Kirk, Leslie James

Date of birth:: January 23rd, 1911
Date of death:: November 2nd, 1943 (Soanotabu, Mono Island)
Buried on:: Commonwealth War Cemetery New Zealand Bourail
Plot: 3. Grave: 20.
Nationality:: New Zealander

Biography

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Mentioned in Dispatches

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Captain
Unit:: 34th Infantry Battalion, 8th New Zealand Infantry Brigade, 3rd New Zealand Division, New Zealand Military Forces
Awarded on:: July 27th, 1944

"In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Fiji and New Caledonia from ist September, 1943 to 29th February,1944"
--
"The first assault (on the blockhouse) came at 1.30am killing Staff Sergeant D.O. Hanafin and wounding Kirk whose skull was creased with a bullet. He recovered and continued directing the defence. When the machine guns were hit and put out of action, Kirk and his men held off the Japaneses with hand grenades....Soon after Kirk was again wounded, this time fatally though he survived till the next day."

Posthumously awarded

Sources

- https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36627/supplement/3505/data.pdf
- CWGC
- Leslie James Kirk - Online Cenotaph - Auckland War Memorial Museum
- Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War. Gillespie (1952), page 156