Page 31 - Memorial Groves
P. 31

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.
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