Leonard Jesse Livesey Jaques was born in Doncaster in July 1896. His parents were George Jaques (1863 – 1930) and Jane Livesey Jaques (1859 – 1940), of Donaster and 206 Harehills Avenue, Leeds. He had a sister – Bertha Livesey Jaques (1891 – 1971) and an older brother – George Arthur Livesey Jaques (1894 – 1961). Leonard’s father was a pharmacist and grocer.
In both the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the family lived at 28 Cartwright Street in Doncaster. The street can be found on maps dating back to the 1820s, but was demolished after a compulsory purchase order to create the Golden Acres shopping precinct. The street was originally named after Edmund Cartwright, who invented the power loom.
After his schooling, Leonard joined the Board of Trade before WW1, working as an assistant clerk for the Mercantile Marine Office in Hull.
On the outbreak of the war he was living at 95 Westminster Avenue, Holderness Road, Hull. We also know from his surviving WW1 Service record that he was 5 ft 5 and half inches tall and weighed 106 pounds. He attested aged only 19 years and 180 days old at Hull City Hall on 7 December 1915 before the passing of the dreaded Conscription Law. He joined the 11th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment (Hull Tradesmen) which had formed in Hull on 2 September 1914 by Lord Nunburnholme and the the East Riding TF Association. The 11th battalion was one of four Hull Pals battalions. The Pals battalions were a phenomenon of WW1 with thousands of men enlisting to serve alongside their friends, colleagues and relatives in a wave of patriotic fervour. The Pals battalions were particularly associated with towns in north of Britain such as Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Hull. According to Leonard’s military medal card he arrived in France on 22 December 1916 and was promoted to Corporal after Oppy Wood, then to Sergeant, proving to be a capable soldier.
The East Yorkshire Regiment saw action during 1917 on the Ancre, the Third Battle of the Scarpe (3 and 4 May 1917) and the capture of Oppy Wood (28 June 1917). Leonard would have seen action in each of these battles in 1917. A City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 which commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
Leonard’s military service records are one of only about a third of WW1 records to serve. From this document we know that he “Qualified at Humber Garrison Range Finding School” which was at Fort Paull, Cleethorpes where it is known that another Hull Pals solider called George Roberts Freeman (1887 – 1917) was also based. Both men were killed in action on the same day, 23rd November 1917, and it is possible they served in the same unit.
Leonard, like George, is one of 916 Commonwealth casualties (32 of whom remain unidentified) buried in a Commonwealth War Grave at Roclincourt Military Cemetery, which was a front-line cemetery from 1917 until October 1918. In the words of the Kingston Upon Hull War Memorial website, “he was 21 years old, a Clerk, a Sergeant in His Majesty’s Forces, a little brother and a son”. His grave inscription, reads, “UNTIL THE DAY BREAK AND THE SHADOWS FLEE”.
Leonard is remembered on the Board of Trade War Memorial at 3 Whitehall Place, London and on the Kingston Upon Hull War Memorial in Hull.
