Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An exceptional Second World War escaper’s M.C. group of eleven awarded to Captain C. D. C. K. Leslie, Highland Light Infantry, attached Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.), who made a successful bid for freedom in Italy in 1943-44, having been captured during a special mission to Rhodes while a member of S.O.E’s M.O. 4’s ‘Marine Section’: having enjoyed some success out in Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s, he eventually settled in Rhodesia where he onetime served as Sergeant at Arms in the Senate

Military Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1944’; 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Africa Star, clasp, 8th Army; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Zimbabwe Independence Medal 1980 (02344); Rhodesia Meritorious Service Medal (6948B Sec./Ldr. C. D. C. K. Leslie); Rhodesia General Service Medal (6948B F./R. C. D. C. K. Leslie); Rhodesia Police Reserve Faithful Service Medal (6948B F./R. C. D. C. K. Leslie), generally very fine or better (11) £4000-5000

M.C. London Gazette 9 November 1944. The original recommendation states:

‘Captain Leslie was captured near Rhodes on 15 March 1943 whilst employed on a special mission. With three other members of his party he tried to escape from a small P.O.W. camp in the mountains of Rhodes, but the effort failed when Captain Leslie, the first through the wire, was seen by a sentry. Before his transfer to Italy he also participated in an unsuccessful tunnel scheme.

At the time of the Italian Armistice he was imprisoned at Camp 49 (Fontanellato) and on 9 September 1943 he left wiht three other officers. Two days later he continued with a different companion to San Sebastiano. Towards the end of November 1943, he made an attempt to cross the lines and, although arrested by a German officer who seemed about to shoot him, he escaped by killing his captor. He prolonged his effort for a further three days, during which he was shelled by English guns, before being returned to Pescasseroli. He made three more attempts to reach Allied forces before he eventually met a patrol of the Essex Regiment in San Donato on 3 June 1944. He then returned to guide another P.O.W. to safety and finally led Allied patrols to Pescasseroli.

During his stay in Pescasseroli, Captain Leslie ran an underground News Service for Italians; in this way he did good work by frustrating German propaganda.’

Clement David Charles Kenneth Leslie was born in Ireland in 1899 and was educated at Bedford College and the R.M.C. Camberley. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry in 1918, but too late to see action on the Western Front, he did however serve in North Russia in the 2nd Battalion in August-October 1919 - entitled to the British War & Victory Medals, he did not make a claim until early 1973, at which point the relevant awards were ‘returned undelivered’.

Having transferred to the Reserve of Officers in 1920, and married the Austrian Countess Priea de Maistre, Leslie and his wife travelled extensively in Europe and the U.S.A. as variety artists and dancers, and took part in a few minor Hollywood films in the 20s and 30s - he and Priea understudied Fred and Adele Astaire in Funny Face back in London in 1938.

Commando and S.O.E. operative

Recalled to active service on the renewal of hostilities, Leslie was among those who volunteered for the 5th (Ski) Battalion, Scots Guards, for service in Finland, following which he served with the 1st Battalion, Highland Light Infantry in the B.E.F. in 1940. Back home that summer, he volunteered for No. 6 Commando, was advanced to Captain, and served as a Troop Commander for 18 months, in which period he completed a number of courses, among them fieldcraft, demolition and small arms, in addition to training in small craft at Inverary.

Having then attended the parachute course at Ringway, he was embarked for the Middle East, where, in late 1942, he applied for a posting to Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.), a successful application in light of his pre-war experience as a yachtsman in Mediterranean waters, in addition to all of his Commando irregular warfare courses. Duly employed by M.O. 4’s Marine Section (a.k.a. Para Naval Force) - a forerunner of S.O.E’s Force 133 - and onetime working alongside the New Zealander Major Donald Stott, a well-known ‘Greek hand’, he was ultimately captured on a special mission near Rhodes in March 1943 and, as cited above, awarded the M.C. for his subsequent escape in Italy. Accompanying research also confirms that Leslie had close contact with the likes of Commander Francis “Skipper” Pool, a former Section D member who had opened up sea routes to occupied Crete and elsewhere, and Major Hon. C “Monty” Woodhouse, another distinguished S.O.E. operative.

Unable to find further operational work in Force 133 on his return in August 1944, Leslie was employed by the Allied Control Mission in Cairo, and soon after the War met his second wife, Dorothy, a daughter of the Director of Public Works for Southern Rhodesia, where he settled in 1949. Onetime commanding officer of the Recce Unit of the Police Reserve, and latterly Sergeant-at-Arms in the Rhodesian Senate, Leslie died in June 1993, aged 94 years; sold with original 1939-45 campaign medal forwarding slip, with Rhodesian stamps.