Bernard Victor Lees (1878 - aft. 1918)

Born 1 Dec 1878 in Sydenham, London, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

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Biography

Bernard was born in 1878 in Sydenham, London. He is the son of Robert Lees and Sarah Bishop. For a time, Bernard lived at Chadwell Heath, Essex, England.

Ilfracombe Family’s Proud Record Mr E. H. Lees (of the firm of Phillipse and Lees, photographers, Ilfracombe, and son of Mr R. J. Lees, “The Hollies”) left Ilfracombe on Tuesday to join the Army. The eldest brother, Mr Norman Lees, joined the Australian forces in 1915, and is at present on the Red Cross staff of the Weymouth Military Hospital. Another brother, Mr Douglas P. Lees, who joined up in 1916, has been appointed assistant business manager for U.K. Australian Y.M.C.A., with the A.I.F. Mr Claude Lees, another brother, joined up in 1916 from the firm of Vickers and Maxim. On account of an injury to his eye he was invalided out of the Army and (though his eye is still bandaged) has been working at Vickers and Maxims for the past fifteen months. The youngest brother, Wallace, enlisted shortly after the outbreak of war. He was killed on September 7th, 1915, his first day in the trenches. Still another brother, Mr Lionel Lees, belongs to the American Forces, while Mr Bernard V, Lees has been engaged on Government work at the East Indian Docks, London, ever since the outbreak of war. Two sisters have been nursing in military hospitals since war broke out, one of them, Miss Eoila Lees, having lost her fiancée who was killed only a week or two before they were to have been married. Miss Lees, who is at home, and who is well known as a designer of knitted articles, has been commissioned to supply designs for Government work. Mr Herbert Webster, a son-in-law of Mr R. J. Lees, died in April of last year, whilst on Government work in Chatham Dockyard. His widow (NOTE = Pearl) is now engaged in munition-making. Mr R. J. Lees eldest grandson, who was in the employ of Messrs Hopper and Slee, of Ilfracombe, when war broke out, is now serving with the American Army. Copied from the “Ilfracombe Chronicle”, Nov. 2nd 1918

Sources

• Own family records
• “Ilfracombe Chronicle”, Nov. 2nd 1918
• "England and Wales Census, 1901," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSH6-MLX : 21 May 2019), Bernard V Lees in household of Lionel H Lees, Newquay, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing St Columb subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.