WILLIAMS, Leslie Kenneth

Credit: Unknown

Flight Lieutenant (Pilot)

620 Squadron

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Leslie was born on the 2nd of October 1910 in Newport to Francis Robert John & Annie Catherine (nee CANTELO) WILLIAMS. He married Ella Kathline COOKE at St John’s Church Newport. The 1938 Roll had Leslie living at 12a Drill Hall Road in Newport.

On Thursday the 12th of August 1943, (a part of) the aircraft of the 620 Squadron, took off for a mission to Torino in Italy from an airfield in or near Chedburgh. Leslie was the pilot of a Short Stirling aircraft & departed for his mission at 2136. His mission was planned for Friday the 13th of August 1943. His aircraft crashed at Mittainvilliers, France with all seven crew being killed.

Leslie is buried in a Collective Grave with his crew, at St. Desir War Cemetery, France, each grave marked with a separate Commission Headstone. Leslie’s contains the Family Inscription: “TILL MEMORY FADES AND LIFE DEPARTS YOU WILL LIVE FOR EVER IN MY HEART”, & they lie alongside 593 of his WWII comrades. Leslie was 32.

Leslie is also remembered on the Newport Borough War Memorial.

CWGC Casualty Record

Cemetary

Sons & Daughters Commemorated Far From Home

Those from the Newport & Carisbrooke area who are buried or commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission outside of the area, both in the UK and in other countries.

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The image is of the Tyne Cot Military Cemetery & Memorial in Belgium.