SMITH, Leonard

Leonard Smith was the son of Sidney Smith of Vicarage Road, Blackheath, and his wife was Martha, later of 6 Birmingham Road, Rowley Regis. He might have been a pre-war regular soldier in the South Staffords but in 1915 he was serving in the 1/5th (Territorial) Battalion of the regiment. After an initial posting to Ypres they joined the battlefield of Loos for the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt and suffered very heavy casualties. They proceeded to Egypt for a brief stay and returned to the Western Front in the Spring of 1916. In the Arras sector casualties were taken and on the 3rd April Private Leonard Smith was killed in action. He was 32 years of age and is commemorated on the Arras, Blackheath and Halesowen Memorials.