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Leonard Arthur Elmes: Thursday 1st August 1918

Leonard enlisted in the London Cycling Company with regimental number 359.  When he died aged 24, Leonard was 1st Class Air Mechanic No. 402648, with the 5th Squadron RAF.  He is buried at Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension on the outskirts of Dunkirk. His estate was worth £108 0s. 4d.

This Cemetery was used in 1918 by the 42nd and 57th Casualty Clearing Station.  The last Commonwealth interments were September 1918 making Leonard one of the last burials.  Given the location and type of Cemetery, it seems likely that he died of injury or wounds.

Leonard was the son of Arthur and Annie Louisa. Originally native to Marylebone, Leonard was their only child, and he was baptised on 21st October 1894 at All Saint’s St John’s Wood when his father was a hosier. The family lived locally at No. 95 Fernside Road, but in 1911 the family were in Harrow. Arthur was listed as a house furniture dealer and Leonard an apprentice in the same trade.

Leonard is one of two men not listed in their alphabetic place.  This may well be because his parents appear to have moved from the parish to 72 Gonville Road, Thornton Heath.