Pte 32750 Leonard James Wall

• Age: 21
• From: Wolverhampton
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 11th March 1917
• Commemorated at: Agny New Military Cem
  Panel Ref: E.6

Leonard James Wall was born in Tipton, Staffordshire (Dudley district), ten miles northwest of Birmingham in October 1895, the son of George Wall and his wife Catherine Warrilow Wall (née Martin). His parents, both born in Tipton, married in 1889 and had ten children, all of whom survived. Leonard had older brothers George, Asarelah, and (Cecil) Arthur, and younger siblings Catherine, (Horace) William, Joseph, Frank, (Batholomew) Albert, and Elsie May. 

His parents lived briefly in Trevethin, Monmouthshire, where his  father worked in iron works and where Leonard's brother Asarelah (apparently also known as Ernest) was born in 1891. Asarelah, of Hebrew origin, appears to be a family name. Leonard was baptised on 01st December 1895 in St. John's Church, Tipton. 

The 1901 census finds the family living at 9 High Street, Tipton, with six children; Leonard is 5.  His father is an iron worker. 

Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country.  James Watt built his first steam engine (used to pump water from the mines) in Tipton in the 1770s.

By 1911 they have moved to 45 Alexandra Road, still in Tipton.  Both his parents are 45.  His brothers, George, 21, and Asarelah (now shown as Ernest), 19, are iron sheet mill furnace men.  Arthur, 17, is a hotel waiter, and Leonard, 15, is a  boiler yard labourer for general engineers. Catherine is 13, William 11, Joseph 9, Frank 7, Albert 5, and Elsie 4.

The family appear to have moved to Ellesmere Port at the time of the Great War and Leonard enlisted at Knowsley joining the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 32750. Based on the amount of the War Gratuity, Leonard enlisted in late 1915. 

In the middle of February 1917 the battalion took over trenches at Agny, just southwest of Arras. The War Diary shows active patrolling at night to observe enemy movements. On 4th March they moved to billets at Ashicourt. On the 5th the enemy shelled the billets, causing 21 casualties wounded. On 11th March, still in billets, they provided working parties. The Diary notes that Pte. L.J. Wall was killed by a rifle grenade.

Leonard was killed in action on 11th March 1917, aged 21.

He now rests st Agny New Military Cemetery in France at plot E.6 where his headstone bears the epitaph;

"PEACE! LOVED ONES FAR AWAY IN JESU'S KEEPING.WE ARE SAFE AND THEY. FROM MOTHER" 

Agny New Military Cemetery was begun by French troops, and used by Commonwealth units and field ambulances from March 1916 to June 1917. Two further burials were made in April 1918, and in 1923-24, 137 graves were brought in from the battlefields east of Arras. The 40 French graves have been removed. Agny Military Cemetery contains 408 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 118 of them unidentified, and five German graves. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. 

Reported killed in the Chester Chronicle 14th April 1917 - Wall 32750, L.J., Ellesmere Port

His mother Catherine received his Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £5. 

The pension card, giving his parents’ address as 29 Highfield Road, Ellesmere Port, shows that a pension was awarded, amount not specified. 

In 1939 his parents, both 72, were living at 24 Dudley Road, Ellesmere Port.  His father is retired, and brother Joseph, 37, is employed in the iron works. 

His father died in 1941 aged 73, and his mother ten years later, aged 83. 

Leonard is commemorated on the following Memorials;

Mersey Iron Works War Memorial which is situated at the Royal British Legion Social Club on Stanney Lane, Ellesmere Port

Christ Church, Ellesmere Port.

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