Leslie Robert Wishart was born ‘Robert Leslie’ in Brisbane, Queensland on 22 July 1890. He was the eldest of four sons of a local photographer named Alexander Campbell Wishart, and his wife, Jane Whitecross. The family lived in the coastal suburb of Wynnum, and after leaving school young Robert found work as a cycle mechanic. By 1913 they had moved to Norman Park and resident on Hawthorn Road where Robert gained experience working as a general motor mechanic.

On 13 September 1916 Robert enlisted in Brisbane and joined the 11th Depot Battalion of the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Mechanical Transport Company as a driver. Three months later, on 22 December, he embarked in Melbourne for England and arrived in Devonport on 3 March 1917. Upon arrival, he marched to the Australian Army Service Corps training depot at Parkhouse Camp on the Salisbury Plain and transferred into the 2nd Divisional Supply Column on 15 June. Five days later Robert left for France via Southampton and eventually detached to the 2nd Australian Divisional Headquarters on 15 November. The reassignment was brief, and he spent the remainder of the war serving in France with the 2nd Australian Motor Transport Company and then 2nd Divisional Signal Company from 27 May 1918. Brief periods of leave to the UK followed in August 1918 and February 1919 with Robert eventually returning to England on 4 June 1919. On 18 July he boarded the troopship SS Takada and left for home – arriving on 9 September and discharged from duty on 17 October.

Back at the family home, Robert resumed his pre-war occupation working with motorcycles and on 12 February 1921; he married a widow from Bury St Edmunds named Mary May Proctor. The couple went to live in Manly where Robert found work as a carrier, and during the Second World War, he served with the local Volunteer Defence Corps. He died in Queensland on 1 August 1960.

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