Lieutenant William Robert Norman LESLIE
C Company, 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment

Date of birth: 12th April 1889
Date of death: 25th January 1915

Killed in action aged 25
Buried Brown's Road Military Cemetery at Festubert Plot V Row H Grave 3
He was born at Benares, India on the 12th of April 1889 the only son of Lieutenant Colonel William Clarence Colebrook Leslie OKS, Royal Irish Regiment and Indian Staff Corps, and Annie Elizabeth (nee Greenville-Grey) of "Rabbit's Nest", Heigh Hurstwood, Buxted in Sussex. He was christened on the 15th of August 1889.

He was educated at the Junior King’s School from January 1898 and at the King’s School Canterbury from February 1903 to August 1906 where he played in the Rugby XV in 1904 and 1905. In September 1906 he went on to G.W. Watson's School in London until 1908.

On the 27th of March 1908 he applied for entry to the Royal Military College Sandhurst and gained a place later that year. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Gloucestershire Regiment on the 9th of March 1910 and joined them at their base in Malta. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 10th of January 1912 and on the 18th of June 1913 he resigned his commission and left the army joining the Asiatic Petroleum Company in Singapore, arriving there later that month. He was a member of the Singapore Cricket Club.

On the outbreak of war he rejoined his old regiment and was appointed as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Gloucester Regiment on the 3rd of October 1914. He was promoted to Lieutenant the same day. He served in Portsmouth and Malta, before being posted to France in December 1914 where he was attached to the 1st Battalion of his regiment.

He embarked for France on the 3rd of January 1915 and on the 12th the 1st Battalion Gloucester Regiment relieved the Cameron Highlanders in the trenches at Givenchy. Conditions in the trenches were appalling with a fall of snow being followed by a sudden thaw which caused the parapets to collapse. On the 24th of January the German guns were particularly active but caused no casualties and little damage. Early on the morning of the 25th a German deserter gave himself up and warned of an impending large scale attack against the British and the neighbouring French. At 7.30am a rifle grenade was fired from the German line which was the signal for the attack to begin and large numbers of enemy troops surged forward. They were brought to a halt 50 yards from the Gloucesters first line by sustained rifle fire. Those that did not retire were all killed. Word came at 07.40 that the Germans had broken through on the left of the Gloucesters and reinforcements were sent to remove them from Givenchy. In conjunction with some men from the Black Watch, who were in reserve, the Germans were all killed or taken prisoner at the point of the bayonet. At this point C Company was ordered to move to a position at Pont Fixe and while they were moving forward they came under shell fire which killed William Leslie and four of his men. By nightfall the attack had been driven off and the line was stabilised.

His parents received the following telegram dated the 28th of January 1915:-

"Deeply regret to inform you that 2nd Lieut. W.R.N. Leslie 1st Gloucester Regt. was killed on 25 January. Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy."

He is commemorated on the Singapore Centotaph and on the war memorial at Singapore Cricket Club.
 

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