Essendon Gazette 12 August 1915 

The following is a copy of a letter received from Private Les Faulds, who
is at the Dardanelles:-

"Just a line in answer to yours of the 4th May, which I was pleased to receive. The papers sent have gone astray. I have marked the 16th  May as my lucky day. A shell exploded where I was talking to two mates—— they are both dead, while I had concussion. I am still deaf in my left ear; but otherwise all right. It was a six—inch shell in a trench. One of my mates pulled me from under a pile of dirt and then dug out the other two.

Remember me to all; tell them to keep writing".

This was written on a piece of old cardboard. Altogether about eight daily and weekly papers, with paper and envelopes, have been sent.

Private Leslie Faulds has been seriously wounded while fighting at the Dardanelles. This is the second occasion on which he has been wounded. He left Victorian with the reinforcements in April, stopped a few days in Egypt, and was fighting early in May. While in the trenches on May 16, an enemy shell exploded in the trench, burying Faulds and several others. He was extricated alive; but suffered from concussion and deafness for a time. When better he returned to fighting line, and now has received wounds. Prior to enlisting, he was employed in the Railway Department as a fire man, stationed at North Melbourne, where he was very popular. He took an active interest in the Footscray Band of Hope, though living in Essendon, and many sympathetic messages have reached his parents from both places.

WITH THE COLOURS. (1915, September 16). The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918), p. 5 Edition: Morning.. Retrieved January 15, 2012, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74590062