Leslie Ernest Joseph Andrade Stevens

Rank 
Lance Corporal
Regiment 
Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment)
Date of death 
28 March 1918
Address 
48 Windsor Road
Ilford
IG1 1HQ
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
France
Biography 

Leslie was born on 8th April 1896. His father, Ernest, worked as a foreman in the Mint. Leslie joined Ilford County High School from Cleveland Road Elementary School in September 1909 and studied there until he was fifteen years old (1911). Upon leaving, he took up a post in a laboratory in a London hospital.

His family lived at 48 Windsor Road, Ilford in 1909.

Leslie was a Lance Corporal with the 15th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) when he died on 28th March 1918. His service number was 72346. He was buried in grave I. D. 5. In the Hem Farm Military Cemetery, Hem-Monacu.

The Autumn 1918 school magazine, Chronicles, included the following tribute:

‘Lance Corpl. Leslie E. Stevens was killed at the very beginning of the German spring offensive. He joined up in 1915, and till August 1917, was a 1st class air mechanic in France. Then he was drafted into the infantry, and was killed fighting as a Sherwood Forester. His Captain writes (to Leslie’s father) :-

“It is impossible for me to speak in high enough terms of your son. Ever since he joined us he showed himself a good soldier and a very fine companion. He was loved by all the men of the Company, and was marked out for rapid advancement.

He had done fine work just before he was killed. He killed ever so many of the enemy and one of my corporals tells me that your son saved his life by shooting a German sniper.”’

Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS

Sources:

Ancestry.com

ICHS school records and magazines

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Note

Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.