Name
Leonard Varley
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/11/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
1st/6th Bn. (Territorial)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BARD COTTAGE CEMETERY
I. M. 40.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, Royal Masonic School Memorial, Rickmansworth
Pre War
Born in Bradford on 29 March 1893 and baptised on 23 April 1893 at St Mary Magdalene Church in Manningham, Bradford, Leonard Varley was the son of George and Sarah (Mary) (nee Hodgson) Varley of 18 Belgrave Place. His parents were married on 29 October 1884 in the parish of St Jude in Manningham. George was living at 131 Oak Lane and Sarah at 6 Clarendon Street. Georges father was recorded as a weaver.
At the 1901 census, Leonard was aged 8 and living with his family at 6 Whetley Street in the Parish of St Mary Magdalene, Bradford. George and Mary were 39 and 44 years old respectively and George was working as a letter-press printer. Also present were Mary’s 77-year-old widowed father, Joseph Hodgson and George’s 10-year-old nephew, Arthur Gill. Birthplaces were given as Knaresborough for George, Mary and Joseph, and Bradford for Leonard and Arthur.
Leonard was educated at Belle Vue Higher Grade School. At age twelve, he won scholarships to Bradford Grammar School and to the Saltaire Higher Grade School but did not take up either option. When he was sixteen, he also won the first ‘Isaac Holden’ Scholarship to Cambridge, but was too young to go up, so went as exchange tutor in English to Rodez College in France. In 1911 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining a BA with Honours. In June 1914, he was appointed as a Modern Languages teacher at The Royal Masonic School in Bushey.
Meanwhile, by the time of the 1911 census, George and Mary had moved to 44 Leyburn Grove in Shipley, Yorkshire. George was still employed as a letter-press printer (compositor). They had had two children one of whom had died in childhood.
Wartime Service
Whilst at Trinity College Cambridge, Leonard had been a member of the University Officer Training Corps. On 26 August 1914, he joined the 6th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's West Yorkshire Regiment as Second Lieutenant and was promoted to full Lieutenant on 1 June, 1915.
He served in France from 20 September 2015 and took part in fighting near Ypres and was killed there on 11 November 1915, aged 21. It was his last night in the trenches, as he was due out for a rest, when he was killed while returning from examining gun positions. A career full of brilliant promise was cut short, for he possessed exceptional ability and everything he took in hand he seemed to accomplish with little effort. He had an affectionate and cheerful disposition which was also characterised by great unselfishness. He was buried at Bard Cottage Cemetery, west of Ypres.
An article in the Shipley Times & Express reported that: “Captain S F Marriner sent the news to Mr George Varley, at 44 Leyburn Grove, Shipley that his son had been picked off by a sniper. At the time he was in charge of the machine gunners and had been round the gun teams accompanied by his sergeant who was with him when he was hit. He was buried in the military cemetery behind the lines, close to where two other officers of the battalion have been laid.”
The Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects named his father, George Varley, as his sole legatee and showed payment of £87 11s. 8d.
Leonard is commemorated on the Bushey Memorial. He is also commemorated on the oak panels in the Trinity College Chapel, which list the 619 names of those who died in the first world war, and in the 'City of Bradford Great War 1914-1918 Roll of Honour'.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild, World War 1 and Shipley - http://www.shipleyww1.org.uk
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk Malcolm Lennox, Old Masonians Association, Jonty Wild
