Leonard Thomas Evans was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in 1880 the first child of Walter Evans and Harriet Buckthorp. Walter and Harriet had seven children together who were: Leonard Thomas, Horace William, Emily, Edith, Alice, Harry and Elsie. His youngest brother Harry served with the Hertfordshire Regiment and was killed eight months before Leonard in September 1917, his biography also appears on this site. His brother-in-law Horace Lavender, Alice’s husband, fought and survived the conflict. The Evans family lived at number 47 Chapel Street, Hemel Hempstead where all the children grew up. Leonard’s father Walter worked as an "Iron Moulder" for one of the two foundries in the town, Cranstone Engineering on the High Street or Boxmoor Ironworks on the Marlowes.

When Leonard left school in 1893, he went straight to work as a "Grocer’s Assistant" with Joseph Mead in his shop at 61 High Street. His employer changed in 1912, when Roland Keen took over Mead’s grocery shop which was situated directly opposite St. Mary's Close in the property occupied by The Cochin Indian restaurant today. Roland Keen was a member of a well-known family of butchers and grocers trading in Hemel Hempstead and in the early part of the 20th century they had three separate butchers shops on the High Street as well as being landlords of the White Hart public house. Leonard was still working in Keen's Grocers when he left to join the colours in 1916.

In the late 1890s Leonard met Lily Maria Parrott who lived just a few doors away from the Evans family at 50 Chapel Street, just off the High Street. Lily was born in Hemel Hempstead and left school in 1888 to work as a "Domestic Servant" with Thomas Parslow, a publican in Chipping Barnet, Hertfordshire. She returned to Hemel Hempstead in the mid-1890s and lived with her brother William on Chapel Street. Leonard and Lily soon became sweethearts and they were eventually married in St Paul’s Church, Hemel Hempstead on Wednesday, 5th August 1903. They set up home in "Spring Cottage" at 20 Church Street and in 1910 their only child Leonard Walter, affectionately known as "Sonny", was born.

Leonard enlisted for service in 1915 under the Group System (Derby Scheme) and on the promise of military service, he was transferred to the Army Reserve to await his call up. This came in May 1916, when he was mobilised and joined the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment and was immediately posted to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion at Chatham to undergo basic training. Six months later he went to France where he disembarked on the 3rd October and was posted to the 6th Battalion Royal West Kents. He arrived with his unit on the 17th or 18th of the month at Montauban and a week later he was in the trenches, shortly before the Battalion moved north to Arras with the 12th Eastern Division.

This was a relatively quiet sector and in December the whole division was moved out of the front line to rest and re-build, following the costly Somme offensive earlier in the year. However, in April 1917 Leonard saw his first serious action when he fought in the Battle of Arras, beginning on the 9th followed quickly by the First Battle of the Scarpe. A few days later he moved up with his unit to relieve the 8th Cavalry Brigade east of Monchy and it was there that Leonard appears to have been wounded.

One of thirty-one casualties, he was taken out of the line and transferred to hospital to recover. It is not known whether Leonard returned to Hemel Hempstead during his recuperation, but it appears that his wounds were not too serious because he was back with his Regiment by mid-June. He returned to a new unit, the 11th Battalion, between the 4th and 11th July, south of Poperinghe in Belgium.

He fought in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge during late July and early August and then the Battle of the Menin Road in late September, surviving both. The 11th Battalion then moved to Italy with the 41st Division in November. This proved to be brief and by the 9th March 1918, the 11th Battalion had returned to France and concentrated around Doullens and Mondicourt.At the end of April, Leonard was one of 154 men drafted from various regiments, to strengthen the 7th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. Throughout May he was in action in operations around Forceville with his new unit and these reached a climax between the 24th and 26th of the month. It was at this time that Leonard fell whilst defending the lines against an enemy attack.

He was Killed in Action on Friday, 24th May 1918.

Shortly after his death a report was published in the Hemel Hempstead Gazette followed a year later by an "In Memoriam" notice from his wife Lily. Lily never remarried and died in 1961 aged eighty-six.

He was commemorated along with his brother Harry on the St Paul’s Church memorial plaque. This was unfortunately lost when the church was demolished in the early 1960’s but, a replacement decorative scoll is on display in the new church at Highfield.

Leonard is Remembered with Honour in Mesnil Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France where he is interred in Grave I. B. 34. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Lily, reads: “IN LOVING MEMORY GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN FROM WIFE AND SONNY”

He was 38 years old when he died.

Leonard was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.