Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

BREECHES, field service, Charles Owen leaver RILEY, Cambridge University Rifle Volunteers 1909

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Overview

Khaki woollen serge riding breeches/jodpurs. Measures 980mm long at back, 160mm wide at knees. Laced up at the knees, cotton laces. Has a 5 metal button fly. One waist button, no sign of back buttons. Two straps on side held up by belt.

Historical information

Charles Owen Leaver Riley (1854-1929), archbishop, was born on 26 May 1854 at Birmingham, England. Riley was educated at Heversham Grammar School and Owens College, Manchester; he then attended Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he completed the mathematics tripos (B.A., 1878; M.A., 1881; D.D., 1894). He was made deacon in 1878 and ordained priest next year. in 1894, than he was offered the bishopric of Perth and was consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury on 18 October. He arrived in Western Australia on 3 February 1895.

In 1916 Archbishop Riley was appointed Chaplain general of the Australian Imperial Force, having been senior chaplain to the Western Australian Defence Force from 1895. He sought to expand the Anglican chaplaincy corps, but his plan for one chaplain to every troopship failed. Late in 1916 he visited the Western Front, and on the return voyage his troopship Ivernia was torpedoed. Riley lost everything but the clothes he wore ferrying a lifeboat of fifty survivors to a trawler. The tour resulted in the appointment of fifteen more chaplains. It also strengthened his view of conscription, which he supported publicly on the eve of the plebiscites in 1916 and 1917. After the war, though offered the presidency, he became patron of the State branch of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-28435

Last modified

Tuesday, 13 June, 2023

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Australian Army Museum of Western Australia