I have found a Leslie Golding born wandsworth, c1910 and died aged 0... That's the old school way of getting ID/Passport for the spies, isn't it, with dead babies birth certs. I fear I'm pushing it off track now and moving into Le Carré!!
Well, just to throw a spanner in the works, I came across this firm of solicitors: Seax - Catalogue: D/DS 266 GREGSON AND GOLDING, SOLICITORS, OF SOUTHEND Whichever Golding that was, he seems to have become a partner in 1938, so perhaps that's Leslie the solicitor? A KD Golding was also prominent in Southend yacht racing circles in the late 1930s. Golding's not that common a surname: the newest Kelly's Directory I could find online was 1914 - at that time there were apparently no Goldings in Southend and only about 45 in the whole of Essex, but it's by no means complete. OTOH what would the odds be on there being two Leslie Goldings in the same town? Thanks, Vitesse. Now it starts to get interesting. Using FreeBMD I was able to find quite a few "Leslie Golding"s born all over the UK from 1912 until about 1925. Not knowing the age of the Captain in the Parachute Regiment I went as far as I thought the age parameters would allow. In re-reading Ellis Dean's letter to me he states (from then Lt. Golding's Report of Ringway Parachute Course No 72, from 12.7.43 to 23.7.43) "105579 Lt. Golding. A very good type of officer who jumped well." He goes on to say: Prior to volunteering for the Parachute Regiment, he (Golding) had been serving in the 2/4th Battalion, The South Lancashire Regiment. He was not a northerner so how he came to be in the South Lancs Regt, I don't know. But from his low personal number, I think he must have been serving in the Territorials before the outbreak of war, or commissioned soon after that It also seems that Captain Golding was the Intelligence Officer for the 13th and in that capacity jumped on D Day. IF this is the same Golding he would have been quite the catch for the Soviets. I would venture to say that he would have known better than to be playing "sneaky pete" in the Soviet Zone of Occupation, post war.
I have found a Leslie Golding born wandsworth, c1910 and died aged 0... That's the old school way of getting ID/Passport for the spies, isn't it, with dead babies birth certs. I fear I'm pushing it off track now and moving into Le Carré!! I would agree with you, AHD, if the circumstances were reversed. There would be no advantage for the opposition to have a fake British agent in one of their own prisons.
Any other initial for Lt Golding? I have a Leslie V Golding married a KUNZ in 1948 in Rochford (Southend) alternative name give KRIEGER He was previously married in 1942 in Thurrock spouse name MARSH. Did his wife die or divorce. Did he then rescue this German girl post war...
Any other initial for Lt Golding? I have a John Lesli born in West Ham a couple of years prior to Ww1, married 1940. Ooops and a Leslie V Golding married a KUNZ in 1948 in Rochford (Southend) alternative name give KRIEGER Sadly not. I just came across his name in the CIC history book and went from there. But it does seem you have solved the mystery, AHD, as "Marianne Kuenz" is given as the name of his girlfriend. In reading many RAF post war search reports I have noticed that we suffered from a terrible inability to properly spell German place and surnames. As we don't use the umlaut in English I can very easily see the authors of the book adding an "e" to her surname. Now, of course, the curious would be interested in knowing how Leslie and Marianne got out of eastern Germany and how they spent the rest of their lives. Many thanks for your help.
Curiouser and curiouser ... The only Golding I can find in Law Society exam results in The Times in the 1930s is an RA Golding who passed his finals in 1933. None at all in the 1920s.
If you want the certificate to order - Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1948 Registration district: Rochford Inferred County: Essex Volume Number: 4a Page Number: 1881
if you do order the certificate, it might state his occupation and also her birthplace to confirm? I reckon there must be family still living in the area, perhaps with details of the story. Fascinating, if it's all the correct Leslie and Kunz Only too glad to help. Everyone loves a love story!
Received the marriage certificate from GRO. One mystery gets solved and another one opens. It appears that on 21 August, 1948, Leslie Victor Golding, age 26, formerly married to Lydia Alice Mary Golding née Marsh married Marianne Christa Kunz, née Krieger, age 22, formerly married to Fritz Kunz, at the Register's Officer in Rochford, Essex. Both had divorced their previous partners. Residence at the time of marriage is given at an address in Rochford. Golding is listed as a "moulder in a foundary." Nothing is listed for the bride. Golding's deceased father, George Thomas Golding is listed as a former journeyman and gas fitter. Marianne's father is given as Richard Walter Krieger, an accountant in a finance bureau. No foreign address is given for either father or daughter. The marriage was witnessed by an "N. Golding" and a "G. Golding". (Brothers?) So, it would appear that this is not the Leslie Golding who was a pre and post-war solicitor for Scotland Yard who served as the Intelligence Officer for 13th Battalion (Luard's Own) during the war. What is intriguing is how and where the couple met and the circumstances behind Leslie's incarceration at the hands of the Soviets and, of course, how he got Marianne out of Eastern Germany to the UK.
Personally, I would suggest those names of the eleven Golding's in Southend from linkedin I spoke of earlier. I bet one of them might give a result. a polite message asking if they had a grandad Les and granny Marianne (or Christa) in their life could throw up some answers. I've had stranger things happen in my research! As an aside, and to up the intrigue, perhaps Leslie was having a little joke with his occupation. Moulder in a foundry... I wonder if he worked on the shaping of iron curtains
But it does seem you have solved the mystery, AHD, as "Marianne Kuenz" is given as the name of his girlfriend. In reading many RAF post war search reports I have noticed that we suffered from a terrible inability to properly spell German place and surnames. As we don't use the umlaut in English I can very easily see the authors of the book adding an "e" to her surname. . Just a note on the spelling of German words with umlauts, it is the correct procedure to add an "e" after the letter if the umlaut is not available. The Germans do it themselves. Names like Göring or Goering, Dönitz or Doenitz not to mention Heß or Hess. It's the same with the "ü". So techinically in German it can be either Kuenz or Künz. Although it would be common for an anglised German name to drop both the umlaut and "e". Anyway an interesting mystery to be solved here. Lee
Fair cop, Lee. I was trying to avoid getting into a long diatribe about the atrocious spelling of most European places by post-war RAF MREU/MRES teams. Some of the French and Belgian places in the files are as equally impossible to make out as the German ones.
a polite message asking if they had a grandad Les and granny Marianne (or Christa) in their life could throw up some answers. I've had stranger things happen in my research! So have I, AHD. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Let's see what the Goldings of Southend can add.
There were insinuations that a couple of SOE Agents who had been POWs in Poland were grabbed in Odessa on the way back to UK.
Any other initial for Lt Golding? I have a Leslie V Golding married a KUNZ in 1948 in Rochford (Southend) alternative name give KRIEGER He was previously married in 1942 in Thurrock spouse name MARSH. Did his wife die or divorce. Did he then rescue this German girl post war... I'm fascinated to find information about Leslie Golding on here - he's a bit of a legend in our family... but not a good one I'm afraid. My mother's father was Eric Marsh... his sister was Alice Marsh and she was Leslie Golding's first wife. They met in Southend where she was a trainee nurse and he was a patient during WW2. He was eleven years younger than my Great Aunt - I believe she was 31 when they married whilst he was just 20. He went off to Germany with the war and when he returned he came back ridden with VD (something she surmised thanks to her nursing skills and training). It transpired that he had fraternized with quite a few women whilst in Germany and had even had one or two children by one woman. Alice quickly divorced Leslie (which destroyed her and caused enormous family upset) and, the last we heard he was back in Southend (where he was from) and had not married any of the German women he had 'befriended' during the war. I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows anymore about this chap or could possibly give us his side of the story??
This is a murky area. In her book Gulag, Anne Applebaum speaks of a number of British and American servicemen held by the Soviets, but the specifics are very uncertain.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows anymore about this chap or could possibly give us his side of the story?? Hi BB, Many thanks for the addition to the Golding saga. It may also account for why I never heard back from ANY of the Goldings of Southend after following AHD's recommendation in Post #31. I will have to try a little harder. Thanks again. Regards, Dave
I am pretty sure it is not the same fellow. I wrote Major Ellis "Dixie" Dean, the author of the piece of Luard's Own, and he advised me that Captain Leslie Golding, a solicitor before the war, went to work at New Scotland Yard post war . Just had an email in admin account from a relative of this Capt Golding with similar info.
Thanks for that, Owen. When I was researching this I became rather intrigued at the story of "this" Leslie Golding. Did your correspondent advise you whether he is still with us or if he spent his entire post-war career with New Scotland Yard? As I mentioned in an earlier post, Captain Golding stopped attending reunions of Luard's Own in the mid '50s so while he is definitely not the man this thread is about it would be interesting to learn what happened to him. Regards, Dave