Name
Leonard Charles Goss
1881
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/04/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
4/7254
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ST. MARTIN CALVAIRE BRITISH CEMETERY, ST. MARTIN-SUR-COJEUL
I. A. 29.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead
Pre War
Leonard Charles Goss was born in 1881 in St Pancras, Middx, the son of William and Mary Goss and one of five children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living in St Pancras where his father was working as a plumber. He left school in 1894 and started work with a company in London which made gas meters. His mother died in 1899 at the age of 40.
He married Edith Annie Adams on 16 February 1901 in St Pancras and on the 1901 Census he was living with his wife at 85 Dartmouth Park Hill, St Pancras, where he was working as a Gas Meter Maker. Edith had been born in India in 1882 where her father had been serving as a Sergeant in the Royal Artillery.
They soon moved to Berkhamsted, Herts where Leonard's mother had been born, and their first child Grace Beatrice was born on 22 |November 1901. On the 1911 Census the family were living at 21 Bridge Street, Great Berkhamsted, Herts with their five children Grace, Mabel, Edward, Ellen and Robert who were all born in the Berkhamsted district. They later had Frederick (1913) and Ernest (1916).
While Leonard was serving as a soldier, his wife and five of their children, were admitted to the workhouse in Greenwich on Sunday 18 April 1915 having been found wandering,
His widow later lived at 10 Union Street, Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
Leonard enlisted into the Militia on 21 November 1904, joining the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment at Hertford. He was then working as a bricklayer for George Whitman at Little Gaddesden. He undertook regular training and attended the Annual Camp in 1905, but paid a fee of £1 to buy his discharge in April 1906.
At the outbreak of war he re-enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment in Hertford in September 1914 and after training was sent to France, arriving at Le Havre on 2 February 1915. Having had previous military experience he was promoted to Lance Corporal and in 1915 he fought at Neuve Chappelle in March, Festubert in May, Givenchy in June and Loos in September.
The following year the 2nd Battalion fought in the Battle of Albert, the first major engagement of the Somme offensive, and Leonard saw action at Bazentin Ridge, Delville Wood, Pozieres,. Fleurs-Courcelette, Thiepval, Transloy Ridge and Ancre.
He was killed in action on 11 April 1917, aged 35, during the first Battle of the Scarpe, part of the Arras offensive, when an attack started at 5.30 am but was held up almost at once from machine gun fire and uncut wire. Leonard was one of 13 men from the Battalion who were killed on that day, with many more wounded and missing.
He is buried in St Martin Calvaire British Cemetery, St Martin-sur-Cojeul, France.
Additional Information
His sister Ada received a war gratuity of £12 and pay owing of £7 11s 8d. His wife Edith received a pension of £1 16s 3d for herself and her children. His sons Edward and Frederick were both killed on active service in World War Two and their names are also commemorated on the Hemel Hempstead Memorial with their father.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.bedfordregiment.org.uk, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelheroes.com.
