’45.
Aged 75, Ron died on the 1st March ’93. His cremated ashes were placed at Centennial Park in the RSL section, Wall 125, Niche EO15. Laurel died three years later, on the 23rd March, 1996.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.