Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From François Berthout, 

Private number 3848A Leslie Hampton
 
On the old battlefields of the Somme, grow in silence thousands of poppies which remind us that more than a hundred years ago, a whole generation of men, coming from all nationalities, came from very far to defend our country for which, with bravery and determination they fought and gave their lives in the hell of the muddy trenches. Today, the battlefields and the trenches have become silent and peaceful, but these men, these heroes who wrote history in letters of gold and who shed their blood on these lands of Remembrance are still present and are still alive, in our hearts and in our thoughts. Forever young, they stand in silence between the rows of their graves and through the silence of a light breeze, their voices are heard, they are echoes of the past but also messages of hope and peace that they want to transmit to us and ask us to never forget them.They were Australian, French, British but all were men and are today the symbols of courage and through my eyes and in my heart, my heroes, men with a story to tell, my boys of the Somme and today,it is the memory of one of these young men that I would like to honor, I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 3848A Leslie Hampton who fought in the 20th Australian Infantry Battalion and who was killed in action 104 years ago, on February 5, 1917 at the age of 24 on the Somme front.

Leslie Hampton was born in 1893 in Redfern, Sydney, New South Wales and was the son of Arthur Henry Hampton and Elizabeth Hampton, of 180, Hawthorn parad, Haberfield, Sydney, New South Wales.Leslie was educated at Fort Street School, Sydney, and after graduation he worked as an ironworker, he was single and lived at 433 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, New South Wales.

Enlisted on September 6, 1915 in Sydney in the 17th Australian Infantry Battalion, 9th Reinforcement, he embarked with his unit from Sydney, on board HMAT A54 Runic on January 20, 1916 and sailed for Alexandria, Egypt, where he arrived on February 26, 1916.The following month, on March 21, 1916, Leslie embarked at Alexandria on board HMT Oriana to join the British Expeditionary Force which was in France and he was disembarked in Marseilles on March 27 and was sent, on March 29, to the 2nd Australian Division Base located in Etaples.

Two months later, on May 16, 1916, Leslie was transferred to the 20th Australian Infantry Battalion and fought with great courage at Pozieres which was the first major engagement of the Australian army in the Somme and where 23,000 Australian soldiers fell, he then fought at Mouquet farm where, in terrible conditions, the Australians lost 11,000 men and where, on August 4, 1916, Leslie was wounded. Still alive, he was however declared missing the next day,on August 5 but two months later,on October 20, 1916, in a letter to his parents, it was confirmed that Leslie was still alive and in his unit but suffered from mental disorders.

A month later, on November 8, 1916, Leslie was admitted to the 5th Australian Field Ambulance suffering from "Debility" and was evacuated two days later, on November 10 to the 10th General Hospital in Rouen. After recovering, Leslie , on November 26, was sent to the 4th Australian Infantry Division Depot at Etaples and was sent to the Somme to join the 20th Australian Infantry Battalion on December 26 but this time to serve as a stretcher bearer.

Unfortunately, it was in the Somme that two months later, on February 5, 1917, Leslie met his fate. While he and his battalion were resting at the Scotts Redoubt Camp near Contalmaison,a German plane suddenly appeared and dropped several bombs, one of which fatally hit Leslie in the head who was killed instantly and killed 9 of his comrades and 21 were wounded, Leslie was 24 years old.

Today, Leslie Hampton, who was very affectionately named "Spikey", "Spike" and "Les" by his comrades, rests in peace with his friends and brothers in arms at Peake Wood cemetery, Fricourt, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription "May his soul through the mercy of God rest in peace loved by all".
Leslie, you who have, for your country, served with courage and who gave your life for France, I would like to thank you wholeheartedly for all that you and your comrades have done for us, for our country on the battlefields of the Somme where, through the poppies, was shed the blood of a whole generation of men who fell under rains of bullets and lead and who fought like lions through the explosions and the flames of a world that war consumed under the ashes and hail of shells which stopped, in the barbed wire, men in the prime of their lives.Young and proud, they all answered, as one man, in the same voice to the call of duty by proclaiming from the depths of their hearts, the love they had for their country, a love that united them in very strong bonds of camaraderie and unity, they left behind them, lives full of promise and hopes, the warmth and love of their home, of their families and all walked together, across the oceans to join their brothers in arms who fought in France with exceptional bravery and they joined, with their heads held high and their hearts full of courage and confidence, the trenches of the Somme where, through the hell of Pozieres, the Mouquet farm, they lost their innocence in the madness of war but they never lost their courage, they never backed down and together, side by side, they remained united and strong in the battle.They were young and brave and fought under the same uniform, for the same causes, for what was noble, for peace and freedom and in the mud, their knees deeply sunk, they gave their youth and did their duty with determination and conviction, with strength and energy, they fought with their hearts and gave their everything, united in the face of adversity and death that surrounded them.They moved forward and faced their fates under the whistling of bullets and the lightning of machine guns on the battlefields which were nothing more than shell holes everywhere filled with the blood of their comrades, their friends and under the rumbling dismal cannons, not a single man stepped back, they fought and fell together.They who lived in the endless thunder and the fury of war, through the howls, under the fire and the incessant rumbling of the rifles, the shells, the cannons and the machine guns which haunted their hearts and the no man's lands,they rest today in peace through the silence of the rows of their graves whose names shine under the sun, the cannons and machine guns have disappeared under the poppies and the roses but the memory,the stories of all these boys, these men, will never disappear, they live today in our hearts and in our love, a love and a deep respect in my heart with which I would always watch over them so that they never cease to live and with which, with devotion,I would always carry high and proud the flame of Remembrance so that their faces, in our hearts, never fade and so that their names live eternally like the poppies which, season after season, never stop growing on the battlefields and who tell us, through their brilliance, the story of a generation of men whom I am proud and happy to call, with deep affection, my boys of the Somme, thanks to whom we live in peace today but never forgetting the past.Thank you Leslie, for everything, we will never forget you.They shall grow not old,as we that are left grow old;age shall not weary them,nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember them.