Name
John Stanley Leeds
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
19/09/1915
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Honourable Artillery Company (Territorial Force)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BRANDHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY
I. D. 2.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St Peter’s Church Memorial, Bushey Heath, Not on the Hadley Wood memorials
Pre War
Born in Hadley Wood on 12 August 1887 and christened on 18 October 1887 at St Mary the Virgin in Monken Hadley, Barnet, John Stanley Leeds was the elder son of John Henry Sandford and Beatrice Maud (nee Goddard) Leeds. His father was born in New York and, at the 1880 US Census, was age 16 and living at 9 East 43rd Street, New York City with his uncle’s family (McCall), his 38-year-old mother, Harriet, and 7-year-old brother, Frederick.
His parents were married on 12 August 1886 in Little Stanmore, Middlesex and there is a notice of the wedding in the New York Evening Post, published on 4 September 1886. The 1890 Kelly’s Directory for Middlesex list John (Snr.) living at The Priory. He died in California on 22 February 1892, leaving his mother with four very young children. Beatrice was fortunate to have private means and the family settled in England at ‘Pasadena’, Caldecote Hill, Bushey Heath.
Beatrice and three of the children, Mary, Dorothy and Henry, were living there at the time of the 1901. Census, and employed two servants, a cook and a parlour maid.
John (Jnr.) attended Stanmore Park Preparatory School, and was there at the time of the 1901 Census. The headmaster at the school was Rev Vernon Royle, the former Lancashire and England cricketer. John moved to Sherborne School in September 1901 and remained there as a boarder until August 1905. In his final year, became a member of the shooting team. He then attended King’s College, London and became an engineer.
By the time of the 1911 census, John was 23 years old, and back living at Pasadena with his mother, his three siblings and two servants. John was now a qualified Electrical Engineer working for a Telephone Company. Also present was a visitor, Dallyn Lucas, who was an Electrical Engineer employed by the Submarine Cable Company. John’s younger brother, Henry, was also an Engineering student.
John’s career as a mining engineer took him to Argentina, but in September 1914 he returned home to enlist in the army.
Wartime Service
John returned from Argentina in September 1914 and rejoined the Honourable Artillery Company (Territorial Company) and was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant. He was killed in action, aged 28, on 19 September 1915 and was buried at Brandhoek Military Cemetery in Belgium, grave I. D.2.
The Roll of Honour from the Old Shirburnian Society for Sherborne School gives the following details:
“Came from Argentina to join the H.A.C September 1914; given commission in H.A.C. December 1914; went to France July 1915; killed in the crater at Hooge, September 19th 1915.”
He is commemorated on the Bushey Memorial on Clay Hill and at St Peter’ Church, Bushey Heath.
John was entitled to the Victory Medal and 1915 Star. Beatrice applied for his medals on 27 January 1921 and was issued them on 14 February 1921.
Additional Information
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
