| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Leonard was born in Beverley the 14 Feb 1896, the son of Henry Chapman, from Winterton, Lincolnshire, and Damaris Lydia (nee Goodhand), they married in Caistor in 1877. Henry was a boot maker and repairer. The family moved to Beverley in the1880s., living at 43 Lairgate, Beverley. Leonard attended Lairgate Infant School and then won a Wesleyan Scholarship to Hull Technical College. He worked in the offices of R Hodgson and Sons' tannery in Beverley.
In 1917 Leonard joined the Royal Navy and did his cadet training in Oxford. On 1 Mar 1917 he was appointed (temporary) Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve and then switched to the Royal Naval Division (63rd Division). There was a surplus of reserves for the Navy who could not be found places on ships of war, the reserves were formed into two Naval Brigades and a Brigade of Marines for operations on land in support of the Army. They saw service in Belgium in 1914, at Gallipoli in 1915 and on the Somme in 1916. Leonard arrived in France in Apr 1917 where the 63rd saw action in the Battle of Arras. On 22 May 1917 he joined the Howe Battalion and was wounded on 1 Jun 1917, receiving gunshot wounds to his left hand and thigh. He was repatriated to hospital in Oxford via the 20th General Hospital at Camiers. As his wounds would not heal he remained in hospital until late 1918 and was eventually declared permanently unfit for further service in early 1919. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Leonard returned to work in the tannery office and by 1939 had become a sales' manager. In 1921 he married Lucy May Rodmell, they had a son Donald, in 1922. They livied in the Leeds area but by 1939 were living on Beverley High Road, Hull. Durin the Second World War Leonard was involved with the ARP and rescue and repair work. The family later moved to Bridlington where Leonard died on 2 Nov 1975. Lucy died in 1991.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |