The local heroes who gave their lives and were laid to rest in a foreign field

Leading Aircraftsman Leslie Martlew was lost from the RAF tug the Buffalo while on a salvage operation east of Singapore on April 5, 1941.

- with Dot Broady-Hawkes

He was 21 years old. Leslie had been born in Westhead, where his parents Thomas Ernest and Mary Martlew, nee Briscoe, lived on Ormonde Avenue. His father Thomas Ernest was an electrician at the RAOC in Lathom, and his grandfather had been the caretaker of the Ormskirk Working Men’s Institute for many years.

Leslie was their youngest child of three, and had worked at the Atkinson and Kirby woodyard on Wigan Road, Ormskirk after leaving school. He was a well-known member of the Scouts and had joined the RAF before the war broke out.

Leslie was stationed at RAF Seletar in Singapore with the RAF 151 Maintenance Unit. He had been sent with 25 members of his unit on board the Buffalo to salvage an RAF Blenheim aircraft from 27 Squadron stationed in Malaya, which had crashed south of Siglap Obelisk.

His ship struck a mine during an operation to salvage an aircraft near Singapore. The Blenheim had been performing aerobatic manoeuvres to relieve boredom, and the pilot had misjudged the capabilities of his aircraft. The plane crashed into the sea and three air crew were lost. The 151 Maintenance Crew were then shipped out to salvage the plane, but their ship hit a mine and sank.