Can you help us identify Les?

Les’ grandmother, Mary Ann Paull, was an early South Australian colonist. She arrived in Adelaide as a four-year-old in July 1838 on the Henry Porcher from St Agnes in Cornwall, England with her parents John and Mary Ann (nee Willoughby) Paull and three siblings.

The family quickly established Itself through hard work. John Paull went on to own a butcher’s shop and land in Waymouth Street, now in central Adelaide.

Les’ grandmother, the younger Mary Ann Paull married William Daniels in Adelaide in 1854. Little is known about William’s background, other than he also came from St Agnes in Cornwall, according to the Biographical Index of South Australians. Les’s maternal grandparents were James Sykes and Mary Thornton, originally from near Huddersfield in Yorkshire in 1856. They arrived in Adelaide in 1858 on the Frenchman. Les’ mother, Sarah, was born in 1864.

Leslie Gordon Daniels was born at Happy Valley, south of Adelaide, on 11 March 1894, the fourth of Walter Henry Paull Daniels and Sarah Hannah (Ann) Sykes’ eight children. They had married in 1887:

In addition to their own large family, from 1889 Walter and Sarah took on the care, without financial support, of two of the five young children of Sarah’s eldest brother, Henry, after their mother died. Les’ family had been long established in the Adelaide working class suburbs, but when Les was born his family was on the move and he was born in Happy Valley, in the hills south of Adelaide. His father, a pipe moulder, was working there on the construction of the Happy Valley Reservoir.

On the completion of this project the family then moved to Bowden, where Les probably started school. Then, from about 1904, they moved to Glanville, near Port Adelaide, where Walter worked at the new Glanville Pipe Works. Les attended the Glanville Public School. When he left school he became a labourer.

In 1914, Les, aged 20, married 18-year-old Lillian (Lily) Churchman. Their daughter Myra Gweneth (Gwen) was born in April 1915.

From 1911, young men were required to complete 16 days of training per year in the citizen militia forces, but Les was not an enthusiastic participant. In October 1912 he was fined £3 for not meeting requirements and ordered into custody to complete the required drills. Again in 1913, he was sentenced to 12 days custody for a similar reason. Les may not have enjoyed civilian militia obligations, but he did decide that it was his duty to fight ‘for the Empire’ during the Great War. In July 1915, just three months after the birth of his daughter, he enlisted at Keswick Barracks in Adelaide and moved into the Mitcham Camp. He was assigned to the 32nd Battalion when it was formed in mid-August.

The 32nd Battalion was made up of recruits from South Australia and Western Australia. The First Reinforcements, to which Les was assigned, trained with the Battalion from its formation. There was much fanfare about this new battalion in South Australia, with gatherings, community support, Cheer-up Society activities, reviews of the troops by the governor and parades through the streets of Adelaide. On 16 September, the South Australians members of the Battalion moved to a new camp at Cheltenham Racecourse and the West Australians, who had begun their training at Blackboy Hill near Perth, joined them at the end of September.

The 32nd Battalion, including the First Reinforcements, departed for Egypt on 18 November 1915 on HMAT A2 Geelong. As reported in The Adelaide Register:

Les arrived in Suez on 14 December 1915 and moved to El Ferdan just before Christmas. A month later they marched to Ismailia and then to the major camp at Tel-el-Kebir where they stayed for February and most of March. Tel-el-Kebir was about 110 km northeast of Cairo and the 40,000 men in the camp were comprised of Gallipoli veterans and the thousands of reinforcements arriving regularly from Australia. While at Tel-el-Kebir, Les was officially taken on strength of A Company. Their next stop was at Duntroon Plateau and then they were at Ferry Post until the end of May, where they trained and guarded the Suez Canal. Their last posting in Egypt was a few weeks at Moascar.

One soldier’s diary complained of being “sick up to the neck of heat and flies”, of the scarcity of water during their long marches through the sand and he described some of the food as “dog biscuits and bully beef”. He did go on to mention good times as well with swims, mail from home, visiting the local sights and the like.

Source - AWM C2081789 Diary of Theodor Milton PFLAUM 1915-16, page 29, page 12

During their time in Egypt the 32nd had the honour of being inspected by H.R.H. Prince of Wales.

After spending six months in Egypt, the call to support the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front came in mid-June. The 32nd left from Alexandria on the ship Transylvania on 17 June 1916, arrivied at Marseilles, France on 23 June 1916 and they then immediately entrained for a three-day train trip to Steenbecque. Their route took them to a station just out of Paris, within sight of the Eiffel Tower, through Boulogne and Calais, with a view of the English Channel, before disembarking and marching to their camp at Morbecque, about 30 kilometres from Fleurbaix.

Theodor Pflaum (No. 327) and Wesley Choat (No. 68), wrote about the trip:

They were headed to the area of Fleurbaix in northern France which was known as the ‘Nursery Sector’ – a supposedly relatively quiet area where inexperienced Allied troops could learn the harsh realities of Western Front trench warfare against the Germans.

But the quiet times did not last long. Training continued with a focus on bayonets and the use of gas masks, assuredly with a greater emphasis, given their position near the front. The 32nd moved to the Front on 14 July and Les was into the trenches for the first time on 16 July, only three weeks after arriving in France.

On the 17th they were reconnoitering the trenches and cutting passages through the barbed wire, preparing for an attack, but it was delayed due to the weather. D Company’s Lieutenant Sam Mills’ letters home were optimistic for the coming battle:

The overall plan was to use brigades from the Australian Fifth Division to conduct a diversionary assault on the German trenches at Fromelles. The 32nd Battalion’s position was on the extreme left flank, with only 100 metres of No Man’s Land to get the German trenches. As they advanced, they were to link up with the 31st Battalion on their right. However, their position made the job more difficult, as not only did they have to protect themselves while advancing, but they also had to block off the Germans on their left, to stop them from coming around behind them. On the morning of the 18th, Les’ A Company and C Company went into the trenches to relieve B and D Companies, who rejoined the next day.

The Zero Hour for advancing from their front-line trenches was to be 5.45 PM, but the Germans knew this attack was coming and were well-prepared. They opened a massive artillery bombardment on the Australians at 5.15 PM, causing chaos and many casualties. Les’ A Company, along with C Company were in the first and second waves to go over the parapet at 5.53 PM. B Company & D were in the third and fourth. The men, despite heavy losses, were successful in the initial assaults and by 6.30 PM were in control of the German’s 1st line system (map Trench B), which was described as “practically a ditch with from 1 to 2 feet of mud and slush at the bottom”.

Source - AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 11

Unfortunately, with the success of their attack, ‘friendly’ artillery fire caused a large number of casualties because the artillery observers were unable to confirm the position of the Australian gains. They were able to take out a German machine gun in their early advances, but were being “seriously enfiladed” from their left flank.

By 8.30 PM their left flank had come under heavy bombardment with high explosives and shrapnel. Return bombardment support was provided and the 32nd were told that “the trenches were to be held at all costs”.

Source - AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 12

Fighting continued through the night. The Australians made a further charge at the main German line beyond Trench B, but they were low on grenades, there was machine gun fire from behind them from the emplacement at Delangre Farm and they were so far advanced that they were getting shelled by both sides. In the early morning of the 20th, the Germans began a counterattack from the Australian’s left flank, bombing and advancing into Trench A (map).

Given the Australian advances that had been made earlier, the rear Trench E had been left almost empty, which then enabled the Germans to regain that trench and envelop the men of the 32nd. At 5.30 AM the Germans attacked from both flanks in force and with bombing parties. Having only a few grenades left, the only resistance they could offer was with rifles:

What was left of the 32nd had finally withdrawn by 7.30 AM on the 20th. The initial roll call count was devastating – 71 killed, 375 wounded and 219 missing, including Les. To get some perspective of the battle, when Charles Bean, Australia’s official war historian, attended the battlefield two and half years later, he observed a large quantity of bones, torn uniforms and Australian kit still on the battlefield. The final impact was that 225 soldiers of the 32nd Battalion were killed or died from wounds sustained at the battle and of this, 166 were unidentified. Lieutenant Sam Mills survived the battle. In his letters home, he recalls the bravery of the men:

Les Daniels was killed in action at the Battle of Fromelles. No record or eye-witness account survives to give any indication about what might have happened to him during the battle. In the middle of August, Lily Daniels was visited by a local minister of religion to inform her that her husband had been killed.

Despite having no known grave and no witnesses to how he died, on 19 September 1916 Les was officially declared to have been killed in action on 19 July 1916. Les was awarded the 1914-15 Star Medal, the British War Medal, the Victory Medal, a Memorial Plaque and a Memorial Scroll.

In 1918, Lily Daniels married again, to Ernest Isaac Mellor, who had been wounded at Gallipoli with the 3rd Light Horse. Their only child died in infancy. Tragically Ernest died of burns in 1928 when a truck ignited while he was working underneath it. In 1935 Lily married John Dillon. Les’ daughter, Gwen was only about 7 months old when he left Australia. Later, she married Franz (Frank) Nuske in Renmark in 1935. They had one daughter, Ronda (married name Huckstepp).

Private Les Daniel’s name is inscribed on Panel 5 of the V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial at Fromelles which commemorates all the Australians killed at Fromelles whose bodies were not recovered after the battle.

Les is also remembered on the Glanville School Roll of Honour, now held in the Port Adelaide Historical Society Museum, the Adelaide National War Memorial and on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour.

Three of Les’ brothers enlisted in the AIF. His eldest brother Percy (10th Battalion) was wounded in France at the Battle of Pozieres on 25 July 1916, less than a week after Les’ death. After his recovery, he served the rest of the war with Field Ambulance Units.

Charles enlisted in 1916 and served in France with the 50th Battalion, before returning to Australia. Charles’ son, Edward (Ted) Daniels, died of wounds in 1945 in Tarakan Borneo, while serving with the 2/43 Battalion. Les’ younger brother, William had been the first of the brothers to enlist. He had many health problems and was eventually diagnosed with TB and returned to Australia, where he died in July 1918.

Les’ remains were not recovered; he has no known grave. After the battle, the Germans recovered 250 Australian soldiers and placed them in a burial pit at Pheasant Wood. This grave was discovered in 2008 and since then efforts have been underway to identify these soldiers by DNA testing from family members. As of 2026, 181 of the soldiers have been identified, including 41 of the 166 unidentified soldiers from the 32nd Battalion.

We welcome all branches of Les’ family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification. If you know anything of family contacts, especially those with roots in Adelaide, South Australia and Cornwall and Yorkshire, England, please contact the Fromelles Association. We hope that one day Les will be named and honoured with a known grave.

Please visit Fromelles.info to follow the ongoing identification project and Les’ story.