Person    | Male  Born 25/6/1878  Died 16/10/1917

Gunner Leonard Edward Day

Categories: Armed Forces

Countries: Belgium

War dead, WW1 i

Commemorated on a memorial as having died in WW1.

Gunner Leonard Edward Day

Leonard Edward Day was born on 25 June 1878, a son of James and Ellen Catherine Day. His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1878 in the Chelsea Registration District, Middlesex (now Greater London) and his father was a Dock Constable having previously served as a corporal in the Grenadier Guards.

In the 1881 census he was shown as living at 1 Ingleheim Place, West Ferry Road, Poplar, Middlesex (now Greater London), with his parents, two siblings: Ellen Catherine Day (b.1867) and Arthur Day, together with a lodger.

In October 1905 he was appointed as a Postman in London’s Western District Office and in the 1911 census he was shown as aged 34 years and a postman, living at 104 Offord Road, Barnsbury, London, the home of his widowed sister, Alice.

He married Alice Annie Rose in the 2nd quarter of 1915 in the Islington Registration District, London and they lived at 264 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, London.

He joined the Royal Field Artillery, service number 233919, and was attached to the 25th Battery, 135th Brigade, when he was killed in action, aged 39 years, on the 16th October 1917. He was buried near where he died but was subsequently exhumed and reburied in Plot 2, Row E, Grave 1, at the Hooge Crater Cemetery, Menenstraat, 8902 Ieper, Belgium.

On 20 June 1918 his widow was sent his army effects totalling £6-15s-9d and on 12 November 1919 she was given his £3-0s-0d war gratuity. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.

He is shown as 'DAY. L.E.' on the Western Postal District war memorial at Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on Page 98 of the 1914-1920 remembrance book of the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance, on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website, on the A Street Near You website and the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website. Both the CWGC and the A Street Near You have unfortunately incorrectly quoted his age as 40 years on both their websites and upon his gravestone.

Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Gunner Leonard Edward Day

Commemorated ati

Western Postal District war memorial - Rathbone Place

The plaque does not point out that not all of the WW2 names were in the armed...

Read More

Other Subjects

A. H. Blackman, Jnr.

A. H. Blackman, Jnr.

Co-partner or employee of the South Suburban Gas Company. Served but did not die in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War served, WW1
1 memorial
H. G. Nash

H. G. Nash

Co-partner or employee of the South Suburban Gas Company. Served but did not die in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War served, WW1
1 memorial
H. Durndell

H. Durndell

Employed at the Streatham bus garage. Served and was killed in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Engineer Captain Charles Gerald Taylor, MVO.

Engineer Captain Charles Gerald Taylor, MVO.

A player at the London Welsh Rugby Football Club who was killed in WW1. A Wrexham paper has an article about Taylor: "Taylor was the first of 13 capped Wales players to lose their lives in the con...

Person, Armed Forces, Sport / Games

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Archibald Davis Dawnay

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Archibald Davis Dawnay

Born Archibald Davis Dawnay. Mayor of Wandsworth 1908 - his death in 1919. We can find nothing about the man but here's some information about his company, from the magnificent Grace's Guide, in 19...

Person, Armed Forces, Industry, Politics & Administration

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Drummer Thomas Booth

Drummer Thomas Booth

Thomas Booth was born circa 1894 in Nowgong, East India, a son of Thomas and Agnes Elizabeth Booth. On 31 March 1901 when the 1901 census was undertaken, he is shown as a 6-year-old boy living at ...

Person, Armed Forces, France, India

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
R. J. Snelling

R. J. Snelling

Resident of Hendon who served and died in WW2.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW2
1 memorial