From Bean, THE STORY OF ANZAC, p. 134

Colonel Owen, of the 3rd, was a father to his men, a commander with the most gentle consideration, who persisted in treating every man as a gentleman in spite of disappointments from the occasional black sheep. “Because there are one or two black sheep in the regiment, I’m not going to treat nine hundred men as if they were blackguards,” he said. Each one of these leaders had by the end of the training at Mena produced a battalion corresponding in its qualities to his own.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Haylock OWEN, a 52 year old Gentleman from Wollongong, New South Wales. He enlisted in the AIF on 20 August 1914 and was allotted to the 3rd Battalion, Headquarters which embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A14 Euripides on 20 October 1914. OWEN subsequently was Wounded in Action, 22 June 1915. During the Great War, OWEN Returned to Australia 8 October 1915. OWEN was awarded Commander of the Order of St Michael & St George - CMG, and Mentioned in Despatches.

Sydney Mail, 26 May 1915, p. 29.