Leslie Alexander Yeo was born in Walthamstow on 6 August 1913 to parents were William Henry Yeo and Alice Maud Freeman. Martin Saul and Rodney Silk have been researching his family.
Leslie Alexander Yeo married Edith Rose Farmer (known as Edie) in 1937 [note 1]. He joined the Royal Navy and served on the P-class submarine HMS Pandora, which served in the Far East and the Mediterranean.
While the Pandora was docked at Durban in 1941, Leslie was taken ashore to hospital [note 2]. A letter in the possession of his family refers to him as a leading stoker and states that he was admitted for ‘observation of a duodenal ulcer’. The findings were unclear; he was deemed to be fit nine days later and was discharged. He was sent to a nearby transit camp, from which he is recorded as having deserted the following day. No more is known of him.
Leslie Aubrey Yeo was born in Farnborough, Hampshire on 22 June 1913. His parents were Arthur James Yeo and Eliza Alice Walter, who had several other children. Leslie emigrated to South Africa in the 1920s with his parents, brothers and sisters. His father Arthur died there in 1949, as did Leslie in 1971.
The two men were born only six weeks apart and they had the same forename and second initial, so it is easy to see how they might be confused with each other, especially as both had a connection to South Africa. And might there be a connection to – or further confusion with – a third Leslie Yeo born about the same time, whose father was Arthur James Yeo and who emigrated to South Africa? [note 3]
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Notes
1. They appear to have had a son the following year. Edith re-married in 1946 and died in 1989.
2. The Pandora was later attacked and sunk by an Italian bomber on 1 April 1942, while docked at Hamilton Wharf, south of the Maltese capital Valetta. A number of crew members died in this attack.
3. See Gordon Charles Yeo and Lois Eleanora Bishop.