page_title: Raymond Leane
section_title: Retirement
hierarchical_section_title: Raymond Leane / Retirement
caption_attribution_description: English: The gravestone of Raymond Leane at Centennial Park Cemetery
context_page_description: Brigadier General Sir Raymond Lionel Leane, CB, CMG, DSO & Bar, MC, VD, JP was an Australian Army officer who rose to command the 48th Battalion then 12th Brigade during World War I. For his performance during the war, Leane was described by the Australian Official War Historian Charles Bean as "the foremost fighting leader" in the Australian Imperial Force, and "the head of the most famous family of soldiers in Australian history", among other accolades. After the war, he served as Commissioner of the South Australia Police from 1920 to 1944, for which he was knighted.
  A businessman and part-time Citizen Forces officer before the war, Leane was commissioned into the AIF and led a company of the 11th Infantry Battalion at the landing at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915. He rose to temporarily command his battalion, and was made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, awarded the Military Cross, twice mentioned in despatches and wounded three times during the Gallipoli campaign.
context_section_description: After Leane's retirement as police commissioner, he briefly continued his work with the VDC, resigning on 30 July 1944. He was knighted in the 1945 King's birthday honours for his services as police commissioner over a 24-year period. For his service with the VDC during World War II he was issued with the War Medal 1939–1945 and Australia Service Medal 1939–1945. In 1946, he became the inaugural president of the Plympton branch of the conservative Liberal and Country League, the forerunner of the state Liberal Party. He continued to lead the Adelaide Anzac Day March each year, and on 7 September 1946 was invested with his knighthood by the Governor-General of Australia, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.
  His police cadet system was allowed to lapse after his retirement, but it was re-introduced by John McKinna, another former soldier, who became commissioner in 1957. He remained a strong advocate of part-time soldiering, as well as a system of universal military training. Leane lived in Adelaide until his death at the Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park on 25 June 1962, with him and his wife celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary two weeks before his death. He was buried in Centennial Park Cemetery, and was survived by his wife, Edith, and six children: five sons and a daughter. His son Geoffrey was originally a mounted policeman then a detective, was a lieutenant colonel and twice mentioned in despatches during World War II, later became a police inspector, and was deputy commissioner from 1959 to 1972. His namesake son, known as Lionel, became a detective sergeant. Another son, Benjamin, was a warrant officer during World War II, and survived being a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese.
  On receiving the news of his death, McKinna said that Leane was "a grand man and an excellent soldier", who "was really the father of the present-day police force, as during his term as police commissioner he reorganised the whole force". He also said that, "The force was now receiving the benefits of his reorganisation and the many new systems and improvements he introduced". He observed that Leane "was always a strict disciplinarian but was scrupulously fair in all his dealings". The Premier of South Australia, Sir Thomas Playford, said that Leane "had been one of the great generals of World War I, and had also served with conspicuous ability as police commissioner for many years".
caption: Leane's gravestone in Centennial Park cemetery
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