Leslie Edwin Martin
I am very grateful to Julie Roberts, the daughter of Leslie Edwin Martin, who sent the following information in January 2021.
43 Mess, HMS Gambia, September 30, 1947, Shanghai, China
Leslie Edwin Martin is second left in this photo and was aged just 16.
The rear of the photo mentions the nicknames Dutch, Taylor, Cheery, and Surfly? and signed by G. C. Rich, W. F. Hatherley and P. E. Holland, F. G. Taylor from Great Malvern?
Julie wrote that her father was born on October 17, 1930. He joined the navy a little before he was 16 and was still less than that when the above photo was taken. "He left the navy around 1955 and came to settle back in Bath with my mum (who was a wren and they had met in Gosport) and eldest sister who was actually born in Malta in Feb 1954. He joined the Bath police force then although he had wanted to join the fire brigade really."