LIEUTENANT LESLIE STEWART PALMER
4th. Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment
Leslie was born in Odiham Hampshire,1892, but moved to Bridport with his family before his tenth birthday.
Leslie’s mother died when he was two and his father had re-married before the move to Bridport. His Father, John Cleeves Palmer was a brewer, wine and spirit dealer and the family lived at 29 South Street.
Like his brothers, Leslie attended Sherborne School and when he left, he moved to Ipswich, to learn his trade as a brewer at Cobbold’s Brewery in Ipswich.
After the outbreak of war, Leslie was commissioned in the 4th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment after initially failing a medical. He was attached to a machine gun corps and posted to France in June 1916.
Four months later he was gassed and invalided home but returned to the Front in June 1917.
Leslie fought in the Third Battle of Ypres – Passchendaele. On September 20th during an attack on enemy positions in Shrewsbury Forest, just east of Ypres, Leslie and his men pushed forward in an attack which came to within 50 yards of the enemy infantry. At this point, Leslie was killed by a sniper’s bullet – dying instantly. He was buried where he fell on the battlefield.
His commanding officer said of him:
“He was an efficient officer, reliable and keen, whose first interest was for the men in his command.”
Leslie was later interred at the Hooge Crater Cemetery, Belgium.