223418 Pte. Leonard Bate British Army 1st Btn. D Coy Leicestershire Regiment from:Leicester Len Bate was posted to France in autumn of 1914. He was 26 years old. On 21st October, the 1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment arrived at the line near Armentieres to relieve the 1st Battalion West Yorks.
Len, a member of D Company, was wounded and taken prisoner in the attack on the level crossing south of La Houssoie station on 25th October.
He was to spend the next four years as a POW, initially at Cassel and from December 1916 at Langensalza.
After the war he returned to his wife and daughter in Leicestershire, moved to Staffordshire, where his son was born in 1921, before immigrating to Ontario, Canada where he became a successful businessman and well known amateur artist. He made regular return visits to his family in Leicester until his death in 1971.
|