8th Infantry Battalion
Killed In Action
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Robert Leslie Lawless (SN 103) had attended the Buninyong State School and was a 26 year old, unmarried grocer when he enlisted in Ballarat on August 18th 1914. He was assigned to the 8th Infantry Battalion and saw action at Gallipoli. Illness forced his return to Australia in early 1916 but he embarked once again in October, bound for the Western Front. He arrived in France in February 1917 but was killed in action at Lagnicourt on April 22nd 1917. He has no known grave and his name is recorded on the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France.
Lucas’s Staffs Appreciation of Brave Men, the original Avenue register, records his name as Robert S. Lawless.
