Pneumonia claims soldier two days before Armistice

The Australian War Memorial has an image and some information on Leslie George King Ross, who was a Lieutenant in the 33^rd Battalion.

Hailing from Glen Innes, Mr Ross was a descendant of Phillip Gidley King, Third Governor of NSW, one of over 50 whom served in the First World War.

Sadly Mr Ross died of illness just two days prior to the Armistice of November 11, 1918. He was 21.

On November 3, 1918 he was admitted to hospital gravely ill and died on November 9, 1918 at 41 Stationary Hospital, France, of bronchitis and pneumonia.

Mr Ross had been a law clerk prior to enlisting in July of 1916.

The Memorial's records show that Mr Ross embarked with service number 4363; 11th Reinforcements, 29th Battalion, as a private on November 3 1916, from Sydney aboard HMAT Afric.

During 1917 Ross attended NCO School in Tidworth and became an Instructor at Bombing School in Lyndhurst.

Ross was promoted to lieutenant on 8 February 1918.

His grave resides in the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery in France alongside other victims of the First World War.

Mr Ross's death was reported in the Glen Innes Examiner as being the second son of Elizabeth Ross, of Glen Innes, New South Wales, and the late Colin James Ross. Born at Tamworth, New South Wales.

That report said that Mr Ross had "served gallantly", but was "deprived by two days of the privilege of seeing the culmination of the Allied efforts in overwhelming victory".

The report also stated that Mr Ross had been highly regarded at home as a popular young man with "exceptional qualities".

The nominal roll of the Australian Imperial Force as it was known showed Mr Ross shipped out to serve in France alongside another Glen Innes resident in John James Wyatt Martin, a 19-year-old station hand.

Their names are recorded alongside two Graman farmers in 36-year-old Thomas Jeremiah O'Brien and 26-year-old Edmund Elias O'Brien.