Lisa barnes

Thanks, it was just to let you know (not to criticise!) I've obtained some photo's from Gran today; if anyone knows who the gentleman in the photo with Les is and knows what happened to him my Gran would love to know, she said they were good friends. The other two pictures are in recognition of his life and sacrifice, she has them hanging in pride of place :-) Ah I can't upload more than one photo, will have to try and resize them!

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Thanks Leigh, Marie. I've spoken to my mum about what my Gran knows and we are both convinced she doesn't know the truth. She believes he was killed in his vehicle during an ambush, and who am I to tell her any different? I think she has photos of Leslie so I am hoping to have sight of these and will post some on here. I will look for your dad on Facebook Marie but please tell him first so he doesn't think I'm some random person!! I feel like I've embarked on a journey and don't know where this will lead, I shared this site with my mum and she had no idea. She said she was sure Leslie's parents had visited his grave, but as they are both long departed we have no way of knowing if they knew the truth. Looking at your dads statement about signing a secrecy document I think not. I thank your dad for having the courage to speak out and put this down in words, I can't imagine how hard that must have been and what memories it must have evoked.

What is your Dads name Marie? I can't tell from the statement above. I'm going to ask about Les more generally with gran and see if she knows of your Dad.

Hi Marie68, if your father is happy to shed any further light on it I would love to have the opportunity, however, I would never want to dredge up any painful memories so only if he is happy to do so. I definitely want to find out more, but it is treading a fine line isn't it? My grandmother speaks of him often, but I wonder how much of the facts she really knows. I would never want to upset her in any way, so this is one to tread carefully so to speak. But if there were any photo's or anything like that I know she would be delighted to see them, even a scanned copy. APB: armed police barracks??

Fusilier Leslie Stewart (not Steward) was my great uncle, this has been both fascinating but horrifying to read. I am not sure my grandmother (his sister) knows the full extent of what happened to him, and as she gets older and more frail. Does anyone know for sure that their bodies were recovered? Were they buried? I would love to find out if there are any more stories about him or if he can be identified in any of the photographs on this blog post. Thank you, it has brought someone to life who I never met but heard talk of frequently.