Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Leslie William Oakes was my uncle whom I never knew. He was my father's older brother, my father being Hugh Roy Gilbert Oakes. I do know from my grandmother herself, Elizabeth Kezia Oakes, but more particularly from stories I heard from my father and mother, that Leslie's death affected his mother's mental health severely. I am sure it affected everyone in the family equally, but Elizabeth could barely go on living it caused her such grief. I have memories of my grandmother (who died when I was only 5) being constantly bedridden, only getting out of bed in her dressing gown for a few hours of the day. I'm not sure if at this stage, approximately twenty years after Leslie's death, her bad health was entirely related to her eldest son's death, but from the stories I heard she was certainly never the same after his accident.

I knew that his death also severely affected my father because he could hardly talk about Leslie if his name was brought up. He had apparently been very close to his brother and looked up to him greatly. Leslie was five years older than him. My mother, Lois May Oakes (nee Lawson), was the only one who had talked to him about Leslie and I gained any scant information about him and his relationship to my father mostly from her. And even though I never knew him, I (and my five siblings) feel a gap in our family history, and yearn for any information about him. This web site has provided more details about his air service than we knew, so we are grateful for that.

Philip Michael Oakes (on behalf of my five siblings, Margaret Ann Hansen, Miriam Susan Oakes, Stephen Jeremy Oakes, Julian Francis Manton Oakes and Kylie Elizabeth Oakes (deceased).