Leslie Bloom

Leslie Arnold Bloom was born in Salisbury Rhodesia in 1916 and grew up in the capital of what was known at the time as Southern Rhodesia, later to become Rhodesia and then Zimbabwe. He was the fourth child of Philip and Annie Bloom. He went to school at Prince Edward High and soon after he matriculated he joined the post office as a telegraphist. He later joined his father's furniture business. In 1939 at the age of 23 he volunteered to the army and was assigned to the signal corps. In April 1940 he sailed to Cairo with fellow Rhodesian soldiers and they were seconded to the British forces in Egypt. He served in the Western Desert and later in Cairo.
He was honoured to send a morse-code telegram from Cairo to London announcing General Montgomery's victory at Al Alamein at beginning of November 1942 preventing the German/Italian Axis from advancing further into Egypt and which became a pivotal event in the eventual defeat of the Nazis in Europe
He received leave from the army and took the train to Tel Aviv where he met Lala (Salka) Waldman and after a short romance they married in Tel Aviv. Lala moved to Cairo with Leslie but was soon afterwards vacated with all other British citizens and put on a ship to Durban South Africa and by train to Salisbury. Leslie joined her after he was demobilised and they raised a family of four children in that city where Leslie owned and ran his own furniture business for many years. Leslie and Lala later moved to New York where they both passed away in 2000.