Name
Leonard Smith
18 February 1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/06/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
7924
Lancashire Fusiliers
1st/6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HELLES MEMORIAL
Panel 59 to 73 or 218 to 219.
Turkey (including Gallipoli)
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Baldock memorials
Pre War
Leonard Smith was born on 18 February 1891 in Eye, Herefordshire, the son of George and Martha Ann Smith.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Bevington, Eye, where his father was working as a land steward. At that time, Leonard was the youngest of three children and they had a 14 year old domestic servant living with them.
His father died in 1894 and on the 1911 Census he was living with his widowed mother and brother George at Mill Brow, Worseley, Manchester, where he was working as a clerk to a woollen manufacturer. He was said to be living in Baldock at the time of enlistment.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Rochdale, Lancashire and joined the 1/6th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, arriving in Egypt on 25 September 1914, en route to Gallipoli where he landed on 5 May 1915. He had been promoted to Acting Lance Corporal but was killed in action on 4 June 1915 at Crithia, Gallipoli.
Leonard has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Turkey.
Additional Information
His mother received a war gratuity of £3. Pay owing of £3 18s 7d was divided between his mother and brother Nelson. Pension cards exist showing his mother as dependant but with no indication of the amount received. Her address was then given as Elm Bank, Stotfold, Baldock, Herts. She obtained probate of his estate on 28 October 1915 in Rochdale, Lancashire with effects of £139 13s 8d, giving her home address given as 25 Mere Street, Rochdale, Lancs.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
