Private Leslie James Matthews, No.9 Commando kia 3/2/44 Operation Ornito, Italy

[Photos courtesy of Ian Lancaster].

Ian adds "I always knew that one of my mother’s cousins had died in WW2 but I didn’t know very much of the detail. After my mother died I found a newspaper cutting she had kept all her life reporting that Leslie was missing. My mother was 15 when this happened. From your site I have found his name on the Mount Ornito memorial so I now know where he was and what he was doing when he died. Leslie was born and brought up in Blackpool and I remember my family staying with his mother (Lillian) a few times for a holiday when I was about 10 to 12 years old. I also enclose a scan of picture that I was told was of Leslie and his brother Derek (I think - Derek left & Leslie right) from WW2. Derek survived the war and died in 1997 (newspaper report also shows Derek as serving with a RN Commando). Leslie has no known grave and is commemorated at the Cassino Memorial."

In Memory of 3391673 Private Leslie James Matthews
Border Regiment and No 9 Commando
who died on the 3rd February 1944 aged 21
Remembered with honour on the Cassino Memorial