Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 03/11/1914
- Place of Enlistment
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 03/06/1894
- Place of Birth
- Hawthorn, Victoria
- Address (at enlistment)
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
- Occupation
- Soldier
- Next of Kin
- Son of John and Adeline Waters of Burke Road, East Kew, Victoria
- Burial Place
Quinns Post Cemetery, Gallipoli, Turkey, grave A.23
Unit and Rank Details
- Final Rank
- Lieutenant
- Final Unit
- 15 Battalion AIF
Fate
Died (killed in action) on Gallipoli on 27 April 1915 aged 20 years
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 78, Canberra ACT
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT
Notes
Waters entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon in the second intake on 7 March 1912. He was a member of the Honour Guard at the naming ceremony for Canberra on 12 March 1913. He was graduated early from RMC, along with the rest of his class, on 2 November 1914 and commissioned as a lieutenant in the 15th Battalion. The 15th Battalion landed on Gallipoli during the afternoon of 25 April 1915. Two days later he was leading his platoon (part of B Company) during the fighting at Popes Hill when "We could plainly hear Lieut. Waters, on our right, shouting in his high, boyish voice: 'You are firing on your own men! Cease fire!' It appears that he rose on his knees, with his glasses pressed to his eyes to observe more closely the strange band of seamen to our front. As he was in this position, he noticed some of them lying partly concealed, pumping their hardest at where we were lying. The truth burst in upon him. He made haste to take cover - too late! The gallant officer leapt in the air, a small neat hole drilled between his eyes. When they turned him over, he had a smile on his face." Waters was buried in grave A.23 at Quinns Post Cemetery, Gallipoli.
Sources
AWM Roll of Honour Database
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Argus (Melbourne) - 7 May 1915
http://www.anzacs.org/ (entry for Leslie Waters)
Leslie Waters. Argus (Melbourne), 7 May 1915.