L/Cpl 200469 Leonard Arthur Smith

• Age: 22
• From: Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Friday 22nd March 1918
• Commemorated at: Savy Brit Cem
  Panel Ref: Roupy Rd. Mem. 64

Leonard Arthur Smith was born on 28th April 1895 in Burgh Castle, the son of Wallace Alfred Thomas and Alethea Smith (née Allum). Burgh Castle is a village 3-4 miles west of Great Yarmouth, then in Suffolk, now in Norfolk and part of the Norfolk Broads. He was baptised on Whit Sunday in 1895. His father, known as Thomas, was from Dorset, and his mother was born in Suffolk. 

His parents married in 1892 and had seven children, all born in Burgh Castle.  Leonard had an older sister Agatha Elizabeth, and younger siblings Ernest Alfred, Reginald Thomas, William Wallace, Mabel Alethea, and Edith Mary. 

The 1901 census finds his parents and four children living in the Cottages, Church Road, Burgh Castle.  His father is a domestic coachman and gardener, Leonard is 5. 

Some time after 1905 they moved to the Liverpool area and by 1911 they are living in Albert Villa (five rooms), on Derby Road, Huyton with Roby.  His father, 43, is a domestic coachman, his mother is 49, Leonard is 15, working as a butcher’s errand boy. All the younger children are at school: Ernest, 13, Reginald, 11, William, 9, Mabel, 8, and Edith, 5.  His eldest sister Agatha, 17, is a domestic servant in Huyton. 

He enlisted in Liverpool in the 1/5th Bn King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 2189. The amount of the War Gratuity and the date of his arrival in France (from the medal roll) suggest that he enlisted soon after war was declared. 

Leonard arrived in France on 21st February 1915, the battalion becoming part of the 6th Brigade, 2nd Division.  In December 1915 they transferred to the 99th Brigade of same Division and saw action at Festubert and Loos. On 7th January 1916 the battalion transferred to the 165th Brigade, in the newly formed 55th (West Lancashire) Division  which was then in the Hallencourt area.  

In February 1916 the Division relieved the French 88th Division south of Arras, and moved to the Somme in late July, taking over a section of front line near the village of Guillemont. They were in action at  Guillemont, at Ginchy, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette and the Battle of Morval. The Division moved to Flanders in October 1916 and took over the front line between Wieltje and Railway Wood. In 1917 they were in action at Pilkem Ridge and Menin Road Ridge during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). They moved south to Cambrai where they suffered very heavy casualties during the German counter attacks on 30th November 1917.  

At some point Leonard was posted to the 19th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment  who also saw action at the Somme (including Guillemont) and in the Ypres Salient (including  Passchendaele).

He was serving as Lance-Corporal No 200469 when he was killed in action on the 22^nd March, 1918, during the German Spring Offensive.

The Battalion diary provides an insight into the events of the day: 

22^nd  GERMAINE – HAM- MOYENCOURT

The battalion moved up accordingly being in position at 6:30 a.m. About 3pm the enemy attacked the left of our position and advanced on our left flank towards FLUQUIERES. At 4:30 pm an attack was launched on our front and the enemy forced his way through on our right. The remainder of the Battalion was forced to retire to south of FLUQUIERES. During this engagement the Battalion lost 11 Officers and About 21 O.R. The order was given to retire to the defences at HAM. The Battalion by this time was very weak, and passing through the 20^th Division took up positions in HAM, as ordered, getting into position at 2am.

The CWGC Graves Registration form shows that Leonard, along with a number of others from the 19th Bn, was buried by the Germans, but after the war a Special Memorial was erected in Savy British Cemetery :  

“To the memory of these 68 British Soldiers, Killed in Action in March 1918, and buried at the time in the German Cemetery on the St. Quentin-Roupy Road, whose graves are now lost.”

The inscription on Leonard's headstone reads:

“HE LIES SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN”

Savy was taken by the 32nd Division on the 1st April 1917, after hard fighting, and Savy Wood on the 2nd. On the 21st March 1918 Savy and Roupy were successfully defended by the 30th Division, but the line was withdrawn after nightfall. The village and the wood were retaken on the 17th September 1918 by the 34th French Division, fighting on the right of the British IX Corps.

Savy British Cemetery was made in 1919, and the graves from the battlefields and from the following small cemeteries in the neighbourhood were concentrated into it.

There are now over 850, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, more than half are unidentified. Memorials are erected in the cemetery to 68 soldiers (chiefly of the 19th King's Liverpools and the 17th Manchesters), buried by the Germans in their cemetery on the St. Quentin-Roupy road, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The Cemetery covers an area of 2,555 square metres and is enclosed by a low rubble wall.

Leonard earned his three medals.  

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £21 went to his mother.  No pension card has been found. 

His mother died in 1931, aged 70.  His brother Reginald died in 1938, aged 38. 

In 1939 his father, 71, is at 12 Birch Grove, Huyton, still working as a gardener, living with married daughter Agatha Webster, 46.  

His father died in 1956 at the age of 88. 

Leonard is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Huyton with Roby Memorial 

Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 38 Left 

We currently have no further information on Leonard Arthur Smith, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.