No.15639, Private, Leonard MARTIN
Aged 21
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Leonard Martin was born in Great Saxham (2nd qtr 1894 Thingoe 4a:735), son of Ephraim and Caroline MARTIN (née SHARPE).
1901 census...Aged 6, he was at Twaites Cottages, Great Saxham with his father Ephraim Martin [31] horsekeeper born Hargrave; his mother Caroline [30] sister Doris C [4] and brother Arthur [1].All except his father born in Great Saxham. 1911 census...Aged 17, gardener's assistant, he was still at Twaites with his parents; sisters Doris, Margaret [9] and Ruby [6]; brothers Arthur, Thomas [7] Harry [6] and Geoffrey [1]. On the pension card his mother was at Great Saxham His cousin George was killed in July 1917 in Belgium, they are both named on panel 21 on the Menin Gate see here |
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He enlisted in Bury St.Edmunds
The battalion war diary has:- "Hooge - 16th 4:15 am - 3rd Div attacked at 4:14 am Railway Wood and the trenches south of it and Y Wood. B and D Coys got into Y Wood without any casualties and through it - consequently our own artillery shelled our men heavily as it had been calculated that it would take some time to get through. Worcestershires were stopped by bombing about midway between Y Wood and Hooge. 10 am- About 10 am portions of the KSLI and KRRs of the 14th Div began to arrive at Battn HQ. They were supposed to do a fresh attack through our line - They none of them knew where they were and were scattered in odd half coys all the way back to Ypres. This was in no way their fault, as practically no guides had been provided and only 4 officers per battn had done a very short reconnaissance a few days previously - consequently the battns did not get up to the firing line till about 2:0 pm with the help of all our orderlies, servants, etc to show them the way and suffered immense and un-necessary casualties through exposing themselves to artillery in known bad spots. Happily only 5 of the Battalion were killed that day
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