Flight Lieutenant Rowland Rutherford Hill was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 24 April 1941 aged 19 years.
While serving with 77 Squadron RAAF, British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, he was killed on 3 December 1948 in a Mustang aircraft that crashed while engaged in rocketing practice on the bombing range at Iwakuni, Japan. He is buried in the Post-War Section of the British Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery, Yokohama, Japan.