Leonard Frederick John Knox

Rank 
Private
Regiment 
London Regiment
Date of death 
29 December 1917
Age of death 
20
Address 
78 Elgin Road
Seven Kings
Ilford
IG3 8LN
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
Israel and Palestine (including Gaza)
Biography 

Leonard was born in East Ham on 17th January 1897 and he attended Ilford County High School between 19th September 1910 and 25th July 1912. Prior to joining, he had studied at Forest Gate Grammar School.

His father, Frederick, was a Civil Servant, working as a clerk in the Registered Letter Department of the GPO (Post Office). His mother’s name was Maria. Leonard was their only child. Upon leaving school, Leonard followed his father into the Civil Service and became a ‘Boy Clerk’.

He served in the 2nd/22nd battalions of the London Regiment (service number 682673). The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website gives his date of death as 29th December 1917 and his final resting place as the Jerusalem War Cemetery. He was 20 years old when he died.

The Autumn 1918 edition of the school magazine, Chronicles, includes the following report of Leonard’s death;

‘The Army separated those two devoted friends, John Goldman and Leonard Knox, sending the former home to a Cadet School, while the latter remained to carry on in France till instantaneously killed in the bitter fighting of the early summer.

“He was a fine fellow,” says Cadet Goldman, “unselfish and generous of heart, possessed of indomitable courage and a most remarkable power of endurance. He was dearly loved by all who knew him, and most valuable friend I ever had. In battle he did not know what fear was and as a stretcher-bearer his energy was inexhaustible.”’

His friend, John Goldman returned to the front soon after this report, as a second lieutenant, and survived the last few months of the war.

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.