Name
Leonard Temple
17th September 1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
28/04/1918
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
99318
The Kings (Liverpool)
1st/5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BROWN'S ROAD MILITARY CEMETERY, FESTUBERT
V. H. 11.
France
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial, Church of Ascension Memorial, Bedmond
Biography
Leonard Temple was first listed in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in November 1916, serving with the Bedfordshire Regiment. He had enlisted at Watford and by January 1917 he had joined the Huntingdon Cyclist Battalion. The Hunts Cyclists, whose nickname was the “Gaspipe Cavalry”, were retained in Britain for patrolling stretches of the coast, primarily in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. As the War progressed and the Army started to run short of new recruits 90% of the Hunts Cyclists were despatched to France on 28th July 1916 to serve with other units. It is not known precisely when Leonard was sent to France but this is a probable date. The Abbots Langley Roll of Honour listed him killed in action in the June 1918 Parish Magazine and he was shown still serving with the Cyclist Corps. However the Magazine Obituary indicated that he was serving with the Liverpool Regiment and this was supported by the official records at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Soldiers’ Died in the Great War archive and Leonard’s headstone which all indicated that he was serving with 1/5th The Kings (Liverpool) at the time of his death. There is however a discrepancy with regards to the date of his death. His Obituary in the Parish Magazine noted that Leonard died on 10th May 1918, but all of the other records listed that he died on 28th April 1918.
Little is known about Leonard’s time in the Army as his Service Record has not survived. However the Obituary published in the June 1918 edition of the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine shed some light on this.: “A Bedmond man - Leonard Temple, Liverpool Regt, was killed by a shell on his way to the trenches on May 10th (sic). He had always been a most delicate boy, and when a young man severely fractured his leg. He was called up for examination on seven occasions and rejected, and at last passed into the non-combatant forces, where he acted as a cook. He had only been in France a month. He leaves a widowed mother, of whom he was the only son, to mourn his loss, and she will have the sympathy of us all.”
The War Diary of the 1/5th Liverpool’s noted that the battalion arrived in the Festubert Sector on 21st March 1918, and joined the Brigade Reserve. On 10th April the battalion was in the Front Line and beat off an enemy bombing attack. Two days later it was back in Reserve and moved from village to village, until on 27th April it relieved the 5th South Lancs Battalion in trenches around Festubert. The 1/5th Liverpool’s War Diarist commented that on 28th April “it was a quiet day, with heavy shelling in the evening”. It was on this day, and probably in this spate of shelling, that Leonard was killed.
Leonard was born on 17th September 1891, in Bedmond, Nr Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire the only child of William Asa Temple (General Labourer) (Born in 1854) and Amelia Temple (nee Elkins) (Born in 1851). Leonard was baptised on the 1st November 1891, in Abbots Langley, Herts.
At the time of the 1901 Census the family lived near the “White Hart” at Bedmond. William worked as a General Labourer. Leonard aged 9, was at school and his widowed grandmother Mary Elkins was also living with the family. His father William died in 1907.
By the time of the 1911 Census, Leonard who also worked as a General Labourer, had moved a short distance to “The Bank” at Bedmond where he lived with 88 year old Joseph Turvey, a (presumably) retired wheelwright, and his wife Emma.
Leonard Temple was buried at Brown’s Road Military Cemetery at Festubert, France and was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial. He was also commemorated on the War Memorial at the Church of the Ascension at Bedmond.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £7 and arrears of £2 12s 6d paid ti his mother.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
