Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 37

W ORLD W AR O NE (1914 - 1918) INCLUDING THOSE WHO DIED LATER AS A RESULT OF THIS WAR

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

Name FRANCIS WILFRED HOLT DYSON-ROWLEY (Sgt)

Lef SES 1898

Roll Number 805 Died 24:04:1918

Set / House B

Arrive SES 1891

Where VILLERS BRETONNEUX, FRANCE Serving with AUSTRALIAN ARTILLERY

Age 38

Buried Bonnay Communal Cemetery Extension, Picardie, France Remembered Roll of Honour Tablet, University of Leeds, The St. Edward’s School Chapel (Wooden Plaque) and The Cloisters Stone Memorial

Born in Riga, Latvia, Russia in 1880, he came to England as an infant and after his mother’s early death was adopted by his uncle, an Army Major from Leeds. At the School he was in the Rugby Football XV of 1891 and in the Lower IVth Form. After leaving SES, he went to Leeds University and later studied mining at his uncle’s offices, travelling to Mitau in Russia to work in a spinning mill there. While still comparatively young, he joined the South African Constabulary and served in the Boer Wars 1900-2 (no details known). Also about this time he married and had one daughter; sadly his wife died young. By this time he had taken up farming in Australia. When WW1 broke out he enlisted as a Corporal in the Australian Artillery, part of the Australian Expeditionary Force in June 1915 and was involved in the Anzac landings in Gallipoli in April 1915. First, he was part of the ammunition column of the 5th Division, later involved with the main fighting force. He was one of the last to be evacuated from this disastrous campaign. At this time he sent the ‘Anzac Book’ to the School as a memento. He was posted to Europe in June 1916 and was constantly in action on the Western Front. He was killed in action in France in late April 1918, when a shell exploded yards from him whilst he was taking an ammunition column up to the batteries. He was hit in the chest, fell from his horse and died ‘one minute later’.