SIMPSON, Leslie Thomas
| Service Number: | 551 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 12th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Port Pirie, South Australia, 15 August 1892 |
| Home Town: | Port Pirie, Port Pirie City and Dists, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Port Pirie, Port Pirie City and Dists - South Australia, Australia, 28 June 1928, aged 35 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 20 Oct 1914: | Involvement Private, 551, 12th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Hobart embarkation_ship: HMAT Geelong embarkation_ship_number: A2 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1914: | Embarked Private, 551, 12th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Geelong, Hobart | |
| Date unknown: | Wounded 551, 12th Infantry Battalion |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Gary Fradd
Leslie Thomas Simpson
Leslie Thomas Simpson (Ted) was born in Port Pirie, South Australia on the 15th August 1892 to Thomas and Mary Simpson (nee Leviton). Leslie’s father died 2 months before the birth of his son on the 15th of June. Leslie’s mother remarried on the 7th April 1894 to Alfred James Fishwick.
Private Leslie Thomas Simpson, Service Number 551, enlisted as a single, 22 year old labourer on the 5th September 1914 with the 12th Infantry Battalion and embarked overseas to Alexandria, Egypt before heading to Gallipoli with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force.
Private Leslie Thomas Simpson writes to his mother, Mrs. Mary Fishwick, Ellendale, from Gallipoli on the 3rd November 1915 as follows:
“The shells are still plentiful over here, and we are kept, pretty busy dodging them, but that helps to keep us lively. We are doing all right at the present, and that is the main thing. We settled a few Turks the other night in a big advance, but I suppose you have heard all about it ‘ere now. Young Jack Cocks, "Sniper" Cumberland's brother, reckoned for six Turks, so he did all right. He laid one bloke out as he was going to shoot one of our chaps. Cocks got in first and finished the Turk off.
We had a pretty exciting time going up the hills to support the First Brigade. It was the hottest time I've experienced for a while. It was just one mass of shrapnel falling thick and fast around us. It was wounding a few, but we kept at the double. If you tried to walk there would be plenty to help you on. Jim May, who used to stay at our place, got a bad wound, and had both of his legs broken. He was also cut about the face and hands, and was left in a trench all night. In the morning the stretcher bearers came and took him away.
Jim was dead game. He was all smiles and told the bearers, to take another fellow away who was all the time crying out about his head. Jim will always do me for pluck. There were plenty of VC medals about that night. Our two bomb-throwers Jack Tamms, of Solomontown, and a chap named Maxwell, should both have got the V.C. Don't forget to send me a parcel of grub.”
Surviving Gallipoli, Leslie went on to fight in France and Belgium.
On the 15th May 1917 Private Leslie Thomas Simpson was recommended for a Military Medal during the Battle of Bullecourt where his citation read:
“On the 4th to the 8th May 1917 in operations of Bullecourt, as stretcher bearers were untiring in attending to wounded men and carrying them back to R.A.P. (Ed…Regimental Aid Post) under intense fire. On one occasion when in the front line they picked up rifles and displayed great gallantry in repelling a counter- attack, preventing a number of wounded men being captured.”
On the 18th May 1917, Leslie was promoted to Lance Corporal.
He was severely wounded in Belgium with a shrapnel wound to his left buttock and left arm on the 20th September 1917. He was evacuated to a Northhampton War Hospital, Duston, England where he recovered from his wounds; then a month later he was admitted to Forvant Military Hospital, Salisbury, England with severe tetanus.
From France, Leslie embarked for Australia on the 8th of October 1918 arriving back in Port Pirie to a hero’s welcome.
Leslie died on the 28th June 1928 in Port Pirie, South Australia and was buried in the Port Pirie General Cemetery., He was memorialised as part of the South Australian Headstone Project in 2019.
Sources:
National Archive of Australia
Australian War Memorial
Ancestry.com
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