6/2962 Robert William Leslie Wilson
Private, Canterbury Infantry Regiment 1st Battalion
Leslie was born in Belfast near Christchurch, the son of William and Margaret Wilson nee Hanna. He was the grandson of Robert and Margaret Wilson who arrived on the “The Charlotte Jane” one of the First Four Ships into Lyttleton in December 1850.
His father William took over his parents’ farm “Urekia” at Belfast near Christchurch, where Leslie was born and started school. He was the eldest son in a family of 10 surviving children. The family shifted to Sefton but later returned to Belfast where Leslie was a farmer before joining up in 1915.
He died of wounds sustained in the Battle of the Somme, World War 1 on 28 September 1916 aged 23 years. He is buried in the Dartmoor Cemetery, Becordel-Becourt, Somme, France.
Link: Robert William Leslie Wilson – Online Cenotaph – Auckland War Memorial Museum
Story provided by Pam Wilson
