Leonard Breed was born in Hemel Hempstead in 1890 the third child of Edward Breed and Elizabeth Hosier. He had two older siblings, William and Louisa and two younger, Rosy and Flory (Florence). Louisa died when she was a young child.

When Leonard was born the family lived in Albion Terrace in Hemel Hempstead and his father Edward worked as a ‘Farm Labourer’. His mother Elizabeth rather intriguingly worked in a shop as a ‘Marine Store Sorter’ probably for a Marine Store Dealer. A Marine Store Dealer was a licensed broker who bought and sold used cordage, bunting, rags, timber, metal and other general waste materials as well as mending sacks. It is most likely that she worked for William Timms on Bury Road who is listed as a Marine Store Dealer in the 1897 OS Map. Elizabeth died in 1909 when Leonard was nineteen years old.

Leonard was educated at Bury Mill End School and in May 1898 he was the recipient of a prize having achieved a laudable 423 days unbroken attendance. When he left school at the age of thirteen in 1903 he went to work for Dickinson & Co. Limited at Apsley Mills and in 1911 he was employed as an ‘Embosser’ at the factory.

On the outbreak of war Leonard enlisted in the army attesting in Hemel Hempstead at the end of August 1914. He joined the Bedfordshire Regiment and was posted to the 6th (Service) Battalion at Aldershot for basic training. Initially, the battalion was attached to the 9th (Scottish) Division but when the 37th Division was formed in March 1915, the Battalion was moved to join them at Andover and trained on Salisbury Plains, where it was transferred into the 112th Brigade.

On completion of his training Leonard was sent to France where he disembarked on the 11th August 1915 and joined his battalion close to Armentières before moving south to Bienvillers-sur-Bois later in the year. Through early 1916 Leonard was in the trenches, until in July at Contalmaison to the east of Albert, the Battalion was providing a defensive flank in the frontline and came under sustained shelling by the Germans for five days.

Between the 8th and 12th July the 6th Battalion incurred 191 casualties comprising; 27 Killed, 6 Missing and 158 Wounded . Leonard was killed by a shell landing in the trenches on Monday, 10th July 1916.

The report published in the Hemel Gazette states that he died on the 11th July however, all of Leonard’s military records record his official date of death as the 10th. The report included details of a letter sent to his father by Leonard’s C.O. 

A memorial service was held at the Baptist Church in the Marlowes to commemorate Leonard and seven other members of the congregation who had fallen. This was reported in the Hemel gazette in November 1916. 

Leonard was commemorated on a Memorial Plaque in Marlowes Baptist Church.

He is also commemorated on the Dickinson & Co. Limited war memorial in Apsley.

Leonard is Remembered with Honour at the London Cemetery and Extension, Longueval, Somme, France where he is interred in Grave XI.G.31.

He was 26 years old when he died.

Leonard was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.