PARSONS, Leslie Alfred
| Service Number: | 1168 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 6 October 1914, Blackboy Hill, Western Australia |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1) |
| Born: | Oladdie, South Australia, 1 June 1889 |
| Home Town: | Korrelocking, Wyalkatchem, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Fremantle Boys' School, Western Australia |
| Occupation: | Barber & Farm labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Mouquet Farm, France, 3 September 1916, aged 27 years |
| Cemetery: |
Serre Road Cemetery No.2 Beaumont Hamel, France Plot XIII, Row L, Grave 4. |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Fremantle Fallen Sailors & Soldiers Memorial, Wyalkatchem War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 6 Oct 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1168, 11th Infantry Battalion, Blackboy Hill, Western Australia | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Dec 1914: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 1168, 11th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: '' | |
| 22 Dec 1914: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 1168, 11th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Themistocles, Melbourne | |
| 3 Sep 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Sergeant, 1168, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 1168 awm_unit: 51 Battalion awm_rank: Sergeant awm_died_date: 1916-09-03 |
Pozieres...... Sgt L.A. Parsons
‘We have just come out of the firing line, it was absolutely the worst experience I have been in. In fact, I would sooner be on Gallipoli for another six months than spend a week more where we have just come from in the Big Push.’
NB - Parsons was fatally wounded at Mouquet Farm the following week. With the last of his strength he wrote a short note in his own blood to his brother - also in the 51st Battalion. The note was found on his body and passed to his brother. The family still has the note.
For King and Cobbers - 51st Bn AIF - 2007 Neville Browning
Submitted 8 December 2015 by Steve Larkins
Biography
Served with his brother 2001 Cpl. Cecil Clement Parsons (MM) (/explore/people/231740) in 11th and 51st Battalions
"...1168 Private (later Sergeant) Leslie Alfred Parsons, 11th Battalion (later 51st Battalion), of Korrelocking, WA. Sergeant Parsons was killed in action at Mouquet Farm on 3 September 1916, and is buried at Serra Road Cemetery No. 2. His brother 2001 Corporal Cecil Clement Parsons, 51st Battalion, was awarded the Military Medal for actions at Villers Bretonneux on the night of 23/24 April 1918." - SOURCE (www.awm.gov.au)
Biography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Leslie served at the Anzac landing on Gallipoli in April 1915 with the 11th Battalion. He was evacuated sick with dysentery in July 1915 and evacuated to Egypt and then England for treatment. When he arrived back in Egypt after the evacuation he was promoted to Sergeant and transferred to the 51st Battalion, the daughter battalion of his original unit.
He was reported as killed in action on 3 September 1916. Leslie Parson’s remains were found near Mouquet Farm during late 1927, by the Imperial War Graves Commission, and his identity disc was returned to his family soon after. The War Graves Commission also gave details of his reinterment in the Serre Road No.2 Cemetery.
His mother wrote to Base Records in early 1928 from Korrelocking, Western Australia, “I sincerely thank you for your kindness in sending my dear son’s, 1168 Sergeant L.A. Parsons 51st Battalion identity disc, which I received safely.
It is a great gratification to us all as a family to know his poor remains has been recovered after eleven years and given a reverent burial to rest with his Comrades in a Christian cemetery.
I would like very much to have a photo of his grave he was a good loving son and his death is a great blow to me, thanking you very much, yours sincerely, Elizabeth Parsons.”
In 1933 an article was printed in the Perth Western Mail and was headed “The Lost Companies” in a column called ‘A Diggers Diary” written by ‘Non-Com”. The article was specifically about the 51st Battalion’s heavy losses at Mouquet Farm 3-5 September 1916. It states “Sergeant L.A. Parsons (Korrelocking), shot through both legs, lay in a shell hole and wrote to his brother a letter that was afterwards found on his body.”
His brother 2001 Corporal Cecil Clement Parsons M.M. returned to Australia in 1919 and married three years later. He named his first-born child Leslie Alfred Parsons in memory of his late brother.
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