Les went to South Africa to with his parents to join Ronald. In South Africa he worked as a clerk in a shipping company. In Melbourne he worked as an estate agent. According to Sid McNaughton, his real estate office was in Chapel Street, in the front of the building where Ron McNaughton had a joinery shop in the rear. Later he lived with his sister Emma (Em), and later still, alone.

Les never married. Keith remembers him as a fastidious man of regular habits. It was a family joke that he cooked the same meals for himself every week and had the pattern fixed, even down to how many of pea pods he needed for each meal. He lived in a house in Elsternwick, Melbourne, which he owned together with the one next door which he rented out. He played bridge regularly. He considered the South African Negroes to be a very inferior race, though the Chinese he thought were quite acceptable. Judging by the few books he left when he died, he must have had quite an interest in politics in his youth, reading analyses on colonial policy and socialist essays.

Les gave wonderful dinner sets as wedding presents to Sid and Marjorie, Brenda and Dave and Keith and Lesley. The story goes that he used to select these gifts by asking a female shop assistant of the appropriate age which of the dinner sets she would most like. Keith remembers that his Xmas gift was usually a good-quality scarf, even though scarves were not worn by boys.

Keith remembers that his last car was an upright, highly-polished black sedan, possibly a Morris 8 or something like that. When too old to drive he used to go on outings by taxi, almost always to Mordialloc.