Name
Leigh Roslin Williams
1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/05/1918
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Royal Field Artillery
B Bty. 251st Bde.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SOISSONS MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Bishop's Stortford Town Memorial
Pre War
Leigh
Roslin Williams was born in 1891 in Waverton, Cheshire to Charles and Ada
Williams. On the 1901 Census the family were living at Station Road, Foots
Cray, Kent where his father was an iron merchant. On the 1911 Census the family
were living at The Inglenook, Lansdown Road, Sidcup, Kent. Leigh was working as a Clerk for a Bill
Broker and his father was an Iron and Steel Merchant.
Wartime Service
Leigh was killed when the 251st brigade were bombarded by enemy Artillery at 1.00 am on 27 May 1918.
"The entire German line from Corbeny Eastwards burst into one sheet of flame. Shells, mostly gas shells, fell with almost incredible rapidity over the whole area."
The intensity of the bombardment was such that all the lines were cut and movements outside of dugouts were difficult. At 7:30 a.m. a runner managed to report that the Division was retiring. By 8:50 a.m. 251st Brigade RFA Headquarters was overrun. There is no specific information on B Battery, however the Brigade HQ officers who were captured passed through A and D Battery positions and recorded; "We found it hard to recognise them and indeed the whole area had been blasted almost beyond recognition".
Additional Information
His brother received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £180 19s. He left a will and probate was granted to his brother, Glenton Roslin Williams, works superintendent, with effects of £1071 8s 1d. His given address was Lindsay House, Bishop's Stortford, Herts.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
