Page 30 - Memorial Groves
P. 30
PLAQUE NO 45:
Charles Lee Steere (1921-26) PLAQUE NO 47:
Bernard Rinian Roy Rutherford (1928)
Charles was the son of Sir Charles Lee Steere, a pastoralist of Toodyay who
attended Hale School from 1881 to 1883.
Rinian lived in Subiaco and attended Hale School in the late 1920s. His
mother was the Matron at the Hale School boarding house. After leaving
The younger Charles attended Hale from 1921 to 1926 and then went on to school 'Rinny' attended St George's College at UWA.
attend Oxford University where he gained a 'blue' for athletics.
He joined up early in 1941 and after graduating from No. 11 course of
While working on the family estate in Surrey he joined the Royal Auxilliary Air the Empire Air Training Scheme at Cunderdin was posted to England for
Force and trained as a pilot. He was then posted to number 601 City of London further training on heavier aircraft.
squadron, flying Hurricane fighters. He was posted 'missing' while covering the
British Army's retreat toward Dunkirk in 1940. He was 30 years of age.
Rinian was killed while flying from an aerodrome in Yorkshire on the
19th May 1942. He was 22 years of age. Less than three months later his
Placed by his sister, Mrs Muriel Dawkins
brother Allan was also killed while flying a bomber aircraft.
PLAQUE NO 46: Placed by his nephew, Mr Rinian Rutherford
Roderick Yelverton Lee-Steere (1925) PLAQUE NO 48:
Phillip Rossiter Mitchell (1931-32)
Roderick was a younger brother of Charles. He attended Hale School in the
mid-1920s and was best known for his rowing prowess.
Phillip was a red-headed boarder from Narrogin. He was a nephew of the
He joined the navy on the outbreak of hostilities and served as an officer then Premier of the State, Sir James Mitchell. He attended Hale School
on corvettes in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Theatres. The ship on which in 1931 and 1932 and when war broke out, trained as a pilot in Western
Lieutenant Lee Steere was returning to Australia and the South-West Pacific Australia before sailing to England.
Theatre was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1944 and Roderick was lost
at sea.
He trained for service in bomber aircraft before joining the Royal Air
Force No. 12 Squadron flying Wellingtons.
Later, Hale School won at least one Head of the River race in the 1950s in a
racing VIII, donated by the Lee Steere family and named the 'Roderick Lee He was posted missing after a hazardous night-time operation laying sea
Steere'.
mines in the Kiel Bay area of Germany on 26th September 1942. He was
26 years of age.
Placed by his sister, Mrs Muriel Dawkins
Placed by Haleian, Mr Vic Ferry (1936-38) who was awarded the
ABOVE: Charles Lee-Steere, RAF Reserve, 1939 Distinguished Flying Cross during the war for operations with No 578
BELOW: Roderick Lee-Steere, RANVR, 1940
Squadron of the Royal Air Force.
