Widecombe-in-the-Moor

Leslie Austin Webb

Born at Vitifer Mine at Birch Tor on 30th September 1903 to Parents: Father James Webb, Mother: Florence Kate Coaker.

On the 1911 census Leslie is listed as having 3 brothers: James, Thomas Redvers, and Vernon Ralph. Leslie attended Lydford school from 1908 and left in 1917. After leaving school Leslie worked as a tin miner.

In September 1921 Leslie enlisted in the Royal Navy signing on for 12 years, which he extended by a further 6 years.

He married Daisy K Routledge in Tavistock in 1929

At the outbreak of war in 1939 Leslie was serving as a Petty Officer Stoker aboard HMS Gloucester. He remained with Gloucester until 1942 when he transferred to the newly built Hunt-class destroyer HMS Holcombe.

On 12th December 1943 HMS Holcombe was deployed as part of the escort to convoy KMS 34 (recorded as a “slow moving convoy”) comprising 96 merchant vessels sailing east through the Mediterranean. On this day Holcombe’s sister ship HMS Tynedale was torpedoed and sunk off Jijel, Algieria by U-Boat U-593. The remaining escort vessels commenced to search for the U-Boat. During the search HMS Holcombe was also torpedoed and sank rapidly with the loss of 81 men out of a crew of 168.

Leslie Austin Webb was one of those lost.

Another escort vessel U.S.S. Wainwright rescued the remaining 87 of Holcombe’s crew. U-Boat 593 was sunk the following day by U.S.S Wainwright and HMS Calpe.

Leslie Austin Webb is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.