Geoffrey Heydon LESLIE
Geoffrey Heydon LESLIE (1895-1989) was a 20 year old 3rd Battalion Private attached to A Company. He was a past Tomerong Public School student and a draughtsman for the NSW Railways. His parents were Albert Lewis LESLIE a local farmer (variously listed as Berrewherre, Jervis Bay, Tomerong, Wandandian), sometimes known as Jack Leslie, and Evelyn Wright. The family came to manage Octavius Beale’s farm at Lake McKenzie, now the Jervis Bay Botanic Gardens, about 1901 from Manilla north of Tamworth.
Geoff enlisted from Leichardt, Sydney on the same day the Battalion was formed. The Battalion embarked on HMAT ‘Euripides’. HMAT (His Majesty’s Australian Transport). ‘Euripides’ was the fourteenth of 28 vessels procured for transiting troops and horses to Europe. The 3rd Battalion’s convoy arrived at Port Said on the Suez Canal on 2 December and Alexandria the next day. At 6.15am on 24 April 1915 the 3rd Battalion left Lemnos on the ‘Derfflinger’ and sailed for nearly five hours before anchoring at 10.55am. There they stayed until 12.30am the next day (to become the first ANZAC Day), when they sailed for the Gallipoli Peninsula arriving shortly before 4am. The Anzacs were to land on the west coast of the peninsula north of the point Gaba Tepe on the Aegean Coast, whilst the British and French would land on the tip of the peninsula at Cape Helles. At 5.30am, as part of the second and third waves to attack the shoreline, the 3rd Battalion commenced disembarkation and was ashore at 8.30am, at a beach that would become known as Anzac Cove. The 19 May 1915, would evolve to be the most tragic day in the Battalion’s short history. The 17,000 Anzacs were attacked by 42,000 Turks. By the end of the battle an estimated 3,000 Turks and 160 Anzacs were dead. From this battalion locals Sidney Alexander WATT and Aaron Frederick PHILLIPS were killed and Charles Edward BRYCE was wounded.
Meanwhile, the 3rd Battalion evacuated from Gallipoli to Egypt in December 1915, via the ‘Simla,’ before being sent to the Western Front in France. They left Egypt at Alexandria on the HMTS ‘Grampian’ and disembarked in Marseille, France on 28 March. Geoff Leslie was promoted to Corporal in early December 1915 and to Sergeant in February 1916. In the next few months, both Charlie Bryce and Geoff Leslie would be advancing towards the Hindenburg Line. In mid March Geoff Leslie was promoted to Lieutenant and took charge of one of the 3rd Battalion’s platoon. At about the same time Geoff's younger brother, Barry Lyndon LESLIE, sailed to France and joined the 39th Battalion before transferring to the 3rd Battalion.
In May 1917 Geoff was awarded the Military Cross for his work in the operations at Hermeis, France. On 21 September he received a severe gunshot wound to the face and chest at Polygon Wood, 7km west of Ypres in southern Belgium. On the previous day Barry was also wounded with a gunshot wound to the head and right arm. Geoff was to lose his right eye; later replaced with an artificial eye. Geoff Leslie was awarded his Military Cross from King George V. Following convalescence, not fit to return to his unit, he was loaned from the 3rd Battalion to the 1st Training Wing of the Australian Flying Corps as an adjutant. On 30 August a medical board found Lieut Geoff Leslie unfit for general service but fit for home service. He left the AFC and was discharged from Sutton Veny Hospital in Wiltshire returning to Australia on HT ‘Sardinia’ in late December 1918 and was given a public welcome home on the corner of Kinghorne and Junction streets, Nowra.
His military appointment was terminated on 1 March 1919. It appears he was living in Goulburn in 1922. In 1964 he was working for the Education Department in Port Moresby but attending Brisbane for medical treatment. He died on the Gold Coast in Queensland in 1989 aged 93 and is commemorated on the Nowra Post Office Shoalhaven Honour Roll, Nowra Showground Memorial Gates and the Nowra Presbyterian Church Honour Roll. [1]
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Notes and References
- ↑ Tomerong Anzacs "I've had my fling" : the story of the men who enlisted for World War I associated with the NSW South Coast village of Tomerong (v4.5). R Blair, Tomerong, N.S.W. Tomerong Genealogy Database R2384.
Images
- Bherwerre Farm 1 TP5344.
- Bherwerre Farm 2 TP5344.
- Bherwerre Farm 3 TP5333.
- Family TP5333.
- HMAT Euripides TP4769+.
- Australian Flying Corps TP4814+.
- School Certificate TP4811.
- Shoalhaven Honor Roll TP3410.
- Headstone R2384.
- Origin Map TP6266.
Links
- Tomerong Local History Web Page- tomeronghistory.com
- Tomerong Past Facebook Album- Tomerong Past Facebook This site may provide more information relative to this family. Check the 'Families' and 'Monuments' albums and those institutions that the family contributed to e.g. 'School', 'Anzacs', 'Clyde Shire' etcetera.
- Tomerong Anzacs- Tomerong Anzacs
