Leatherhead War Memorials

TAKEN, NOT GIVEN
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Some additions to the text proved to be indecipherable.
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Introduction by the author, Liam Sumption
One hundred and seventeen names appear on the Leatherhead War Memorial in North Street in respect of the officers and men who died in the first World War (and subsequently) between the years 1914 and 1922.

This is an attempt to ascertain the circumstances of their tragic deaths and, if possible after a lapse of three quarters of a century, a little about their antecedents. So far as I know, this has not been done before. One reason, no doubt, is that it would have been terribly insensitive to have undertaken such an enquiry whilst those who mourned their dead were still alive. However, like those whom they loved, they have now almost certainly passed on and the end of the century seems an appropriate time to try and find out just what happened.

The reason that TAKEN, NOT GIVEN was chosen as a title is very simple. It is often stated that a serviceman gives his life for his country, whereas it is almost invariably taken without his wish in the most appalling way. Indeed as these researches were undertaken it became more and more apparent just what the victims of the 1914-18 war suffered.

Seven of the 117 fatalities belonged to the Navy. The remainder almost all were in the Army - 94 infantrymen and even one of the Navy men was serving in that capacity. Nearly all the infantrymen died on the Western Front and 33 belonged to the two County Regiments which Surrey maintained at that time.

I commenced my enquiries with the naval casualties and those who died at home in England. The latter were not difficult to trace because their demise was documented in the same manner as civilians, by means of a Death Certificate. The death of a Navy man is usually linked with the loss of a ship or its participation in an action at sea. The extensive Admiralty files in the Public Record Office enable a researcher to refer to the various ships' logs, other reports and survivors' depositions at subsequent Courts of Enquiry. In the case of the rating who died fighting ashore I have been able to consult the relevant war diary which his unit maintained at the relevant time.

With regard to the Infantry - the P.B.I., it seemed right and proper to try and describe their hardships and the terrible arena of Ypres where so much was endured. Likewise it seemed helpful to describe the organisation of the British infantry which always served as individual battalions, never as a regiment under its own title. It is instructive to recall that a regiment (e.g. the Royal Fusiliers) could raise as many as twenty four battalions and during the course of the war they could be refilled time after time. Sometimes the whole unit disappeared and nobody remained to tell the tale.

In conclusion may I now express my thanks to the following institutions which assisted my research:

I am also indebted to the help afforded by the Queens Regimental Museum at Clandon Park, which is of course close to home!

I am also obliged to the Leatherhead and District Local History Society for access to their archives and to our Chairman, Mrs Linda Heath for information about 2nd Lt Grey de Lèche Leach, Scots Guards.

My thanks also to the church watchers at St Mary & St Nicholas, Leatherhead, who drew my attention to a visit to the church by Mr Ian Mackenzie Maspero with whom I subsequently corresponded. He provided me with details of his family and his uncle, Sergeant Albert Maspero of the Royal Warwicks, who died at Arras in 1916.

Finally my gratitude to Mr L Anstee, a life-time worshipper at St Mary & St Nicholas, who gave me a list of the men from Leatherhead serving in 1915 from the Parish Magazine of that time.

Liam Sumption,
Windfield, Leatherhead
1992