Jefferies, JL
(1890 - 1916)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
23rd September 1890
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1904 - 1907
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
Roseneath, 30 Grove Park Road, SE5
REGIMENT
11th (Pioneer) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment
FINAL RANK:
Lieutenant
DATE OF DEATH:
9th September 1916
AGE AT DEATH:
25
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Ginchy, Somme
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Serre Road Cemetery No.2. XIV B 12
Lieutenant James Leslie Jefferies
Leslie was born on September 23rd 1890, the eldest child of Walter Jefferies, who managed a printing company, and his wife, Mary. He came to Dulwich in the summer of 1904, not long before his fourteenth birthday, andremained at the College for the next three and a half years, leaving at Christmas 1907 whilst a member of the Modern Upper Fifth. After leaving he went on to work in the City, and was for many years a clerk in the London Liverpool & Globe Insurance Co.
When war was declared in 1914 Leslie abandoned his role in the city to take up a commission in the Hampshire Regiment, with whom he spent the next year stationed in Ireland. In December 1915 he was sent over to the Western Front for the first time, and subsequently promoted to Lieutenant the following July. He was killed in action on September 9th 1916, when he came under intense machine gun and rifle fire whilst leading an assault near Ginchy, on the Somme.
