Name: John Leech
Rank: Private
Unit/Regiment: 1/4th Battalion, The King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry)
Service Number: 34341
Date of Death: 13 April 1918
Memorial: Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
John Leech, or Leach as the surname sometimes appears, was born in Batley on 10 September 1897.1 He was the eldest child of Batley-born couple Michael and Bridget Leech (née Connell), who married the year before John’s birth.
The Leech family spent most of their married life at New Street, raising seven children. After John, their only daughter, Nora, was born in 1901. Then five more sons: Thomas, born in 1903; Patrick in 1906; Edward in 1909; James in 1911; and Michael in 1914.
John attended St Mary’s school, and was one of those who controversially represented the school in the August 1907 pageant. He was amongst those boys portraying Irish peasants, dressed in green jerseys, white knickers, and brown hats, carrying shillelahs and bundles. The full story of St Mary’s school in this pageant featured in an earlier post, which can be read here.
To support the family, Michael mainly worked as a general labourer in a variety of settings. This included for a house builder,2 in a woollen mill3 and for Batley Corporation.4 Though for a brief period at the turn of the 20th century he was employed as a coal miner.5 Bridget worked in the local shoddy industry as a rag picker, according to the 1901, 1911 and 1921 censuses.
Michael, a former Batley footballer,6 was often in trouble with the police in incidents usually involving drink. By 1912 these had landed him in Wakefield prison on at least ten occasions. The incident in 1916 was different.
In late March 1916 Bridget summoned her husband for desertion, in a case which brought the couple before the Batley magistrates in the Town Hall. Bridget told them that Michael, before overtime, earned 30s a week as a labourer. However he failed to give her any money for four weeks, with the family forced to rely on the earnings of John and Nora, the eldest two children, to get by. It is likely at this point John was working for Scott Brothers Waste Merchants, in Batley, though he had for a long time been employed at Soothill Wood Colliery.7
Bridget told the magistrates that on 3 March Michael did tip up 16s, four of which she spent on food. The remainder she put on the shelf, which Michael took the following morning after an argument, saying “I’m off; I can keep myself.”8 He returned briefly, before finally taking up residence at a Batley Lodging House.
John was called before the court as a witness, saying his father “leathered” him when he intervened to stop him striking his mother.9
Michael in turn claimed Bridget said she did not want him in the house, and had finally thrown him out. His observation was “I don’t think I deserved to be turned out of my own house.”10
The magistrates ordered him to pay his wife 20s a week, though they also thought there was no need for the couple to be apart. They offered the following advice “And when you come together again, when one’s talking, t’other be quiet.”11 At some point Michael did return home.
Within months of this incident the family dynamics changed for ever. In late August John attested in Batley, joining the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI).12 Then, at the beginning of September the couple’s youngest child, Michael, died.
John’s service records have not survived, but piecing evidence together from other sources it is most likely John underwent training with the Regiment’s 3rd Battalion, based at Withernsea but, who by October that year, had moved to Hedon near Hull.
John went out to France in December 1916,13 and it appears this was to serve as a Private with the 6th KOYLI.14 This was John’s rank on official documentation throughout the war, although locally his parents indicated their belief he was, by the time of his death, a Lance-Corporal.15
The 6th KOYLI battalion was disbanded in France in February 1918, with those serving with them at this time going on to form the nucleus of the 16th Entrenching Battalion.16 However, it is likely John had already left them by then, with a posting to the 1/4th KOYLI. The exact date is unclear. What we do know is he did spend some time back in England, going out to France for a second time at Christmas 1917.17 He also spent some time in the first part of 1918 in hospital with a severe abscess in the groin.18 Within three months of this hospital stay he was dead.19
He is officially recorded as dying on 13 April 1918 from wounds received in action.20 There is no information as to when he received these fatal wounds, but his death occurred during the Operation Georgette phase of the German Spring Offensive.
With the United States entering the war the previous April, the Offensive was Germany’s last throw of the dice to end the war before the American Expeditionary Force could be fully deployed. This full deployment would give the Allies a game-changing numerical advantage.
The Offensive began on 21 March 1918 with an attack, codenamed Operation Michael, along a 40-mile front from just north of Arras to east of Noyon, encompassing the ground fought over in the 1916 Battle of the Somme. On the first day of Operation Michael alone, British casualties numbered 38,500, including almost 21,000 soldiers taken prisoner. It was the second worst day for the British Army during the First World War, surpassed only by the number of casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, back on 1 July 1916.21
By 5 April 1918, when the Operation Michael phase ground to a halt, the Germans had taken 1,200 square miles of territory including several important French towns including Bapaume, Albert and Pèronne,22 advancing 40 miles and inflicting losses on the heavily outnumbered British in the region of 177,739. Many of this total were taken prisoner as the Germans advanced.23 It changed the tactics from the established pattern of trench warfare with limited gains, to a mobile war with movement across swathes of land.
The next phase of the offensive was Operation Georgette (Battle of the Lys was the official name given by the British), which began with an intense bombardment of high-explosive and gas shells over British and Portuguese positions on a 10-mile front south of Armentieres at 4.15am on 9 April.24 The German aim for this phase was to capture Ypres and force the British back to the Channel Ports. That first day the Germans took Fleurbaix, Laventie and Richebourg in a three-and-a-half mile advance.
On the launch day of Operation Georgette the 1/4th KOYLI were quickly moved to Ontario Camp at Reninghelst, and at 1am the following morning received a warning order to prepare for an early move. They left at 9am and eventually camped in fields adjacent to the road about one mile to the west of Neuve Eglise. They remained in the field for the rest of the day at thirty minutes notice to move.25 Rumours must have been swirling amongst the men given the events of the past few weeks.
The following day, the 11 April, at 11.30am they received further orders to move. Two hours later they were on their way to assist in holding the Army Line on the left of Neuve Eglise, with one platoon sent forward to reconnoitre the area around Wulverghem village.26 This was the day Sir Douglas Haig issued his famous “backs to the wall” order, calling on Allied troops to stand firm against the Germans. The order included the stirring words:
There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.
These exhortations may not have filtered back to the KOYLIs, now digging themselves in, about 100 yards in front of the prepared Army Line. “W” and “Z” Companies were in what was now the front line at this position, supported by the battalion’s other two KOYLI companies.27 That night was spent trying to improve the defensive positions.
This new Front Line of defence was subjected to persistent German shelling throughout the 12 April, with a few casualties being sustained.28 The German troops could be seen massing on the right of the Brigade Sector, and following an intense artillery barrage, launched an attack at 4.40pm which was driven off by rifle and machine-gun fire. During this attack the whole of the Battalion Sector was heavily shelled. 9.30pm, under cover of darkness, they attacked again using only machine-gun and rifle fire, driving the advanced “W” and “Z” KOYLI Companies back into the Army Line, along with the 1/4th York and Lancs who were to their left.29
At 7am on 13 April, persistent shelling and repeated attacks forced the line to fall back to Neuve Eglise, with the enemy entering the southern part of the village.30 The KOYLIs were then involved with the York and Lancs and Worcesters in a counter-attack which successfully pushed them back out. The 1/4th KOYLIs took 17 German prisoners in the village’s Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) hut.31
These YMCA huts were based wherever British troops were serving, located in regular buildings, to railway stations, bombed out buildings, tents and even dug-outs in the trenches. They supplied home comforts such as meals, chocolate, tea, cocoa, cigarettes, letter-writing equipment, reading materials, entertainment. They were a chance to escape war’s brutalities. It is no wonder advancing German troops were drawn to them and their treasures.
By 5pm the Captain now commanding “W” and “Z” Companies sent back a message saying the enemy was attacking strongly, and the Yorkshiremen were slowly being driven back. The Battalion’s “X” Company, in the Support Line, was ordered to counter-attack to relieve the pressure, which they did driving the enemy back 170 yards. But by 8pm the Germans were back in the southern part of Neuve Eglise once more, with all efforts to drive them out repelled.32
The struggle in Neuve Eglise continued throughout the following day, with the Germans taking the village and the KOYLIs forced to withdraw from their positions. They were finally relived on 15 April.
Though the Unit War Diary does not give any specific Other Ranks numbers, it is likely to have been during this period that John sustained his injuries. The Diary does, however, state for the whole operation from 11 to 30 April the casualties amounted to three officers killed and 13 wounded; and 64 other ranks killed, 340 wounded, 93 missing and 13 died of wounds – with John presumably amongst this latter number.33
His family, who now lived at 44 Victoria Street, Carlinghow, were notified of John’s death relatively quickly, with news of his death in local papers by mid-May. Later that year John’s mother was awarded a pension for his loss of 12s 6d a week.34 This continued until her death in 1952. His family also received his medal entitlement, the British War and Victory Medals.
John has no known grave. In addition to the St Mary’s War Memorial, and Batley War Memorial, he is commemorated, along with almost 35,000 other officers and men who died in the Ypres Salient after 16 August 1917 whose graves are not known, on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, at Zonnebeke, Belgium.
John’s brothers were too young to serve in the Great War. However, both Patrick and James served during the Second World War.
For more information about a coal mine accident in 1919 involving John’s brother, Thomas, please click here.
Postscript:
Finally a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.
The website has always been free to use, but it does cost me money to operate. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to consider if I can continue to afford to keep running it as a free resource.
If you have enjoyed reading this post (along with the hundreds of others), and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.
Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.
Thank you.
Footnotes:
1. Parish register.
2. 1911 census.
3. 1921 census.
4. Batley News, 26 May 1945.
5. 1901 census.
6. Batley News, 26 May 1945.
7. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 10 May 1918.
8. Batley News, 25 March 1916.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 10 May 1918, and based on service number.
13. Batley News, 11 May 1918.
14. Medal Award Rolls, Victory and British War Medals, The National Archives (TNA) WO329/1460
15. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 10 May 1918; Batley News, 11 May 1918; and 1922 Batley War Memorial submission
16. 6th KOYLI Unit War Diary, TNA, WO 95/1906/5
17. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 10 May 1918
18. Batley News, 11 May 1918
19. Ibid.
20. Various records including medal award rolls, pension records and Soldiers’ Effects Register.
21. Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 9 Facts about Operation Michael, https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/news/9-facts-about-operation-michael/
22. Ibid.
23. The Long, Long Trail, The First Battles of the Somme, 1918 https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battles/battles-of-the-western-front-in-france-and-flanders/the-first-battles-of-the-somme-1918/
24. The Accrington Pals, Battle of the Lys (Hazebrouck), 11th-13th April 1918, http://www.pals.org.uk/lys.htm
25. 1/4th KOYLI, Unit War Diart, TNA, WO95/2806/1
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Pension Record Cards and Ledgers, Western Front Association, 118/0557/LEE-LEE
Other Sources:
• Batley Cemetery Burial Registers.
• Bond, Reginald C. History of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the Great War, 1914-1918. London: P. Lund, Humphries, 1929.
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
• GRO Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes.
• Imperial War Museum.
• Johnson, Malcolm K. Saturday Soldiers: The Territorial Battalions of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry 1/4th 1/5th 5th 2/4th 2/5th, 1908-1919. Doncaster: Doncaster Museum Service, 2004.
• Long, Long Trail, https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/.
• Medal Index Card.
• Newspapers – various editions of the Batley papers.
• Parish Registers – various.
• Pension Record Cards and Ledgers, Western Front Association;
• Soldiers Died in the Great War.
• West Yorkshire Prison records, various.
• Wikimedia Commons.
• “YMCA and WWI.” YMCA England & Wales, November 4, 2019. https://www.ymca.org.uk/about/history-heritage/ymca-and-ww1.
PastToPresentGenealogy 