RALPH, Leslie John
| Service Number: | 2665 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 50th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Kent Town, South Australia, Australia , date not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Adelaide, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Wire mattress worker |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 25 April 1918, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Adelaide National War Memorial, Adelaide The 50th Battalion Commemorative Cross, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Gilberton Soldiers Memorial Swimming Reserve, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Sep 1916: | Involvement Private, 2665, 5th Pioneer Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '5' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Commonwealth embarkation_ship_number: A73 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Sep 1916: | Embarked Private, 2665, 5th Pioneer Battalion, HMAT Commonwealth, Adelaide | |
| 25 Apr 1918: | Involvement Private, 2665, 50th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2665 awm_unit: 50 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1918-04-25 |
Help us honour Leslie John Ralph's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Nicholas Egan
Margaret Phillips
Club Historian Gilberton Amateur Swimming Club Inc.
Prior to enlistment Ralph had served two years in the Senior Cadets before joining the 80 th Battalion of the Citizens Military Forces. He had undertaken an apprenticeship as a wire mattress worker, having undertaken 4-1/2 years of his apprenticeship with James Marshall department store in Rundle Street Adelaide.
Ralph was a runner for ‘C’ Company. He and another were sent out from the front trench in front of Villers-Brentonneux but failed to return. We found them later both having been killed by a shell and they were buried together in the shell hole. I saw their bodies. I don’t know the other man’s name. We buried them the night of the day they were killed, just as we dug in. I sent home a parcel to his people. – Coventry, J. F. 4511 50 th Battalion Hut 12, Westham.
On 25 th April at Villers-Bretonneaux about 4 o’clock in the afternoon he was Company Runner, and was coming back from Headquarters and had got within 15 yards of our trench we shot by a sniper, hit in the head, killed outright. Was buried just behind the line. I was in the burial party; cross erected. Grave is beyond the village about 3/400 yards from outskirts on the edge of a wood. I knew him as Ralph; came from Prospect South Australia. – Private R. Bennets 4436 50 th Battalion ‘C’ Company.
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