TRELEAVEN, Leslie Thomas
| Service Number: | 4117 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 1 June 1916, Enlisted at Royal Agriculture Society Showgrounds, Moore Park, Sydney. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 30th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia, 7 August 1899 |
| Home Town: | Redfern, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Cleveland Street Public School, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation: | Signalman NSW Railways |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Passchendaele, Belgium, 12 October 1917, aged 18 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 1 Jun 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4117, 30th Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at Royal Agriculture Society Showgrounds, Moore Park, Sydney. | |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct 1916: | Involvement Private, 4117, 30th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
| 7 Oct 1916: | Embarked Private, 4117, 30th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
Leslie Thomas TRELEAVEN (Service Number 4117) was born on 7th August 1899 at Camperdown. He began working for the NSW Railways as a junior porter in the Traffic Branch in the Sydney District on 27th April 1915. He was granted leave to join the Expeditionary Forces on 1st June 1916 (aged 16 years and 10 months). On the same day he enlisted at the Royal Agriculture Society Showgrounds. Moore Park, Sydney. He gave his mother, living in Redfern, as his next of kin and cited four years of compulsory military training. He admitted that he had tried to enlist previously, actually only three weeks before, but had been refused on account of a deficient chest measurement.
AHe was alotted to the 30th Battalio. He embarked HMAT ‘Ceramic’ at Sydney on 7th October 1916, reached Plymouth (Enghland) on 21st November, and marched into the 8th Training Battalion at Codford the next day. After little more than a month in England he proceeded overseas to France per SS ‘Princess Clementine’ through Folkestone on 30th December to be taken on strength of the 30th Battalion on 11th February 1917. On 12th October 1917 he was killed in action.
Sgt P L Ringrose (967) stated that:
‘The 30th Battalion was holding the line at Passchendaele Ridge on October 12th. Treleaven was in next Platoon to mine and I knew him quite well. On October 12th at about 5 a.m. he and Pte. Hughes were taking a bundle of wet socks back to wagon line at Dickiebusch, when they had got about 200 yards away from our current line (it being dark at the time) a shell landed quite close to them, Hughes was not hit but Treleaven was struck in thigh. Hughes came back and told S/Bs and they went out and brought him in. Hughes told me afterwards that he had seen Treleaven hit. I saw Treleaven lying wounded in our trench on a stretcher. The S/Bs had bandaged him and done what they could but owing to a barrage could not get him to a D/S. One of the Coy S/Bs, named Walters, came to me about 12 o’clock and told me that he had just seen Treleaven die. I saw his body. A burying party buried him just at rear of trench that night. I saw his grave which had a rough cross with his name pencilled on. The spot would be 300 yards on north side of Passchendaele Ridge and about a mile N.W. of Anzac House.’
The contemporary documents show that he was buried close to where he died, about 1100 yards ESE of Zonnebeke, though this place was destroyed by later warfare, or could not be located after the War, so Treleaven has no known grave. He is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres.
A pension of 14/- per fortnight was granted to his mother Ada Caroline from 2nd January 1916.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.