Name
John Harvey Leckie
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/06/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
1st (Royal) Dragoons
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 5
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, Waltham St Lawrence Memorial, Berkshire
Pre War
Born in Bangkok, Siam (now Thailand) in about 1890, John Harvey Leckie was the son of Charles Stuart and Mary Alexandrina (nee Harvey) Leckie. His parents were married in 1888, recorded in the Greenwich registration district.
At the 1891 Census, John was aged one and living in Greenwich East with his maternal grandmother, Alexina Harvey (a widow), and her two children John and Anna. Also present are five servants; a housemaid, a parlourmaid, two nurserymaids and a cook.
In 1901, Charles Leckie was now a widower and living at Little Cassiobury in Watford with his sister and four servants. He was a Siam Merchant, the London Manager of the Bornes Company’s Siamese business. John, who was eleven, was a boarder at Park House School, Reading in Berkshire. Charles Leckie died in 1905, the death being registered in the Watford district.
At the 1911 Census, John was aged 21 and living with his unmarried aunt, Jane Marshall Leckie, at the Grange, Waltham St Lawrence in Berkshire. His aunt is 50 years old, living on ‘Private Means’ and with a birthplace in Blackheath, Kent. John is University Army Candidate. Also present are two servants.
Wartime Service
When war broke out, John enlisted with the 1st Royal Dragoons Battalion of the Household Cavalry and Cavalry of the Line Regiment. He served on the Western Front as a Lieutenant. The Royal Dragoon Guards War Diary (WO 95/1153) records the circumstances of his death:
“13/5/15 4 am - Very heavy bombardment of GHQ line [near Ypres in the Second Battle of Ypres], Railway, Shell-out Camp to HALTE commences. Our wood was heavily shelled and the ground all around but no damage was done. The fire trenches in front did not get a very heavy fire. The enemy employed Heavy Howitzers, HE shrapnel and 'whizz-bangs".
Lieutenant Leckie was killed near the front edge of the wood; 2/Lt Bagshawe was killed after being slightly wounded on his way back to the trenches. These two officers were afterwards buried where they lay by the Irish Fusiliers.”
Lieutenant John Harvey Leckie was 25 and is remembered with honour at the Menin Gate Memorial, panel 5. He is commemorated on the memorial at Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire, where he lived.
Note: The CWGC database gives his date of death as 13 June 1915, but both the War Diary and Soldiers Died in the Great War record this as 13 May 1915.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
