Leon George Harry Patin

A Gunner with 7th Coastal Regiment, Leon died on 5 March 1943, aged 26.

Leon was born at Walthamstow on 8 March 1916, a son of Leonard and Dorothy Patin. In 1921 Leon, and his mother, lived with his maternal grandmother, Emily Sheraton, at 67 Holme Road, East Ham. Leon’s mother married Robert Whinney. 

In 1937 Leon married Dorothy Matilda O’Sullivan, this was registered in the East Ham district. In 1939 they lived with Leon’s mother, and step-father, at 67 Holme Road, East Ham. Later their address was 10 Boleyn Road, East Ham. Dorothy moved to Kessingland and lived at Jasmine House, Market Place, Kessingland. She remarried in 1946 and lived at 26 London Road, Pakefield.

Leon was a cable worker when he enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1940 and was posted to the 7th Coastal Regiment. His regiment was formed at Singapore in December 1940 and, in February 1942, manned the heavy guns of the Johore Battery during the Japanese invasion. Leon was captured at the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Records show that he sailed from Singapore on the Kenkon Maru 18 October 1942. He was among 600 gunners, and other soldiers, taken to Rabaul. Beyond that no precise details of him are known other than that he was presumed to have died at sea.