William was my mother’s brother and the ‘uncle’ I never had.  He was the second child of William Henry Kindell, a printing machinery engineer and his wife Elizabeth (née Phillips), born in Malmsbury Road, Bow, London.  By the time William was six the family had moved to Walthamstow, living at 456 Forest Road, and had increased to four – two boys and two girls.  He attended school in Walthamstow where he was clearly a bright, literate, boy and a surviving diary for 1917 clearly shows this.  At the time he joined the Army Service Corps in 1915 he was in his fifth year as an apprentice Compositor. 

 

William enlisted on the 8 November 1915 and, according to the attestation papers, was of slight build at 5ft 8½in and just under 9 stone.  Initially he was at the ASC Depot at Osterley Park then after a short period at Grove Park ASC Depot he was posted to 606 MT Company based at Shepherds Bush.  He had passed the Motor Learners Test Certificate test and his pay was now 1s 2d per day basic plus 1s 2d per day as a qualified driver amounting to 16s 4d (82p) per week.  In February 1917 William was given ‘embarkation leave’.  His leave ended on Monday 5 March and his diary entry reads ‘End of a perfect leave’.  On return he was given a medical inspection, issued with kit for service in German East Africa and sent by train to Devonport where he embarked on the Port Lincoln.

 

He suffered from seasickness and recovered after four days but found the sea voyage, in increasing temperatures, tedious.  The ship stopped at Freetown en route, though they were not allowed ashore, and reached Cape Town on 10 April.  Here they were allowed ashore for sightseeing and two days later continued their journey to Durban, disembarking on 15 April.  William’s draft stayed in camp at Durban for a month and his diary records that he settled into a routine of parades, fatigues, escort and piquet duties while in his free time he went swimming, attended various concerts both in the camp and in town, watched cricket and boxing, played football and enjoyed meals in town as well as in the YMCA and the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Hut.

 

On 20 May William’s unit was ordered to parade with full kit, marched to the docks and embarked on HMT Medic.  They sailed on the next day in company with four other transports and, as escort, HMS Minerva.  William comments that the ship was very crowded.  On 29 May they reached Lindi where the Fusiliers disembarked and then the convoy continued, reaching Dar es Salaam the next day. 

 

William’s party was transferred from ship to shore by a small steamer and then marched to the camp where they were given a tea of ‘bully and biscuits’. After a few days of camp routine he was detailed for a draft.  They paraded with full kit, marched to the station where they boarded trucks, and after travelling overnight, reached Mitrisse at 6.00 am on 5 June.  By now William was part of 699 MT Coy A S C and the last entry in the diary for Saturday 9 June reads:  ‘We had a hard day today’.  Although that was the latest dated entry, an examination of the closely written text shows four undated entries with brief accounts of actions in which William was involved.  One, for example, reads – ‘Today we had an attack, six men were killed, ten Zulus were killed.  It was a tight battle at first but we won in the end.’

 

There were no further entries in the Diary but we know from William’s surviving Service Record that he contracted malaria later that month and was admitted to the hospital in Dar es Salaam on 22 June.  On 3 July he was ‘discharged to duty’ and William’s Service Record goes on to state that he was re-admitted to hospital at Mtua with malaria on 23 October.  On 27 October he was transferred to the Casualty Clearing Station at Mingoyo where he died the same day.   He is buried at the Dar es Salaam War Cemetery, Tanzania.

 

Leonard Kindell Street OBE

 

Leonard K Street