Doudney, L

Captain Leslie Doudney

Leslie was born on February 3rd 1879, the seventh child of retired tailor George Doudney and his wife, Mary. Having been at the Prep, at the start of 1892 he joined the College, where Harold, one of his elder brothers, was also a student, and two more, Ernest and Sidney, had not long left. After leaving Dulwich he went to take up a position at Guy’s Hospital, and finally graduated from the Medical School there in 1906. After graduating he took a position in Doncaster, then as a Surgeon at the Salop Infirmary in Shrewsbury, before spending nearly two years taking various short term roles all over the country. In 1912 he returned to education, this time spending several months on a course at the London School of Tropical Medicine. Having completed this he was appointed to the West African Medical Staff, and sent to take up a position in Northern Nigeria.
When war was declared in 1914 he was posted to the West African Field Force, who spent the next 18 months or so engaged in a campaign in what is now Cameroon. After this campaign was over, Leslie was to be reassigned to East Africa, but whilst on the boat there he came down with dysentery, and was put ashore near Cape Town, ultimately requiring a return to England in order to complete his recuperation. In early 1917, although his health was still weakened, he went back to Nigeria to take up a medical position once more. On April 29th 1917, whilst stationed at Nafada, in Gombe State, he passed away after a bout of malaria. He was survived by his widow, Margaret.