Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

05/01/1916

Place of Enlistment

Queanbeyan NSW

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Queanbeyan NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Sutton NSW

School(s) Attended

Sutton Public School

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Son of Samuel John Rowley and Alberta Emma (nee Bingley) Rowley of Sutton NSW.

Burial Place

France 119 Daours Communal Cemetery Extension

Service Number

5448

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

53 Battalion AIF

Died of wounds at Peronne, France, 2 September 1918, aged 23 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 158, Canberra ACT
St. John the Baptist's Church, Canberra, Roll of Honour, in Frederick W. Robinson, Canberra's First Hundred Years, Sydney, W.C. Penfold, p. 63.
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT
World War 1 Memorial, corner of Lowe St and Farrer Place, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Awarded Military Medal for actions at Polygon Wood, France, 26 September 1917.

The only evidence of Rowley's connection with Canberra is the St. John's Church Roll of Honour published in Frederick W. Robinson, Canberra's First Hundred Years, Sydney, W.C. Penfold, p. 63, and his listing on the large stone tablet on the exterior of the northern wall of St John's. Private Rowley was a nephew of 1626 Private Charles Stanley Bingley who died of wounds at Flers, France, on 2 November 1916.

Reg Rowley enlisted with a number of other local men who all served in the 53rd Battalion. He joined his unit on the front line just after the ill-fated Battle of Fromelles and served at Flers (on the Somme), Beaumetz, the Second Battle of Bullecourt, Polygon Wood (where he was wounded and awarded the Military Medal), Villers-Bretonneux (where he was wounded by mustard gas) and at Peronne where he was wounded in the head and died on 2 September 1918.

Description - height 5 feet 7½ inches, weight 150 pounds, chest 33-37 inches, medium complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, Church of England, birthmark on his left hip.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
First World War Nominal Roll
First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
St. John the Baptist's Church, Canberra, Roll of Honour, in Frederick W. Robinson, Canberra's First Hundred Years, Sydney, W.C. Penfold, p. 63.
Peter Procter, Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan, Canberra, Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 2001 (p.275)
Photograph(s): Rex L. Cross, Bygone Queanbeyan, revised edition, 1985, p. 223.
Portrait photograph in montage 'Our Queanbeyan Boys [No 1]', Queanbeyan and District Historical Museum Society, Farrer Place, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan Age - 1 November 1912, 6 July 1917, 31 July 1917, 11 January 1918, 24 September 1918, 1 October 1918
Queanbeyan/ Canberra Advocate - 29 June 1916
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)