Leslie John Robley aka. John was born in Rydal on 15 June 1894, the ninth child and sixth surviving son of Joseph William Robley and Sarah Hayes York. With the oubreak of the 1914/18 war John joined his brother working at the Lithgow Small Arms factory, in his case as a Security Officer.

In 1916 John married a Lithgow girl, Elsie May Langford, the daughter of Andrew Leaver and Mary Langford of Mort's Estate. She was born in Lithgow on January 1st 1896.

Following his brother Percy's marriage to Emily Hovey the two couples shared a new house in Lithgow.

John and Elsie's first child, a daughter, Ethel, was born in 1917.

After the war, John left the factory and joined the Railway Department, moving to Sydney where they made their home in Tempe, an inner suburb. A daughter, Beryl and a son, Reginald, were born.

John died suddenly in November 1946. Like his brother, Joseph Arthur (Horrie), it was on a Railway Station. He was in charge of a gang of men working on a suburban line and had gone to the Pay Clerk to collect their wages. On returning he collapsed and died. He was only 52 years old!

His son, Reginald, who was devoted to his father, suffered a breakdown in the years which followed and never fully recovered.

Their daughter, Ethel, married Henry Malley in 1934 and had two sons. The younger was killed in a car accident in 1990.

Elsie went to live with her daughter, Beryl and her husband, Norman Keen. She died suddenly on December 28th 1980 and is buried in Rookwood cemetery with her husband, John. She was 84.

Written by John Robley, from the reseach of Eileen Sarah Young. Photography from Ancestry.