People on board

STORER, Leslie

Leslie Storer was born in Leicester in 1897 to Joseph Storer and Maria Tebbs. He was the fourth of their nine children, the youngest born and died in 1912. In the 1891 census Joseph Storer gave his occupation as ‘Furniture Remover’, in 1901 it was ‘Timber Labourer’ and in 1911 it was ‘Foundry Labourer’. That year the eldest son was an ‘Assistant in Foundry’ while the next two worked in the shoe industry. Thirteen year old Leslie was still at school. The family lived in Havelock Street in the city.

He enlisted in the Leicestershire Regiment in May 1916, Service Number 28436, according to the Leicester Daily Post, and was posted to France in February 1917. He was severely wounded in the battle for Messines and was subsequently transferred to the Royal Defence Corps. The transcripts of his records also show that he was with the Cheshire Regiment, Service Number 50617, but it is not clear when this was.

In October 1918 he was with the 462nd Protection Company of the Royal Defence Corps. Along with several others from this company, he travelled home on leave on RMS Leinster on the 10th. He did not survive the sinking, nor was his body recovered. His name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton and on the Leicestershire War Memorials Project.