Leslie Bonnet
| Leslie Bonnet | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
22 August 1902 Watford, Hertfordshire, England |
| Died | 10 December 1985 (aged 83) Criccieth, Gwynedd, Wales |
Group Captain Leslie Bonnet, MA, LLB, Order of the Cloud and Banner with Special Rosette (22 August 1902 – 10 December 1985) was an RAF officer, short-story writer and duck-breeder, creating the Welsh Harlequin Duck, the only true Welsh duck breed.
Bonnet was born 1902 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. His father was a bank manager in London’s Chancery Lane; his mother was one of the Dudleys, a Staffordshire farming family He succeeded in winning a scholarship to Watford Boys Grammar School, from where he proceeded to St Catharine's College, Cambridge University, in 1920. He studied English and Law, obtaining a double first in 1923.
In the depressed 1920s, graduates were a glut on the market and he took a job selling "Watford" chocolates in Norfolk. He also stood as a Liberal parliamentary candidate in Watford but lost by a small number of votes.
Bonnet worked for the Bank of England for 15 years. In 1928, he married his first wife, Getrude Olive May, and had his first child, Bill, in 1930. In 1935, he was appointed the first full-time editor of the staff magazine – The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street Under his editorship, it became "a lively, absorbing journal of 200 sleek pages...packed with banking lore, poetry, literary articles, short stories and urbane correspondence, eagerly awaited and read by bankers all over the world." The December issues of the magazine became referred to as: "Uncle Leslie’s Bumper Christmas Annuals" During this period, he also published the Honorary Secretary's Guide (1938).
In 1938 he joined the Balloon Barrage, the only military service opened to someone at his advanced age. On 1 May 1939 he left the Bank and was appointed an acting pilot officer, second in command of E flight of 908 Squadron, Bethnal Green, one of the ten squadrons of barrage balloons in 30 Group of Balloon Command. He was quickly promoted to Flying Officer and then Flight Lieutenant.
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