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2050 6th Battalion, Australian Infantry, Australian Imperial Force
Lionel Foster was born around 1881 in Whitton, near Hounslow, Middlesex, the son of Robert James and Marie Jeanette Foster. His father was at one time a regular soldier and when the family moved to Salisbury Terrace, Gainsborough Road in Sudbury he held the position of Band Master of ‘D’ Company, 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Volunteers. After Lionel’s mother died the family moved to King Street.
Lionel served in the Boer War with the 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment (6607) and on his return to Sudbury was among eleven other volunteers to be made Honorary Freemen of Sudbury. His service records show him as 5ft 9¼ ins in height with a fair complexion, brown eyes and hair. He was awarded the South Africa 1899-1900 and 1901 Medals.
Lionel emigrated to Australia to farm only a year before he volunteered to serve with the Australian Imperial Force, enlisting in Melbourne, Victoria. He landed at Gallipoli with the same battalion as Robert Joy and two weeks after landing took part in the Allies third attempt to capture the heavily defended village of Krithia. A third of the allied force was either killed or wounded. Lionel was one of them.
Lionel died age 33 on 8 May 1915. There is no known grave and he is remembered on the Helles Memorial, Turkey.
Lionel is also remembered on the Australian National War Memorial, Canberra, Australia. The Australians lost around 8,000 men during the Gallipoli campaign not only from fighting but many from disease in the appalling conditions.
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