Arthur Leonard Smith. Born 1892 from north east london. 19th September1914 enrolled as an infantryman at the city of london battalion. He did his training in Watford. he later joined his troops and went to france on 17th march 1915. Their 1st major action was at Festubert in may 1915. they fought at loos in September 1915, Vimy in may 1916,high wood in september 1916, Butte de Warlencourt in october 1916, messines in June 1917 and cambrai in november 1917. one of his biggest battles fought was at loos on 25th-28th september 1916. 1st time for british troops to use poison gass which were not effective due to winds blowing the gass back to their lines. british casualties were approximately 50,000. Len was sole survivor of A companys attempt to scale the double Crassier. March 1916 Len was drafted to 140th brigade sharpshooter as a sniper. he hid in shell holes yards from the enemy trenches. he had to avoid mortar shells and sniper fire. after a severe bout of trench fever he was transfered to the royal engineers special branch works park. mostly in Belgium but got sent to Lille at the end of the war. his greatest achievement was helping to create a hollow steel tree which was used as a listening post. underground tunnels led soldiers to the tree and they were able to report back on enemy movements. He later married his childhood sweetheart Jessie Hookham they never had children. He spent his final days in Bexhill. He died in 1974 aged 83.He was a keen artist who loved to paint watercolours.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 17:00:56 +0000
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