Leslie Edwin Adlam

Memorial: Filton - Community Centre

Regiment: Royal Naval Air Service (R.N.A.S.)

Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Silver War Badge, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Flight Sub-Lieutenant

Parents: Edwin George and Constance Adlam

Home address: 1 Broad Street, Bristol

Date of birth: 25/08/1894

Place of birth: Bristol

Date of death: 09/09/1917

Buried/Commemorated at: No known burial site. Commemorated at Arras Flying Services Memorial, Pas de Calais, France, on Filton Community Centre Memorial and Giggleswick School Memorial

Age: 23

Further information:

Leslie was born in Bristol in 1894, the son of EG Adlam architect engineer of George Adlam & Sons Bristol. His parents had married earlier that same year and Leslie remained an only child. In 1911 his mother and father were living separately in their respective parents’ homes and his mother petitioned for a divorce that same year. His father remarried in 1914 and during that period Leslie was attending Giggleswick Public School in Yorkshire as a boarder. There is no record of his pre-war occupation, but it is possible he joined the family business.

Leslie enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service and was appointed as a probationary Flying Officer at the beginning of September 1916. He was based first at Crystal Palace followed by Chingford then Cranwell and finally Dover where he was stationed from August 1917 until his death. Leslie was killed in action in September 1917 when his Sopwith Triplane No. N5477 was shot down near Langemarck-Poelcapelle. He was initially listed as missing which was later changed to presumed dead. Leslie's body was never found and the Arras Flying Services Memorial where he is remembered, commemorates almost 1,000 airmen of the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps, the Australian Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force, who were killed on the whole Western Front and who have no known grave. Leslie served with 1 (Naval) Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service (Dunkirk).

Note - the year of his death on the memorial is incorrectly stated as 1915

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/