Harrogate Herald - 22nd
December 1915
In the following letter, S
Hinde Leedale, son of Mr and Mrs R Leedale, [Probably Robert
Leedale, joiner, 44 King's Road] of Harrogate, gives an
interesting description of a journey up the Nile Valley :
Since writing you many weeks
ago from Malta, many varied experiences have been ours. When our
camp moved across the island to Valletto, I was attached to the
headquarters at the Wounded Inquiry Bureau, and whilst the battalion
was continually engaged on fatigues, funeral parties, etc., we at
the WIB were busy day and night with records of wounded, seeing to
their correspondence and dealing minutely with "deceased's
effects". Some of your readers will be consoled to know how
carefully the private belongings of the fallen were dealt with and
duly sent to the proper quarters. Then we sailed on a large P &
O liner for Egypt. The railway journey up the Nile Valley from
Alexandra to Cairo was a wonderful one. Each side of the track
seemed a far-reaching level of green-maize and sugar-cane, almost
identical in appearance, to the short cotton plant, very much like
currant bushes, with here and there a group of trees or a cluster of
palms with large yellow bunches of ripening dates encircling the top
of the trunk. Much of the scenery was very English, in parts very
like the Bedford Level or certain views of the York Plain. Farther
inland, however, the Oriental asserted itself, as along the bank we
passed a native at prayer towards the rising sun, plodding donkeys
carrying their long-limbed owners in blue robes and fez. Now a group
of black-gowned women wended their way, their earthenware jars
gracefully poised on their heads; then a string of heavily-laden
camels, their heads high in the air, ambled by with awkward gait.
Cairo is a wonderful mixture. One sees a wide, clean, macadamised
road (which would be a credit even to Harrogate), over which pass
and repass well-equipped open carriages, the black native driver in
his red fez dextrously handling his pair of horses; strings of
patient camels, donkey-drawn flat carts like a hurdle on large
wheels, whereon sit some half-dozen women entirely in black except
for the brass cylinder of their veil pendant from forehead to nose;
electric trams, single deckers, two together, run along the
right-hand side (all vehicular traffic follows the Continental rule
of "keep to the right"). Most of the shops are cafes, and
the footpath is more or less littered with small tables and chairs,
where male Cairo spends the day drinking black coffee (quite equal
to Standing's), smoking hookahs, and playing an Arabic game,
something between chess and draughts. Now turn off this main street
up any sideway, and the utter contrast surprises you. Narrow alley
ways they are, no footpaths, generally full of Egyptians proper,
Sudanese, Armenians, Greeks. The shopkeeper sitting cross-legged at
the front of his goods, for there is no doorway, sticks his knees
into the roadway. A native of the better class, judging by his
purple robe, comes along on his white donkey, and the pedestrians
are squeezed between the animal and a pile of brass curios or
carpets. Of mosques, bazaars, street sellers, and of customs, one
could write reams. One thing before I close - the Sphinx! To me it
was disappointing. Every photograph of it shows one of the large
pyramids in the background, and thus it appears almost as large. The
pyramid, however, in question is some two miles away, and the Sphinx
itself, or what was left after Napoleon's "Germhun sausion",
is in rather a hollow, and although wonderful, even sublime by
moonlight, as I was able to see, fortunately, is not as huge as the
photographs would lead you to expect. But our camping on the edge of
the Libyan Desert was brief. Two more transhipments plonked us in
view of -----, and we are now upholding the obligations of "a
scrap of paper". Accept with this my continued appreciation of
the Herald.
[Is this correct - Maybe Pte S
Hind..??]
Harrogate Herald - 14th March
1917
W H Breare letter
Stanley Leedale,
brother of my Naval friend, Arthur Leedale, has been
transferred from France to this country, where he is performing
military duty.
Harrogate Herald - 4th July
1917
W H Breare letter
My tether is running out, and
I shall have to be brief and summarise. I have had visits from Private
S Hind Leedale, who has been transferred to a home
establishment; Arthur Leedale, who is an artificer in the
Navy, and well-known to you lads; Corporal G G Jackson, son of Mr
and Mrs W C Jackson, of 16 Unity Grove (New Zealanders); Private W
Burrill, son of Jack Burrill, my old friend who used to play the
double bass in the original Harrogate Minstrels; and Lance Corporal
Wilfred Mawson, son of Mr J Mawson, Cold Bath Road.
Harrogate Herald - 2nd July
1969
The death occurred on Thursday
of Mr Stanley Hinde Leedale, of Jasmine Cottage, Little
Ouseburn, who was well-known for many years as a teacher in
Harrogate.
He started his career as a
pupil teacher at Western School in 1905, and after training at
Westminster College and Halsey College, London, he returned to teach
at King James's Grammar School, Knaresborough, before working under
the London and Durham County Councils.
During the 1914-18 war Mr
Leedale served with the 2nd London Regiment, RN Division, an
Egypt and Gallipoli, being one of the last to be evacuated from the
peninsula. He was later engaged on staff work in Malta and Ruen.
He taught commerce at various
technical institutes and was elected a fellow of the faculty of
Teachers of Commerce in 1920, becoming chairman of the Yorkshire
District three years later. In 1935 he was elected to the National
Executive, and became President in 1939. Mr Leedale retired
in 1950 after 45 years' teaching, 22 years being at Western School,
Harrogate.
He was always interested in
folk dancing. He was a past Master of Harlow Lodge of Freemasons.
Mr Leedale leaves a
widow and two daughters. A funeral service followed by cremation was
held at Stonefall on Monday.
