Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

The website, The Long, Long Trail posted an article about the Deadly air raids on Saint-Omer in September 1917: An extract reads that on the night of 4-5 September 1917:

"German aircraft once again visited the area between 10.20pm and 11pm, dropping a total of 18 bombs and machine gunning searchlights. At 11.35pm another aircraft was held in searchlight beams for four minutes, while anti-aircraft fire was directed at it. The machine is believed to have crashed near Abeele. Seven of the bombs fell near St. Martin-au-Laert; five in St. Omer; four near the St.Omer to Arques railway, of which one hit the railway; one near 1 Aircraft Depot and one near Number 2 Anti-Aircraft Section of the Royal Garrison Artillery. Only one casualty has been identified to date:

Admitted to 58 (Scottish) General Hospital, located at the Caserne de la Barre

Private M/315392 Leonard Percy Martin, acting as a sentry at the Mechanical Transport School of Instruction ASC. Died of wounds on 5 September 1917. Grave IV.D.64. Lived in Chigwell in Essex. Had been conscripted in April 1917, aged 36. Landed in France 17 July 1917."

Masonic :

Asst Mgr Steamship Co from East Ham in 1910.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley