Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
The second Auburn Memorial man to marry in the United Kingdom was Gallipoli veteran Private Leslie Power, 24, one of the longest serving of the Auburn Memorial men. Both Leslie Power, of Cardigan Street in Auburn, and Auburn Memorial man William Hewett were firemen in the Clyde Sidings.
Enlisting in February 1915, Private Power was 12 days on Gallipoli when he was wounded with a bullet in the arm. Taken to England he remained in the UK for eight months recovering. During this time, Power married munitions worker Florence Catlin on 24 April 1916. From June 1916 Power served in France for nearly a year, but his service as a member of the 12th Field Ambulance was in major hospitals back from the Front. He went back to the UK twice, once for leave and once for tonsillitis.
Power then served in UK hospitals for nine months before being posted back to France. This time he was involved in the dangerous front-line field ambulance work. Overall, Power was in the AIF for more than three years. He was killed in action on 3 August 1918.
Four Auburn Memorial men were killed in action in the first 24 hours of the British offensive of 8 August 1918: Lieutenant George Haig, Auburn Public School ex-pupil Private Harry Sales, Gallipoli veteran Private Leslie Power, and Corporal James Stewart. All four men had been in the AIF for more than two years, Haig and Power more than three years.
Power was buried in the Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, near the town of Corbie in the valley of the Somme. This cemetery contains five Auburn men, all casualties of actions in the last year of the war. The four Auburn Memorial men buried in this cemetery are Leslie Power, Henry Hodgkinson, Reginald Cracknell and Alwyn Dawes. Lidcombe Memorial man John Poxon of the Auburn Presbyterian Church is also buried in this cemetery.
The Daours Communal Cemetery Extension has the distinction of having a greater representation of Australian units than any other Western Front cemetery. Almost every infantry battalion is represented, as well as Army Service Corps, Machine-Gun Corps, Field Artillery, Field Ambulance, Engineers, Pioneers, Trench Mortar batteries and Light Horse.
Private Power’s widow, Florence, ‘migrated permanently’ to Australia after the war and lived with her mother-in-law in Sheffield Street, Auburn.
Leslie Power is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- NSW Government Railways & Tramways First World War Roll of Honour, Central Station
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- Victory Medal
- British War Medal 1914-20
- 1914-1915 Star
