Brigadier General Raymond Leane

A portrait of Brigadier General Raymond Lionel Leane (1878- 1962) CB, CMG, DSO and Bar, MC, MID. General Raymond Lionel Leane was the Commanding Officer of the 12th Infantry Brigade in Gallipoli, France and Belgium. Born in Prospect, South Australia, Leane worked for a wholesale and retail business which sent him to Albany, Western Australia , where he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 11th (Perth Rifles) Infantry in 1905. In August 1914 he joined the AIF as a company commander in the 11th battalion. Many of his brothers and nephews also served during the First World War and they became one of the nation's most distinguished fighting families. Leane was one of the first men ashore at Anzac on 25 April 1915 and back in Egypt in 1916 he was appointed commander of the newly formed 48th Infantry Battalion. In 1918 Leane was promoted to Colonel and led the brigade at Viller-Bretonneux, Amiens and the Hindenburg Line. After the War, Leane became Chief Commissioner of Police in South Australia in May 1920. During the Second World War he commanded the Volunteer Defence Corps, the Australian Version of the Home Guard, in South Australia.