Pte Leonard Buckley

Leonard was born Dec 1895, the youngest son of Joseph Buckley and his wife Mary (née Broome).  Joseph, born in Cheshire, and Mary, in Shropshire, married in the Warrington district in 1888.  His mother had a daughter, Louisa Broome, born in 1885.  His father was a railway signalman and the family moved frequently from station to station. 

 

They had had five children together:  Alice Maud, born in 1889 in Warrington, then Harold Ernest, born in 1890 in Altcar.  The 1891 census shows the family living in Railway Cottages, at Lydiate station.  Frederick was born in 1893 in Walton, Liverpool.  When Leonard was born in 1895, they were living in Farnworth (north of Widnes), Lancashire.  Their last child, Ellen (Lily), was born in 1898 in Hough Green (near Widnes).  The same year Ellen was born their eldest, Alice, died, aged 9.  

 

The 1901 census finds them at 28 Mersey Road, Railway Station, Garston, Liverpool area.  His father is 33, a railway signalman, his mother is 36.  They have four children and step daughter Louisa.  Leonard is 5.  They also have a boarder, an 18 year old railway porter. 

 

His father appears on the 1905 - 1908 Electoral Rolls at Railway Cottages, Hunts Cross.

 

By 1911 the family has moved again, and are living at 11 Argyle Road, Garston.  His mother Mary, 46, lists herself as housekeeper, married, although his father Joseph is not in the household.   Harold, 20, and Fred, 18, are railway porters, Leonard is 15, a junior office clerk, and Ellen is 13, at school.  It is not known when his father died, as no death record has been found.

 

Unfortunately, his service record has not survived, so the full details are not known.  We do know that Leonard enlisted in Liverpool as Private 24518, 18th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment and arrived in France with his battalion on 7th November 1915.

 

The Liverpool Echo on 14th July 1916 reported further Pals casualties from the Battle of the Somme:  Leonard Buckley wounded, two bullet wounds through the shoulder. 

 

Leonard was transferred to the 11th Battalion K.L.R. likely after recuperating from his wounds.  The 11th K.L.R. was raised in August 1914 as part of Kitchener’s New Army, and in January 1915 was converted into a Pioneer battalion.  In 1917 they fought in the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, the First and Third Battles of the Scarpe at Arras,  and the Battles of Langemark and at Passchendaele.  

The Battalion War Diary shows the 11th Battalion spent December 1917 in camp in the Potijze/St. Jean area, northeast of Ypres, engaged in maintenance and repair of roads and tracks, with occasional casualties killed and wounded. The entry for 23rd December shows -

 

Leonard was one of those who died of wounds from the bombing on 23rd December 1917.  He was 22 years old and he now rests in Ypres Resevoir Cemetery, Flanders.

 

The cemetery was at first called the "Cemetery North of the Prison," later "Ypres Reservoir North Cemetery”, and now Ypres Reservoir Cemetery.  It was begun in October 1915 and used by fighting units and field ambulances until after the Armistice, when it contained 1,099 graves. The cemetery was later enlarged when graves were brought in from the battlefields of the salient and smaller burial grounds.  There are now 2,613 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 1,034 of whom are unidentified. Six of the identified burials are Liverpool Pals.

 

It appears his family received the news a couple of weeks lateras they placed notices in the Liverpool Echo on 9th January 1918:

 

 

• His sorrowing Fiancée Maud.”

 

Leonard earned his three medals.  His mother, still at Argyle Road, received a War Gratuity of £13-10s, and a pension of 8/- a week. His Army effects went to his mother and siblings Harold, Frederick, and Lily.

 

His brother Harold served in the 12th K.L.R., won the Military Medal as a Lance Corporal, attained the rank of Sergeant, and survived the war.

 

Leonard is commemorated in St. Michael’s Church, Garston.

 

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