MCKENZIE, Leslie Keir
| Service Number: | 1778 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 7 December 1914, Yea, Victoria |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 8th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Yea, Victoria, 1896 |
| Home Town: | Yea, Murrindindi, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Yea State School |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Gallipoli, Gallipoli, Dardanelles, Turkey, 7 August 1915 |
| Cemetery: |
Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, Gallipoli Plot II, Row A, Grave No. 28, Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, Gallipoli Peninsula, Canakkale Province, Turkey |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Yea War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 7 Dec 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Yea, Victoria | |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr 1915: |
Involvement
AIF WW1, Private, 1778, 8th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wiltshire embarkation_ship_number: A18 public_note: '' |
|
| 14 Apr 1915: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 1778, 8th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Wiltshire, Melbourne | |
| 7 Aug 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 1778, 8th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli |
Help us honour Leslie Keir McKenzie's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography
"The Rev. G. Martin received a telegram from the Defence Department yesterday morning notifying him that Private Leslie K. McKenzie, son of Mr Robt. McKenzie, of Yea, was killed in action at the Dardanelles on the 7th inst. The reverend gentle man immediately informed the bereaved parents for whom much sympathy is felt. Prior to enlisting with the reinforcements, Private McKenzie was an employee at the local post office." - from the Yea Chronicle 26 Aug 1915 (nla.gov.au)
"Bereavement Notice
MR and Mrs ROBERT McKENZIE and FAMILY desire to sincerely thank their many friends for their kind letters and expressions of sympathy in connection with the death of their son, Leslie Kier, who was killed in action at the Dardanelles." - from the Yea Chronicle 23 Sep 1915 (nla.gov.au)
"The Nek
At the Nek Cemetery it is difficult to realise that there are 326 men buried here. Where are their graves? Beneath the cross are a few headstones, mostly Special Memorials, memorials to soldiers believed to be buried here. Some of these are to Australian light horsemen and carry the date 7 August 1915, the day these men, along with 234 of their comrades, were killed in action at the Nek. In 1919, Lieutenant Cyril Hughes of the Graves Registration Unit found and buried here the unidentifiable remains of more than 300 Australians, men who had died in an area described by Charles Bean, official historian, as a ‘strip the size of three tennis courts’.
These Australian deaths occurred during and shortly after one of the most tragic Australian actions on Gallipoli – the charge at dawn on 7 August 1915 of the 8th and 10th Light Horse Regiments at the Nek. The purpose of the charge was to tie Turkish attention down to this sector as New Zealand troops were supposedly seizing the heights of Chunuk Bair during the great August offensive. This would distract the enemy at the critical moment as the Turks holding the trenches at the Nek realised that Allied soldiers might be coming down the slopes behind them. This did not happen, and the light horsemen rose from their trenches, immediately behind where the cemetery is today, to be met with a hail of bullets. - SOURCE (www.gallipoli.gov.au)
Click images to start slideshow.