Hill 60 bell
- Height 159 mm
- Width 184 mm
- Weight 5 kg
- Note E
Hill 60
In Memory of Roland Leslie Ward.
Given by his Mother, Joan E. Ward.
Born in 1891 to parents William and Joan, Roland Ward lived in Oriental Bay, Wellington, and was working as a clerk for the South British Insurance Company when war broke out in 1914. He was among the first to enlist and joined the Samoa Advance Party which seized German Samoa in late August. Roland returned to New Zealand in March 1915 and soon departed to join the New Zealand forces at Gallipoli.
Posted into the Otago Battalion as a private, Roland arrived on the peninsula in June. After this point his war service is difficult to trace. Exactly what happened to Roland is not known, but sometime between June and August he went missing. A board of enquiry held in late August 1915 found that he was killed in action on 16 August. He likely lost his life in the Allied August offensive at Gallipoli. He was then 24 years old.
Roland’s body was never found and he is remembered on the Chunuk Bair (New Zealand) Memorial to the Missing. His mother also remembered him through the dedication of the 'Hill 60' bell, the name of which recalls one of the battles of the 1915 August offensive.
Further information:
Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph record – Roland Ward
Commonwealth War Graves Commission record – Roland Ward
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