Private T H A Leigh No 5624 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards Killed in action 14th September, 1914 It is hard to write about someone you have never met but I first became aware of this brave soldier when my mother in law, Marjorie Coats, was clearing out her attic and asked whether I would like a couple of old pictures. The inference was that if I didn’t have them she would dispose of them. They were this one as displayed on this site and of his brother John who became a Church of England priest and a missionary in Canada. Seeing that there was a soldier’s picture I then set about finding out anything on this person. Horatio was a gardener and joined the Coldstream Guards at the age of eighteen and two months according to his service records. He signed up for Short Service which was 3 years with the Colours and 9 years in the Reserve. His attestation document is signed by him and dated 21st July 1904. His subsequent record was as a peacetime soldier and he passed into the Reserves on 21st July, 1912 and I note that he spent a year prior to this in the Camel Corps. Horatio was recalled to his Regiment, 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, 1st (Guards Brigade) on 6th August 1914 and set off to France on the SS Dunvegan Castle from Southampton to Le Havre on 13th August, 1914. Looking at the 1st Battalion’s unit records which were reconstituted as the originals were lost in the period 0ctober – November 1914, I can see that they participated in the Great Retreat until 6th September when they started to advance. On 14th September which marks the beginning of the Battle of the Aisne the 1st Battalion acted as an advanced guard to the Division which was advancing towards the Chemin des Dames in the area of Vendresse and Paissy. During this advance Private Leigh was killed with 10 others, 190 were wounded. After the war Horatio became one of those subjects that were not talked about and I feel it important that I will be honouring his memory at his grave exactly 100 year after his death by laying a wreath.

Simon Davies