CHARLES PRICHARD LESESNE

The Citadel Class of:	1933	Photo: B. Putensen, 2012; Genealogy.net
Cadet Company:	E (Sphinx 1930); G (Sphinx 1931)
Age:	34
Born:	4-MAR-11, Orangeburg, SC
Hometown:	Sumter, South Carolina
Family:	Claudius Prichard Lesesne(father), Elizabeth Daniel Lesesne (mother), Henry Hilton Lesesne (brother)
Rank:	Flight Lieutenant/ Pilot
Branch of Service:	Royal Canadian Air Force
Service number:	C/3879
Entered the Service from:	Mossbanks, Saskatchewan, Canada
Function:	Pilot
Group:	Bomber Command
Squadron:	No. 425 Squadron (“Alouette”) RCAF
Plane data:	Halifax NR-271 “KW-N” based at Tholthorpe, Yorkshire, England
(Serialnumber, MACR, etc.)
Date of death:	31-Mar-45
Status:	KIA
Place of death:	Over Hamburg, Germany
Spot:	not available
Awards:
Cemetery	Hamburg Cemetery, Ohlsdorf, Germany
Grave number:	Plot 6A  Row D Grave 13
Biography:	Charles Lesesne, Of Sumter, Reported Killed Over Germany Sumter, July 17. (AP) Flt Lt. Charles P. Lesesne of the Royal Canadian Air Force was killed in a mission over Germany late in March, his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Daniel Lesesne, of Sumter, was notified by the R.C.A.F.Lieutenant Lesesne had been reported missing since that time. He was a member of the editorial staff of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer for five years and left that newspaper before the United States entered the war to join the R.C.A.F. He was aviation editor of the Observer. Before joining the Observer, he worked for a short while on the Sumter Daily Item. He was born March 4, 1911 at Orangeburg, and attended the public schools in Columbia. He attended the Citadel and the University of South Carolina. He learned to fly and received his pilot’s license while a member of the Observer staff. He was an instructor in Canada for several years before going overseas. Besides his mother, he is survived by a brother, Henry Lesesne, a member of the staff of The Associated Press in Atlanta. Promoted to Cadet Corporal December 5, 1930
Other information:	From the Bomber Command Museum of Canada website… Charles P. “Chuck” Lesesne – A Pilot’s Sacrifice Charles Prichard Lesesne’s ancestors were French Huguenots and the family settled in South Carolina where Charles was born in 1911. After attending the University of South Carolina, he worked as an aviation writer before World War II, he was reporting on the exciting and new aviation technology and had a syndicated newspaper column called “Wing-Overs.” Just before becoming an flying instructor in the RCAF, he was part of the editorial staff of the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina from 1935 until 1939 and the Sumter Daily Item during 1940 and 1941. [Continue reading…]

Sources: Commonwealth War Grave Commission; The Citadel Archive & Museum; Mike Stannard ’65; draft card; International Find a Grave; Young American Patriots. Richmond, VA, USA: National Publishing Co., 1946; Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf (britische Soldaten 1939-45), Steve Smith ’84

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