27 Jul 2005                   


            Husband: Leslie Patrick HARTE     died at age: 31 
               Born: 18 Aug 1909          at Westbury, Holden Road, North Finchley  1
          Education:                      LDS, LRCS (England), DMD (Harvard)  
         Occupation:                      Dental Surgeon  
           Military:                      Capt. Army Dental Corps - att'd RAMC  
               Died: 25 Apr 1941          in Mediterranean  2,3,4,5
             Buried: May 1941             in Alexandria Egypt Hadra 2.A.1  6
            Resided: 6 Feb 1935           at 23 Nassau St, London W 1  7
             Father: Percy Charles HARTE 
             Mother: Edith RUSS 


               Wife: Doris May PONTING     Nickname Doree  died at age: 77 
            Married: 6 Feb 1935           at All Souls Langham Place  8
               Born: 1908                 in London  9
               Died: 1985                 in Worthing Sussex  
            Resided: 6 Feb 1935           at Pembury, Friern Lane, Whetstone  10
             Father: William Robert PONTING 
             Mother: Unknown 

          M Child 1: Richard Alan HARTE       age: 68 
               Born: 1 Sep 1936           in London  
         Occupation:                      Miller - ex farmer, publican  
             Spouse: Sandra Jane VIDGEON  b. 28 Jul 1944  
            Married: 21 Aug 1965          in Findon Parish Church  
          F Child 2: Diana HARTE       age: 66 
               Born: 1 Aug 1938           in London  
          Emigrated: 1960's [?]           to Australia  
             Spouse: Alexander STUART  Nickname Sandy 
            Married: 1 Jun 1968           in Findon Sussex  
               Died: June 2005            in Australia       

Sources:
(1) Certified Copy, Birth registered by Percy Charles Harte - Bank Manager - on 
28 Sep 1909 before George Smith Registrar [entry no. 32] 
(2) Maj R A Stephen, 'nobody saw him embark on a boat........One of the ships 
that did get away was sunk.....A destroyer was sunk picking up survivors and I 
know definitely that Leslie wasn't aboard it.  I found that out from one of the 
survivors.  I can't tell if he was on the first boat or not', 13 Jun 41. 
(3) Maj R A Stephen, 'At one time it looked as if our unit was going to be 
captured so a proportion of them were evacuated ahead of the rest.  Leslie was 
amongst these.  The majority of these embarked on a Greek ship which was 
attacked by dive bombers and sunk.  Two destroyers went to the rescue and both 
of these were sunk.  There were only eight survivors from the three ships', 5 
Oct 41. 
(4) Winston Churchill, The Second World War, "During the nights of the 24th and 
25th, 17,000 men were brought out, with the loss of two transports.  On the 
following night about 19,500 were got away from five embarkation points.  At 
Nauplion there was disaster.  The transport Slamat in a gallant but misguided 
effort to embark the maximum stayed too long in the anchorage.  Soon after dawn, 
when clearing the land, she was attacked and sunk by dive-bombers.  The 
destroyers Diamond and Wryneck, who rescued most of the 700 men on board, were 
both in turn sunk by air attack a few hours later.  There were only fifty 
survivors from all three ships.", vol III ch 12- The Greek Campaign. 
(5) Certified Copy, HARTE Leslie Patrick P/93936/5 - Lt (WS/Capt) Army Dental 
Corps [Emergency commission] age 31: date of death 'between 28/4/1941 and 
4/7/1941' in either Greece or at Sea in the Eastern Mediterranean.  Died as a 
result of military operations in Greece, Copy of Death Certificate from teh 
return of Officers Killed in Action or who have died while on Service Abroad. 
(6) Commonwealth War Graves Commission (www.cwgc.org), 'In Memory of LESLIE 
PATRICK HARTE  
Captain  93936 Army Dental Corps attd., Royal Army Medical Corps 
who died on Friday, 25th April 1941. Age 31. 
Additional Information:  
Son of Percy Charles and Edith Harte; husband of Doris May Harte, of Golders 
Green, Middlesex. L.D.S., L.R.C.S.(England), D.M.D.(Harvard).     
Commemorative Information     
Cemetery:  ALEXANDRIA (HADRA) WAR MEMORIAL CEMETERY, Egypt     
Grave Reference/Panel Number:  2. A. 1. 
Location:  
Hadra is a district on the eastern side of Alexandria and is south of the main 
carriageway to Aboukir, known as Al Horaya, near the University of Alexandria. 
The Cemetery is on the road Sharia Manara. The junction of this road and Al 
Horaya is diagonally opposite the University of Alexandria.     
Historical Information:  
During the 1914-1918 War, Alexandria became a great Anglo-French camp and 
hospital centre, and in 1915 was made the base of the Mediterranean 
Expeditionary Force. The 1939-1945 War saw Alexandria again an important centre. 
To the hospitals were brought casualties from the campaigns in Greece, Crete and 
the Aegean islands; camps were set up for men on leave from the desert; Kom el 
Dikk Fort (constructed in 1799 by the Napoleonic leader Colonel Criban and 
occupied by the British from 1882 until February 1947) was the centre of 
military telephonic and telegraphic communications for the Middle and Near East, 
the Headquarters of the Military Police and a powerful anti-aircraft base; and 
from the port sailed convoys bearing supplies to hard-pressed Malta. The 
original part of the cemetery, which is built partly over Roman catacombs, was 
acquired in February 1916, when it was found that the cemetery at Chatby, a few 
hundred yards to the North-West, would not be large enough for all the burials 
from the Alexandria hospitals. It was first used in April 1916, under the name 
of Hadra New Military Cemetery, and it remained in use until December 1919. 
Nearly all the burials took place from the 15th, 17th, 19th, and 21st General 
Hospitals and the Military Hospital at Ras-el-Tin; but a number of graves of 
December, 1917 are due to the sinking of transports outside Alexandria. In 
December 1919 and January 1920 sixty British graves from some small graveyards 
in the Western Desert (due mostly to operations against the Senussi Arabs) and 
from Maadia and Rosetta were brought in. There are now 1692, 1914-18 war and 
1313, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this cemetery. Of these 20, 1914-18 
and 68, 1939-45 are unidentified. Also commemorated in this site are 44 Foreign 
National and 18 non-world war casualties'. 
(7) Certified Copy, Marriage Certificate. 
(8) Certified Copy, 6 Feb 1935: Leslie Patrick Harte  age 25 Dental Surgeon - 23 
Nassau St London W 1 - to Doris May Ponting age 26 - Pembury, Friern Lane, 
Whetstone: Church of ALl SOuls ST Marylebone by L F E Foxell.  Witnesses - both 
fathers: Percy Charles Harte [Banker] and William Robert Ponting [Broker] 
(9) Ind, Her father was Pontings Department Store. 
(10) Certified Copy, Marriage certificate.