Long, LP

Lieutenant Leslie Paul Long

Born in Greenwich on January 16^th 1894, Leslie was the elder of two children born to billposter Hiram Long and his wife, Laura, although he also had an elder half-brother from his father’s previous marriage. He came to Dulwich in September of 1909, and left three years later, shortly after his younger brother, Vincent, had joined. From the College he went on to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, to study Natural Sciences. There he was considered to be one of the most promising science students at the College in a long time, and in the summer of 1914, earned a First Class in Part 1 of the Natural Sciences exams. During his time in Cambridge he was also a member of the University O.T.C.

Upon the declaration of war in August 1914 Leslie applied for a commission and was granted one later that month in the 20^th Battalion, London Regiment, with whom he went over to the continent for the first time the following March. His battalion was in reserve at Neuve Chapelle, before spending the summer in action around Givenchy and Festubert. On September 25^th 1915 he was killed in action during the battle of Loos, one of nine OAs to die that day, the worst for the College in terms of losses of the entire war.