PRIVATE LEONARD RILEY 29785. Born in Hull, October 1898, Leonard was the youngest of six children to Richard and Sarah Elizabeth Riley of 12 Falmouth Street, Hull (War Pension address). An Insurance Agent before the war, he enlisted at Hull City Hall on 28th February 1917 originally joining the East Riding Yeomanry as 29990. He spent much of the rest of the year based in the UK training, but left the safety of these shores for the trenches on 19th December transferring to the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment on arrival in Flanders. Leonard was killed in action on 12th April 1918. His first taste of combat was when the Pals were pushed headlong into the maelstrom of the German Spring Offensive. He simply marched over the horizon and never came back. I suppose it was harder to gain information on new arrivals. There were so many new faces in the ranks that day, some of them only 10 days in, and that would be a factor in their apparent disappearance…..there was simply no-one who knew their name who could verify their fates. Leonard Riley is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the missing; he was 19 years old.
He is listed with his brother Harold (killed 23/11/1917) on the WW1 Memorials, at Holy Trinity Methodist Church, Cottingham Road, Hull and at St Johns Church, Newlands, Clough Road, Hull
