Name
Leonard Bell
1892
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/05/1918
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Rifle Brigade
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VILLERS STATION CEMETERY, VILLERS-AU-BOIS
XII. B. 18.
France
Headstone Inscription
R.I.P.
UK & Other Memorials
Letchworth Town Memorial
Pre War
Leonard Bell was born in Otford, Kent in 1892 (baptised 11 Mar 1892, Otford) to Leonard Bell, insurance clerk, and Emily E (nee Hunt).
On the 1901 Census the family of parents, Leonard, and Dorothy (born 1894) were living at The Honeysuckles, Glossop Road, Sanderstead, Croydon, Surrey.
On the 1911 Census the family of father, Leonard (now a corn feed merchant) and Dorothy were living at Edendale, Baldock Road, Letchworth.
Leonard enlisted in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry on 1 Mar 1911 in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, for a term of 4 years with the Territorial Army. Originally Private in 'A Squadron' Bedfordshire Yeomanry (Service Number 653).
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of the First World War Leonard was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal and was re-engaged into the Territorial Army on the 10 Nov 1915. It was in Jun 1915 that he was posted to France to serve with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, returning to the UK on the 30 Apr 1916. Leonard, now a Corporal, was discharged from the Bedfordshire Yeomanry on the 17 May 1916 to a commission in the 10th Rifle Brigade, the promotion being confirmed in the London Gazette on the 30 May 1916.
He survived gunshot wound to abdomen 6 weeks after his Commissioning in June 1916, when he was 'seriously wounded' in stomach, bullet passing out through side - his life saved by cigarette case.
During his service on the Western Front he suffered from an attack of Enteritis, for which he was returned to the UK - this was probably prior to the 30 Apr 1916. On the 21 May 1918 was wounded in action, by a bomb from an early morning raid by enemy aircraft, and he later died as a result of his injuries at No.57 Casualty Clearing Station in Aubigny.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £10 10s and arrears of £157 6s 1d was paid to his executor.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Dan Hill, Louise Fryer, Jonty Wild
