People on board

BURNETT, Leslie Robert

Leslie Robert Burnett was born in Portsea Island, Portsmouth in 1891 but his parents have not been positively identified. He had a sister, Mabel Elizabeth, who married in Portsmouth in 1909. Her husband, Nelson Henry Hedgecock, appears to have died later the same year, and while Mabel appears on Leslie’s military records as next-of-kin, nothing more has been found about her.

In the 1911 census, aged nineteen, Leslie was recorded as a Private with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, stationed at Jellalabad Military Barracks at Tedworth, Hampshire. His Service Number was 9101. In July 1915, serving with the 1st Battalion of the R.M.F. he was wounded in the Mediterranean, presumably in the Gallipoli operation.

He was wounded again in October 1916, probably in the Somme area, but the limited military record does not say which Battalion he was with. Following this second injury Leslie Burnett was transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and in October 1918 he was in Ireland with the 15th Section. Presumably returning to England on leave, he travelled on the 10th of October on the RMS Leinster. He did not survive the sinking, nor was his body recovered. His name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton.