Leslie Beal WARREN [1900-1943]

My recent blitz of the SCMP came up with the following article dated 30 September, 1945 about my uncle, Leslie Warren.

"HONG KONG MAN DEAD  

Old residents who remember Mr Charles E. Warren and his son Leslie, will learn with regret that Leslie died in India in 1943.

Warren the elder founded the business of C.E. Warren and Company Ltd., plumbers. He was also one of the pioneers in developing Broadwood Ridge (also known as Happy Valley Peak). His house there, familiarly referred to as Warren’s Castle because of its four turrets, still stands overlooking the racecourse. Just before the war it was a Chinese school. Now it is an empty looted shell.

Leslie inherited his father’s business here and later became Managing Director when it was formed into a limited Company with a shop in d’Agular [sic] Street and the main establishment in Wanchai Road. The name has now disappeared. Joining up early in the war he became Captain Leslie B. Warren but little has been heard of him. His widow is in England. Mrs H. Warren now in Sydney gave the news of his death in a letter to a friend. "

I have two questions, in case any of my Gwulo colleagues can help: the first is about the Chinese school that was apparently in The Towers. I have never found any evidence of this. According to family correspondence, The Towers was run as a boarding house by Eric and Dorothy Walch in 1940 and Leslie lodged with them. If there was a school it can only have occupied the house very briefly in 1941. My second question is about the C.E. Warren shop in D'Aguilar Street. Is there any record to be found of this.? I have no idea of the date. The business became a limited company in 1918, but Leslie didn't become Managing Director until after his father's death in 1923. Mrs H. Warren was his mother. It's possible that she didn't receive the news of Leslie's death until after the war.

Thank you, annpake for looking up Leslie Warren’s grave. His remains were actually moved to the main war cemetery in Delhi after the war. We have a photo of his first newly dug grave at Meerut in a patch of long grass and which consists of a slightly skewed white wood cross with the inscription “Captain L.B. Warren. Died 5^th May 1943. Aged 42 years.” There are several vases of fresh flowers placed on the grave. I have learnt that Meerut was the base for SOE’s Advanced Operations School signals wing. I assume that Leslie, with his previous signals experience had originally been taken on as a trainer. When he fell ill, he had been based out at Muradnagar for several months, and  writes in his aerograms that he can’t talk about his job. I have unsuccessfully tried to trace his predecessor at Muradnagar, Captain Ogley and to find out the name of the Brigadier General responsible for this area, for whose visit Leslie was anticipating putting beer on ice only two weeks before his death. Are there any military historians of the Burma campaign out there who know about Muradnagar and Meerut?

The record is perfectly correct. I miscopied the date of death and have corrected that. The Meerut burial was probably rushed and perhaps people didn't have time to verify Leslie's date of birth. It wasn't my intention to contradict the record. Thank you for confirming it.

Thanks once again, moddsey. Leslie and Cicely were married in Birmingham on 27 July 1922, but as Leslie was finishing his training as an architect and they gave separate addresses on the ship's record, perhaps they weren't living together. This voyage to Hong Kong would have been a delayed honeymoon. Their date of arrival is exactly one month and one day before the death of Leslie's father, Charles Warren from pneumonia.