CRAWFORD, Leonard Victor
| Service Number: | 17588 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 28 August 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Corporal |
| Last Unit: | Not yet discovered |
| Born: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 23 March 1915 |
| Home Town: | Perth, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Frankston High School, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Shoemaker |
| Died: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 July 2002, aged 87 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Altona Memorial Park, Victoria |
| Memorials: |
World War 2 Service
| 28 Aug 1940: | Enlisted Royal Australian Air Force, Corporal, 17588 | |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Jan 1946: | Discharged Royal Australian Air Force, Corporal, 17588 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Corporal Leonard Victor Crawford (Service No:17588) enlisted in the RAAF on 28 August 1940 as an Aircraftman I at No 4 Recruiting Centre Perth - mustered as Shoemaker. Promoted to Leading Aircraftman in April 1941, then Corporal in December 1944, he served with 55 Observation Base (OB) Unit and 3 Mobile Works Squadron (MWS). Corporal Crawford was attached to 3 MWS at Discharge on 7 January 1946.
Len was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1915 (name on Birth Certificate is Lawton - he took the name of his adoptive father), eldest of nine children of Frederick (Fred) Ryall Crawford (b1888 in Melbourne, Victoria) and his first wife Annie Marie Lawton (nee Durbin; b1867 in Newcastle, NSW). Fred (a Bootmaker) and Annie ( a Widow with nine children) married in Melbourne in 1912. Following Annie's death in 1919 while Fred was serving overseas in the AIF, Fred remarried in 1920 to Sarah Jane Lawton (b1892 in Melbourne, Victoria). Fred and Sarah settled in Melbourne, where they raised their family and Fred worked as a Bootmaker/Finisher and Process and Chemical Worker.
Len completed an Apprenticeship as a Bootmaker in Melbourne with Myrle Shoe Company, working for them before moving to Perth WA in 1938. Len was a Shoemaker in 1939 with Comfort Wear Slippers in Perth, where he married Irene Annie Markham (b1921 in Lancashire, England) - Irene immigrated with her parents and siblings in 1925, arriving in Albany WA on board the Euripides. Following Len's Dishcharge from the RAAF in 1946, he and Irene moved to Melbourne, where they raised thir family and Len was a Process Worker and Tanner. Len died in 2002 and Irene in 2010.
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