11 Nov 1914 - Leslie Payne in Winnipeg

When Leslie enlisted in the CASC, he was working as a grocer's clerk at Eaton's Department Store, and had been living in Winnipeg for several months. His attestation paper shows that he was 22 years 7 months old and 6 ft 1 ins tall.

He had originally emigrated to Canada from his native Derbyshire, England in about 1912. In a letter written to his son on 17 Nov 1951 he said, "I left home for Canada when I was twenty."


Leslie Payne in Normanton, Derby, England, ca. 1910
Initially he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in Saskatchewan, "planting trees in railway cuttings as snow breaks." By May 1913 he was working in Chaplin and then in February 1914, when his grandmother died back home in England, he was in Swift Current.


Leslie Payne & CPR railway wagon at Chaplin
Queen Victoria Day - 24 May 1913
Shortly after this, however, he must have moved to Winnipeg and joined Eatons Department store, living - almost certainly as a boarder - at 36c Broadway. His experience while in the employment of his uncle's off-licence and grocery shop in St. James Road, Derby would have stood him in good stead, both for the post at Eatons, and subsequently as a wagon driver with the CASC.


Eatons Department Store Receiving Goods
Winnipeg, ca. 1910
Sources:
Newspaper report of funeral of Henrietta Christina Payne, Feb 1914, Collection of C.B. Payne
Address in CLL Payne's Notebook, used c. 1914, Collection of C.B. Payne
C.B. Payne, Personal Communication