John Leslie Colbourne, son of Charles Edward and Ethel Maude Colbourne, was born in 1899 in Lancing, where his father was a Colonial Butcher, with a Butcher's Shop in South Lancing main street. In the 1930s Charles Colbourne established a chain of 25 butcher's shops in East and West Sussex.
Several generations of the Colbourne family were Confectioners and Grocers and ran a Post Office in South Lancing.
In 1911 John Leslie was a Boarder at Horsham Grammar School. Founded by Richard Collier AD 1532 it was known as Collyer's School from 1923. From the 1890s 110 boys from ages 7 to 17, both boarders and day-schoolers, were taught there, and for the first time a sixth form to study for university entrance was included.
In early 1918 John L became a Second Lieutenant in the RAF, in the 16th Training Squadron which was formed in 1915 at Saint-Omer to carry out a mixture of offensive patrolling and reconnaissance. During July 1918 three Pilots were killed during training on RE8s in Wiltshire.
R.E.8 biplane
The R.E.8 was a British two-seat biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft of the First World War designed by John Kenworthy at the Royal Aircraft Factory. Intended as a replacement for the vulnerable B.E.2, the R.E.8 was widely regarded as more difficult to fly, and gained a reputation in the Royal Flying Corps for being "unsafe" that was never entirely dispelled.
Although eventually it gave reasonably satisfactory service, it was never an outstanding combat aircraft. In spite of this, the R.E.8 served as the standard British reconnaissance and artillery spotting aircraft from mid-1917 to the end of the war.
At the time of John's death, in training, in Wiltshire, his family lived at 5 Broadway, West Worthing. His mother, Edith, died in 1929 and his father in the 1960's, then living in Hove.