LeslieTRELOARWith sad hearts we say farewell to Leslie Treloar, who passed away after a brief illness in Toronto, Canada on Friday December 21, 2018 at the age of 95. Leslie was born in the village of Tredavoe, Cornwall on the 10th of June 1923 to William Henry Treloar and Gwendoline May Treloar (formerly Tonkin). The fifth of nine close siblings, he left school around age 13 to work local jobs. Eager for adventure, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II, training first on fighters and then switching to gliders in response to a call for volunteer pilots. His training took him to Canada, all over England, and ultimately to Assam, Bihar, and Bengal. He narrowly avoided a casualty-heavy Rhine crossing, survived crashing one of his gliders into a tree, and learned to love curry. Having comported himself well enough to attain the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he was released from service on November 21, 1946. He quickly retrieved his war-time sweetheart, Lucy Clapham, whom he had met while stationed near Scarborough where she had been evacuated with her teacher's training class. On January 2, 1947 they were married in Penzance. Following the war they tried settling down in Penzance, where their first daughter, Jacqueline Ann, was born at the end of 1947, and then in Lewisham, where Leslie found work with the town council and Lester Anthony was born in 1954. Recovery in post-war England was slow, however, and in 1958 he uprooted his young family to Canada in search of better opportunity and more adventure. They spent several grueling years making ends meet in remote parts of the Western prairies (freezing winters, locust-ridden summers, outdoor plumbing), with Lucy teaching in a one-room schoolhouse and Leslie doing clerical work and selling cemetery plots. Eventually he found work in the growing oil industry, with Stekoll Oil and Gas. The family then moved to Calgary, where they were surprised and delighted by the arrival of a third child, Stephanie Lynn. Leslie worked his way into the executive role of Corporate Secretary with Ashland Oil, and then filled the same role at Ranger Oil until his retirement in 1984. He and Lucy continued to reside in Calgary until 2008, when they moved to Toronto to be near their daughters Jacqueline and Stephanie. Lucy passed away September 9, 2010. Leslie is survived by his children Jacqueline, Lester and Stephanie and her partner Alexei Pavlichev, and by his youngest sister Denise Adams (formerly Treloar) and her husband Michael Adams. He is also survived by his nieces Ann, Judy, Susan, Caroline and Amanda, and by his nephews Paul, Jonathan, Brian and David, and by many great nephews and great nieces. He was preceded in death by his wife Lucy, and his siblings Olga, Ken, Betty, Lionel, Bevan, Beryl, and Mavis.
Keep me informed of updates
Leave a tribute for Leslie
