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R N Pillow (Pegasus Dec, 1918).
, flying officer, was killed during World War I.
Born at Geelong on 18 December 1894, the son of Henry and Harriet nee Fairman, of Minerva, Laurel Bank Parade, Geelong. Roy first attended Newtown and Flinders State Schools then attended Geelong College from 1909 until 1914, being Dux of the School in his last year. A member of the Shooting Team in 1912 and 1913, the Athletics Team from 1911 to 1914, the 1st Football XVIII from 1912 to 1914 and a School Prefect in 1913 and 1914, he was best known at the School as an excellent long distance runner. His all-round performance was recognized with the award of the Dr Gus Kearney Prize in 1913. In 1914 he also won the Chemistry prize and was awarded an Old Collegians’ Exit Scholarship. He studied 2nd year Medicine at Ormond College, Melbourne University, and was a cadet in Captain Rushall's Mounted Cadets and a Sergeant Major in the Melbourne University Rifles.
Military Forces Medal won by R N Pillow, 1913.
He enlisted in August 1915 as a Private in the AAMC and was posted to 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station, spending eighteen months in France. Such was his sporting prowess that
Pegasus reported that
'Roy Pillow has been meeting with great success in athletic competition at the front. At the No 3 Casualty Clearing Station Sports he came first in the half-mile, 100 yards and long jump, and won the championship cup for the highest number of points. In the Army Corps Sports he proved that he still excels in long-distance running by winning both the mile and half-mile races.' He was posted in March 1918 to Queen's College, Oxford, as a Cadet, training for the Australian Flying Corps, and passed at the top of the lists. He had a further posting to 7 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, where he died of accidental injuries on 24 August 1918 while completing his training, aged 23, not a week after his elder brother, Pte Henry Fenton Pillow, M M (OGC), who died on 18 August 1918 of wounds sustained at Herleville, while serving with 24 Battalion.
Funeral of R N Pillow, 1918.
Grave Registration Card - R N Pillow.
Tom Rand, (fellow pilot and Old Geelong Collegian) wrote from England on 12th September 1918 about Roy Pillow's demise:
‘Roy Pillow was killed in an RES aircraft which was introduced into RFC service in 1916, whilst learning to fly. He stalled the machine after taking off and lost flying speed, and nosedived into the ground. I was talking to him only five minutes before he was killed. He is buried in a cemetery about five miles from here.’ He was buried in the Leighterton Church Cemetery, Boxwell-with-Leighterton, Gloucestershire.
Pegasus of December 1918 reported on his funeral: ‘Several Old Collegians attended Roy Pillow's funeral in England. His brother Bert, who had arrived in England just a month before to do war work, had the melancholy satisfaction of being present. Others were Tom Rand, Reg Campbell, and Lewis (Louis) McKenzie.
His brothers,
Albert Earnest Pillow (1886-1960), and
Henry Fenton Pillow (1893-1918) were also educated at Geelong College. The Fen and Roy Pillow Bursary was named in memory of the two brothers, 'Fen' and Roy, killed in World War I. A Collection of material donated by Jill Pillow about the Pillow Family is held in the School Archives.
Sources: Pillow Collection; Pegasus December 1917 p28; Geelong Collegians at the Great War compiled by James Affleck. p88 (citing The University of Melbourne: Record of Active Service of Teachers, Graduates, Undergraduates, Officers and Servants (1926); Photo Pegasus December 1918; Education Gazette and Teachers’ Aid 15 May 1919 p64.