Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
Porter Lionel Wallace Landon is one Auburn Memorial man who served in the AIF for well over two years and had only minor interruptions to extensive service on the front line. Landon was the son of Isabela Landon who lived at 126 Auburn Road, Auburn.
Landon, 22, enlisted 1 February 1916 and embarked on the Ajana five months later. He was posted to 35th Battalion, 3rd Division, then being raised on the Salisbury Plain in England, with John Monash as Division Commander. Landon proceeded to France with the Division in November 1916. He survived the division’s first major battles, Messines Ridge and Passchendaele in Belgium, with only a week in hospital with a septic hand. Landon had a clean record, no crimes or offences and he enjoyed 15 days leave in Britain in January 1918.
The 3rd Australian Division was the first Australian Division to be brought down from Belgium, back to the Somme valley in France to meet the German spring offensive of March 1918. Landon fought on for another six months, first defending Amiens and then advancing up the Somme valley. Landon was promoted to Lance Corporal in July 1918 and spent a week attending the ‘corps school’. Landon was one of the last battle casualties of Auburn Memorial men receiving a machine gun bullet in the heart on 22 August 1918.
Landon was buried near Bray-sur-Somme but after the war, the grave could not be found, so Landon’s name is one of the 10,000 Australian names on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.
Lionel Landon is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- St Philip's Anglican Church Auburn First World War Honour Roll
- NSW Government Railways & Tramways First World War Honour Roll, Central Station
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
