A Warrior in the Family The Story of Leonard Keysor VC By Jamie Pardoe Aged 11

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1 SUSSEX FAMILY HISTORY GROUP MY ANCESTOR PROJECT 2013 A Warrior in the Family The Story of Leonard Keysor VC By Jamie Pardoe Aged 11

2 Introduction I am going to tell the story of an ancestor who was awarded the highest honour for bravery. To me this is an amazing story which makes me proud to think I am related to a man who did some incredibly brave things in World War One. It is also quite a story with how we came to find out about this man. How we found out about Leonard Keysor VC I have interviewed my Dad, Simon Pardoe and asked him to tell me about how we came to know about Leonard and how he is connected to our family. This is what I found out. My Grandad, Roy Pardoe (who was my Dad s father) passed away when I was only three but one of the things he did later in his life was to research both the Pardoe family and the Fawn family (Fawn was the surname of my Dad s mum, Eileen). He started to find out some amazing facts about the Fawn family and that led him to find out more about a fascinating line of ancestors going back several hundred years. He found out about the Kyezor family (they were also known by other similar names over the different generations such as Keyzor or Keysor and seemed to change this quite a lot but they were the same family) who had married into the Fawn family line through my Dad s Gran, Winifred Kyezor. The original Kyezor ancestors were from Germany and some of the family moved to England in the 1700s. The name Kyezor is now quite rare but there are many direct descendants of the Kyezors across the world and a group of them have worked on finding out as much as possible about the family. It is because of their work that my Grandad was able to find the facts. There were some stories handed down in the Fawn family that were found out to be wrong. For example, the family thought that Dad s Gran s name had originally been De Kaiser and that they had dropped this name because of the wars with Germany but this wasn t true. Also there was a story in the family that a Fawn had been the last Liberal MP for Aldershot in Hampshire. The family did come from there but there is no evidence of anyone ever being an MP. There were new even more interesting stories as well. We had no idea that Granny Fawn had come from a Jewish background. Her Great Grandfather, Louis Keyzor (Senior) was a rich man who owned a lot of property in a place called Whitton near London. This is not far

3 from Twickenham and the national rugby stadium. Louis was a real character and people called him The King of Whitton because the German word Kaiser means King and Louis owned most of Whitton. He did a great deal for his community and gave money to local causes books and articles have been written about him. His life was cut short in a cruel way when he was murdered in a shooting outside one of the local pubs in Whitton in 1869 The pub is still there today and below is a picture of me (on right with my Dad and brother Steffan) outside when we went to visit Whitton in It was strange to be standing in a place where over 140 years one of our ancestors had stood and in fact faced an attack that led to him dying soon after. The murderer, Thomas Green, was a man who lived in one of Louis houses after committing the dreadful crime he then shot himself dead. It was later found out that Thomas Green was an unknown but important character from history because he had gone to the police about a famous plot called the Cato Street Conspiracy. His evidence meant the police were able to stop the conspiracy against the government which would have changed the course of history if it had been allowed to happen. After this Thomas Green was moved out of London and given a new life in Whitton for his protection. A branch of the Kyezor family was the Durlachers and in the First World War a pair of twins fought for separate armies, one for the English and one for the Australians. They both survived the war but tragically Louis Durlacher died from the Spanish Flu epidemic at the end of the war, he was only 19. We also found out that another member of the Kyezors was an English actress called Rita Webb who appeared in comedy films and TV programmes like The Benny Hill Show and The Frankie Howard Show. For me the most amazing story is of a Englishman named Leonard Keysor who won the Victoria Cross fighting for the Australian Army in World War One... The chart on the next page explains how I am related to this man.

4 Family tree and relationships Louis Kyezor Sophia Louis Kyezor Julia Joseph Benjamin Kyezor Julia Benjamin Joseph Harris Kyezor Matilda Jane Cressey Leonard Keysor VC Winifred Kyezor William Blades Fawn Eileen Cressey Fawn Malcolm Roy Pardoe Simon Pardoe Michelle Jones M JAMIE Steffan

5 About Leonard Keysor Leonard Maurice Kyezor was born on the 3 rd November 1885 in Maida vale, London. Leonard was taught at Tonnleigh Castle in Ramsgate. Once he had finished school, he set off to Canada in 1904 where he stayed for 10 years before moving to Australia. When Kyezor arrived in 1914 he began work a clerk in Sydney.

6 Leonard goes to war In August 1914, Leonard (who had now slightly changed the way his name was spelt to Keyzor) was working as a clerk in Sydney and he enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force. Before landing in Gallipoli in April 1915, he trained in Egypt for five long months. Sometime over the war Leonard changed the spelling of his surname again to Keysor. Meanwhile the Russian army had found themselves threatened by the Turks and called the allies for help. The British set off on a Navy expedition to the western shore of Turkey. The aim of the expedition was to take the Dardanelles, with Constantinople as the objective. By capturing Constantinople the British hoped to link up with the Russians, knock Turkey out of the war and persuade the Balkan states to join the Allies. Before long, Keysor found himself in the thick of a fierce battle when the Australians landed at Gallipoli. One Englishman described them as carelessly brave. The conditions were horrible and many men died in battle and suffered in the trenches. The landscape made fighting difficult and the Turks created a system of trenches that were difficult to break down. It was decided to make a new attack at a place called Lone Pine. The Turks were caught by surprise as the Australians rained down on them. There were many losses though as the vicious battle dragged on for 5 days. Due to the close quarters fighting there were many grenades. This is how our hero won his medal... One of the most spectacular individual feats of the war.

7 The Battle of Lone Pine... and a Courageous Man The Turkish bombs were rather like cricket balls as they were thrown over into the trench. Keysor would smother them with sandbags and even his own coat to put the fuse out! When he thought the fuse was long enough he even caught grenades and threw then back at the enemy. He was wounded twice but refused to stop and carried on hour after hour. It was this act of heroism that led to the award of the Victoria Cross - what has been described as one of the most spectacular individual feats of the war. Leonard received the Victoria Cross at Buckingham Palace from HM King George V on 15 Jan The image on the front of this report is of a cigarette card that featured VC winners. My Dad was able to buy an original one of these on Ebay which we are proud to have.

8 Life after the war Towards the end of the war, Leonard was sent to Australia but he returned to London sometime before 1920 where he married Gladys Benjamin who was his cousin. After marrying they settled in London and he went into the family business of importing clocks. In 1927 he re-enacted his actions in the film For Valour, during which he was injured. Leonard preferred to live a quiet life but attended special VC events when asked to. He was also invited to the coronation of the father of our current Queen in In 1939 when the Second World War started Keysor attempted to join the Home Guard but was rejected due to medical grounds. Closing comments I believe this story matters because I never knew I was related to such a brave man who did all those brave acts just to save his comrades. I think I will pay more attention in history from now on! Leonard Keysor died of cancer on the 12 th October His medal is now displayed at the Australian National War Museum, forever to be looked at in awe...

9 My Resources and My Thanks The internet provided plenty of information on Leonard Keysor. Herald Sun (Australian newspaper) article Warriors we can be proud of Wikipedia Google images for all pictures used I am very grateful to Keira Lockyer in Australia who has researched a great deal of information on the Kyezors and their decendants. Keira allowed me to see some excerpts from her book The Quiet Hero which were very helpful in understanding more about Leonard s life. Thanks to my Dad for being interviewed Most of all thanks to my Grandad for deciding to look into some of the family history and discovering all of the great stories with the help of people like Keira. I would like to dedicate this project to him. Jamie Pardoe March 2013