Roderick came from a military family, his father Edmund Howe Gwynne was a retired Major in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and there was also a military connection on his mother, Edith’s side.  He grew up at 13, Southdene and joined the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (K.O.Y.L.I.) at the outbreak of war, being posted to ‘A’ Company, 4^th Battalion where he was to spend the rest of the war.  Shortly after the battalion arrived in France he died of wounds received in the field at Merville Field Hospital; this was during the Battle of Arras.