Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Lieutenant Leslie St. Leger Blakeney, Lancashire Fusiliers, who was killed when the steamship Falaba was torpedoed and sunk on 28 March 1915

1914-15 Star (Lieut., Lan. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut.) mounted for wear, in fitted wooden case, extremely fine (3) £400-500

Leslie St. Leger Blakeney, was born on 13 April 1890, the son of the Rev. William Purdon Blakeney and Elizabeth Adeline Blakeney, of Woodside, Bideford, North Devon. He was educated at Marlborough College and Sandhurst. Entering the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1910, he became a Lieutenant in 1914. On his way to West Africa, and as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, attached to the Gold Coast Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force, he drowned in the sinking of the steamship Falaba on 28 March 1915. His name is commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton.

The Elder Line steamship Falaba was en route from Liverpool to Sierra Leone, carrying 151 passengers and 96 crew, and with a cargo valued at £50,000. At 11.40 on the morning of the 28 March 1915, when 38 miles west of the Smalls Lighthouse, she was signalled to stop by the German submarine U-28 (Cdr. Baron von Forstner). Unable to out-run the submarine, Captain Davis of the Falaba complied with the order and was attempting to abandon ship when the U-Boat, unprovoked, fired a torpedo at a range of 150 yards. The resulting hit and explosion sent the Falaba to the bottom in less than 10 minutes. Captain Davis and Lieutenant Blakeney were two of the 104 persons who perished in the attack. With some copied research.