Roland has had a career spanning 30 years in the food industry in product development and sales.
His interest in The Great War was sparked in the build up to the centenary where he became fascinated by the tactics used and why they fought the way they did.
After Roland’s first battlefield tour, he started to get an interest in the human side of the war and the stories behind the men that died.
Not having a relative who died in the war,with a grandfather turned away in 1914 as a colonial student and his uncle being in the Army medical corps in the Congo, Roland was looking for a personal connection to the war. His grandfather went to Queens College Taunton from 1910-1914. He realized his Grandfather would have known people who were killed and on the school Roll of Honour. Since 2018 Roland has been researching the 68 men who died from and their fascinating stories.
His goal in the WFA is to increase the awareness of the underrepresented participants in the war who answered the call in the colonies and came to fight for the King and empire.