Blanchard, Leonard

Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE LEONARD BLANCHARD 29766. Born in Sutton-on-Hull in, I believe, 1899 though records are thin on the ground once again. I think Leonard was the eldest of two sons to John and Eliza Blanchard of 12, Garbutt Row, Stoneferry, Hull. There is also a Hull Daily Mail address of 23 Haddon Street, Hull and a 1918 Military Voters address of 39 Arthur Street, Hull for Leonard Blanchard. His war pension addresses were 135, Plane Street, Hull and 60, De La Pole Avenue, Hull. Can’t be entirely certain but all paths appear to lead back here. Leonard enlisted at Hull City Hall originally joining the army as 51528 in the East Riding Yeomanry before being transferred to the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment when he arrived in France. Like so many caught up in the maelstrom of the German Spring Offensive, he was young and inexperienced and out of his depth. Truth was, so were the Germans. By 1918 all armies were down to the last of their available manpower, scrawny half-starved children who had grown-up on war rations together with those originally unwilling to join the war effort who had been conscripted since the start of 1916. It was a ramshackle parade on both sides. Leonard Blanchard was killed in action on 12th April 1918 and his body was never recovered; he is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.