| Date of birth: | 1891 |
| Place of birth: | Portswood, Southampton |
| Regiment: | The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) |
| Battalion: | 8th |
| Rank / Service No: | Serjeant, G/3087 |
| Died: | 21st August 1916, aged 25 years |
| Buried: | Serre Road Cemetery #2, Somme, France (Plot XIX, Row D, Grave 19) |
Leonard was the youngest of 3 known siblings born to William and Mary Armstrong (nee Witcher), who married in the Winchester area in 1880.
The couple are known to have had 7 children and so 4 of them must have died in infancy.
William was born in Donegal in 1857 but it is not known when he died.
Mary was born in Hursley on 27 March 1857 and she passed away in Southampton in 1949.
Siblings
Margaret (Maggie) Jane b. 1885 Southampton d. ?? Married in 1903…
Albert Harry b. 1889 Portswood d. 1918 Winchester Married Olive M. Harding in Southampton in 1915.
Leonard
Leonard married Ida Maria Knowlton in Southampton in 1916, presumably whilst home on leave.
Ida had been born in St. Mary’s in 1891. After her husband’s premature death, Ida married Christopher Redman in 1920.
She passed away in the Winchester area in 1931.
The 8th Battalion was formed in September 1914 at Guildford. As part of the 72nd Brigade in the 24th Division, they were mobilised for war on 31 August 1915 and landed at Boulogne.
The Division was in action at the Battle of Loos within 3 weeks, where they endured 4,178 casualties. It took the rest of 1915 to rebuild the Division.
1916 saw the battalion involved in the German gas attack at Wulverghem, in the Battle of Delville Wood and at the Battle of Guillemont.
It is likely that Leonard perished in the Delville Wood area.
#2 Cemetery was begun in May 1917, before being greatly enlarged after the Armistice with graves from the surrounding area.
It now holds 7,127 Commonwealth WWI burials, of which 4,944 are unidentified.
| Researcher: | Mark Heritage |
| Published: | 18th November 2016 |
| Updated: |
If you have any additional comments on the person named above, please complete the comments section below.
