Private Leslie Ian Watt, F.M.S.V.F., is reported to have died of sickness at the age of 38 while in Japanese hands in 1943, during work on the Siamese railway.
He was born in New Zealand and was a student at the Otago School of Mines from March, 1928, to October, 1930, leaving to take up a position as miner with Blackwater Mines, Ltd., Wainta, New Zealand, where he was subsequently appointed surveyor. In September, 1938, he joined the New Zealand Government Mines Department as surveyor in the State Iron and Steel Department, and four months later accepted a position with General Mining and Agency Co., Ltd., and went to Siam as assistant manager to Straits Consolidated Tin Mines, Ltd., at the Laboo mine, Yala. In March, 1939, he was put in charge of the Temengor tin mine at Grik, Upper Perak, for Straits Tinfields, Ltd.
Mr. Watt was with the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force and there had been no news of him since 1941 when he was elected to Associateship of the Institution.
Vol. 56, Trans IMM 1946-7, p.626
