World War 2, Papua New Guinea, RILEY, 1944

The Right Rev Charles Lawrence ‘Tom’ Riley was the son of Archbishop C O L Riley. Tom arrived in WA with the family in 1895. He took Holy Orders in 1912 at Caius College Cambridge and his additional university qualifications were MA and LLB (Cantab) and later DTheol from the Australian College of Theology. He was a Junior chaplain in Palestine for a year and a half during the First World War at the time when his father was Chaplain General. On his return to Perth he served in several parish positions in Western Australia, including North Perth. For the early years of World War Two (1940 to 1941), he was a senior chaplain and then became the Chaplain General of the AIF from 1942 until 1957. He has been decorated with the Colonial Auxiliary Force officers' decoration and long service medal. He was senior vice-president of the Returned Soldiers' League in this State for over 10 years, and for many years took a prominent part in the Anzac Day commemoration services. Charles Lawrence Riley was awarded OBE (1920) and CBE (1942)