Profile

TRUMPER, Leslie Henry
(Service number 6/1741)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Private

Birth

Date	23 February 1895	Place of Birth	Temuka

Enlistment Information

Date	20 December 1914	Age	19
Address at Enlistment	Ohape, Temuka, New Zealand
Occupation	Farm labourer
Previous Military Experience	Territorials (NZ)
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	B. Trumper (father), Ohape, Temuka, South Canterbury, New Zealand
Religion	Church of England
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	3rd Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Battalion
Date	14 February 1915
Transport	Maunganui or Tahiti or Aparima
Embarked From	Wellington, New Zealand	Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	2nd Second Canterbury Infantry Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian 1915, Balkans (Gallipoli) 1915
Service Medals	1914-1915 Star, British Medal, and Victory Medal
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	9 September 1952	Age	57
Place of Death	Fairlie
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Leslie was the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Trumper (nee Benbow). Leslie was enrolled at the Milford School 2 Jan 1900, passing Standard on 5 August 1907, after which he left school for home.

Leslie was farming at Ohape, Temuka and in February 1914 when, at the height of the seasonal work schedule, he was reported as appearing in court along with others for "failing to render personal service under the Defence Act, in absenting themselves from parades and drills without leave" and fined 20/-. At the time Leslie was a member of the NZ Territorials, and of the age that attendance at parades was compulsory.

After enlisting in 1915 and proceeding overseas Leslie served in Gallipoli and Egyptian theatres of operation in 1915. While on service the Evening Post of 22 September 1915 listed Leslie as 'dangerously ill' - recording: "Canterbury Battalion. Trumper, Leslie Henry, 6/1741, Pte. (B. Trumper, Ohape, Temuka, father)". Suffering from typhoid due to the terrible conditions at the front, he was only noted as out of danger a little over two weeks later, but was still only progressing favourably at the end of Novemeber. No doubt due to his illness, Leslie was discharged in April 1916. For his service he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, British Medal, and Victory Medal.

The next year saw Lesley moving on with his life, marrying Hazel Alpine Dougherty (b.1896, Temuka) on 12 Sep 1917. The couple had three children: Leslie Benjamin (b.1918), Eric William (b.1920) and Muriel Eileen (b.1923).

Lesley helped his father Benjamin farm the property "Riverslea" and there, they altered the large house into two flats to accommodate both families. Leslie worked there until his father died then later moved to the Fairlie district to farm.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database (18 June 2015); see also Winsome Griffin's family history pages at http://winsomegriffin.com/Benbow/LeslieHenryTrumper.html; SCRoll web submission by W Griffin, 4 December 2015; Evening Post 22 September 1915 p2 - report of illness

External Links

Military personnel file

Researched and Written by

Tony Rippin (South Canterbury Museum)

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

Tell us more

Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!