Robert Edward Dryden

Robert Edward Dryden was born in Goulburn in 1890 to Anthony and Emma Dryden. His father died in 1906. Robert became a bank clerk in Manly, and lived at 34 Fairy Bower Road, Manly, prior to enlisting in 1915, aged 25.

He served at Gallipoli with the 18th Battalion, and was promoted to Sergeant. He was mentioned in dispatches in August 1915 for his efforts in repelling a Turkish counter-attack.

He then served in France, and was wounded in the arm in a night action near Pozieres in June 1916. He was awarded the DCM for his reconnaissance work under heavy shellfire.He was promoted to Lieutenant by January 1917, and was wounded in action on a further two occasions.

In early October 1918 he fought at Mont St Quentin, and was later awarded the Military Cross for his capture of twelve German prisoners from an enemy pillbox.

Lieutenant Dryden returned to Australia in 1919. He married Eva Irene Todd in 1926. His mother died the following year.

He saw service in WWII as captain of a garrison battalion in Australia. After the war he and Eva lived for several years at North Steyne, Manly. He died in Adelaide in September 1974.

His photograph was recognised in the collection of glass plates found at Vignacourt, and appeared in the book by Ross Coulthart, The Lost Diggers, p329.Coulthart notes:

“In an irony that would no doubt warm the heart of his good-natured grandfather, Dryden’s grandson Kim Walton, whose family lived with him for several years, works as a senior teacher at an international school in Germany. Kim is struck by how little his grandfather ever spoke about what he did or saw on the Western Front and how humble he was about his achievements... Kim says “Like so many of his generation, he was modest, indeed humble, to a fault, and rarely spoke of those days apart from once telling me that he had never experienced camaraderie – we would say mateship I suppose – like it and that they were, in the face of the appalling loss of life, some of the most fulfilling days of his life.

He once spoke of ‘manly love’ in a way which must have animated almost every male generation since the ancient Greeks but which has been belittled and diminished by recent misunderstandings of those words, appropriated, as they have been, by Hollywood and every 16-year old alive – but for him it was about placing his life in other men’s hands and trusting and believing implicitly in them and they in him.”