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Fate delivers cruel blows post-war but training saves fit Peters

Sarah WatersComment News

SIX weeks after Leslie Peters and his best friend Donald Cummings came home after being discharged from the army, they were in a terrible motorbike accident on July 31, 1946.

Mr Cummings, who was 21 at the time, was killed when the motorbike he was riding reportedly crashed into the end of the old Wungong bridge outside of Armadale.

Mr Peters, 22 at the time, who was on the back on the bike, was seriously injured but survived.

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The reason the two friends left the army was because Mr Cummings had recently got engaged and wanted to go home to his fiancee.

Mr Peters ended up in a nearby creek but managed to pull himself out despite being seriously injured.

He said the reason he was able to drag himself out of the creek was because he was so physically fit from his Army training.

In a cruel twist of fate, Mr Peters named his son Donald after his friend, but he was killed at the age of 26 after being hit by a car in Geraldton.

He was helping to tow someone, who had broken down on the side of the road.