Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Lieutenant Roy Anderson of the 7th Battalion, AIF, died of wound related illness 14th January 1919. Roy was born and raised in Cobram, his parents John Finley Anderson and Barbara Anderson were residing at the Royal Victoria Hotel at the time. Prior to joining the AIF he was in business in Cobram as a hairdresser and newsagent. Determined to do his bit, only 21 years old, he placed his lucrative business in the hands of others and enlisted as private in 1915. He was a prolific letter writer throughout the war and housed in the Australian War Memorial is a collection of letters he wrote to his mother. A fellow soldier, Frank Presnell sent a snap shot home, taken at the Pyramids in Egypt, of a group including Roy Anderson, Roy Grant, Jack Morgan and himself, and headed it “A little bit of Cobram at the Pyramids.”

Roy served at Gallipoli and was in France when he was made a Lieutenant during late 1917. In April 1918 he received shrapnel wounds to the head and back from which he partially recovered but was invalided back to Australia in July 1918 still suffering from internal injuries. After an examination in hospital in Melbourne, x-rays disclosed that his spine was in a serious condition and an operation was necessary. It was extremely unfortunate that whilst recovering from the operation he succumbed to pneumonia and other complications and died on the 14th January 1919. His body was returned to Cobram by train where it was met by a large number of returned soldiers. After placing a large Union Jack over the coffin and with the late Lieutenant’s felt hat on top, he was carried by his mates through files of returned soldiers, with heads bowed and arms reversed. Roy Anderson was then given a full Military Funeral, and then conveyed to the Cobram Cemetery. It was said it was the first time in history that the Cobram East sand hills reverberated from the sound of the three volleys fired from the rifles of the military firing party.