Subject

Fireman killed as a result of an air raid on Plaistow Road, E15 on 19 March 1941. Andrew Behan has kindly carried out some research on this man: 

Fireman Leslie John Palmer was born on 3 January 1910 in Penge, Kent, the 4th son of George Walter Palmer and Eva Sarah Palmer née Fenn. His father was a Billiard Table Manufacturer. The 1911 census shows the family living at Hatfield House, 78 Parkfield Road, Penge. He married Doris Maude Clarke in 1938 and the 1939 England and Wales register shows them living at 16 Lawrence Road, West Wickham, Kent. His occupation was recorded as a Warehouse Manager Road Transport.

He joined the Auxiliary Fire Service and was attached to Coney Hall Auxiliary Fire Station, West Wickham. He was killed, aged 31 years, on 19 March 1941, together with four other colleagues who were aboard a pump, one of a convoy, that was travelling to a fire in Silvertown and that was obliterated in a land-mine explosion in Plaistow Road, West Ham. He and his four colleagues were buried in a communal grave in St John the Baptist Churchyard, Layhams Road, West Wickham.