Lyall Howard

[1] Private Lyall Howard left Port Melbourne aboard the HMAT Wandilla on 6 June 1916, and was shipped to the Western Front.

[7] An entry in Lyall Howard's diary, dated 30 August 1918, simply reads: "Met dad at Cléry.

"[7] Lyall's son, the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard recounts: "There's just this pithy or laconic entry in the diary.

"[7] In battle, Lyall Howard was wounded by a mustard gas attack in Passchendaele and spent 10 weeks in hospital.

[4] When World War I ended, Lyall returned to the Clarence River region in Northern New South Wales and worked as a fitter and turner for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR).

[8] Lyall and Mona Howard moved into a comfortable Californian-style bungalow at 25 William Street, Earlwood, a working class suburb of Sydney.

[8] Like many other ex-servicemen, Lyall Howard took up the offer and acquired two copra plantations on Karkar Island in New Guinea valued at the time at more than £100,000 (over A$4 million in today's[when?]

In 1929, the Administrator sent a cable to the Investigation Branch (now known as ASIO) in Canberra: "Walter and Lyall Falconer Howard apply consent purchase property valued at £25,000 and £100,000 respectively.

[8] In 1938 they purchased a second, which they named Prince Edward Service Station, across the Cooks River on the corner of Permanent Avenue and Wardell Road in Earlwood.

[14] Both Lyall and Mona Howard became enthusiastic supporters of the newly created Liberal Party of Australia, and celebrated the election night of 1949 which brought Prime Minister Robert Menzies to power, defeating the Labor government of Ben Chifley.

When the election results were declared, Lyall built a bonfire in the backyard to burn his petrol rationing card.

[10] According to a Sydney Morning Herald report published on 7 January 1989, there were some suspicions in the Howard family that Lyall was a member of the New Guard, a fascist paramilitary organisation active in the 1930s which stood for "unswerving loyalty to the Throne; all for the British Empire; sane and honourable government throughout Australia; suppression of any disloyal and immoral elements in government, industrial and social circles; abolition of machine politics, and maintenance of the full liberty of the individual."