Frederick Leslie Cuff Link

Rank 
Lieutenant
Regiment 
Royal Air Force
Date of death 
7 June 1918
Age of death 
19
Address 
15 Valentines Road
Ilford
IG1 4RZ
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
France
Biography 

Registered as Leslie Frederick Link on his school record, he attended Ilford County High School between 2nd September 1911 and 22nd December 1915. He had previously studied at Christchurch Road Elementary School.

His father, Gotlib Link was a Buyer for the meat trade and his mother, Rosa was born in Suffolk. Frederick was also born in East Anglia, in a Norfolk village called Sutton. He had three older sisters and two brothers. Whilst at Ilford County High School, Frederick lived at 15 Valentine Road, Ilford with his parents, five of his siblings and a servant named Mary.

He was a keen sportsman and a member of the 1914 school athletics team that won the Russell Cup. Before leaving Ilford County High School, Frederick sat the London Matriculation Examination (which he was awarded a pass in January 1916). Like many present-day students of the school, he had hoped to take up a career in medicine and for a short period started to train as a medical student. He followed his older brother, Oliver to Middlesex Hospital.

Frederick (2nd Lieutenant in the R.A.F.) is recorded on the school’s Roll of Honour in the Summer 1918 edition of the school magazine, alongside news that one of his sisters, Lily had just given birth to a son and that another sister, Bessie’s new post as motor car driver for the Commanding Officer of the R.A.F. Sadly, his eldest sister, Rosa died, having never married, in November 1918.

Frederick had been killed on 7th June 1918 while on patrol duty in his aeroplane, accidentally crashing as he reached the aerodrome. He was buried at Ebblingham.

The Autumn 1918 edition of Chronicles gave a little more detail;

‘Poor Leslie Link’s experience in France was a very short one- of a few days only. His machine was apparently thrown violently out of control by the high wind, and he received fatal injuries to the head. His O. C., Major Caldwell, says:-

“It is sad he was not spared a little longer, as he was so very keen to do well.”

His older brother, Oliver, survived the war. He rose to the rank of Major and served in Gallipoli, Egypt and East Africa.

Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS

Sources:

Ancestry.com

ICHS school records and magazines

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Note

Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.