Lieutenant Wilfred Leon ISAAC
9th (Reserve) Battalion East Kent Regiment (Buffs)

Date of birth: 2nd September 1876
Date of death: 1939

Survived aged 62
Unknown
Wilfred Leon Isaac was born at 81 Gloucester Place, Marylebone in London on the 2nd of September 1876 the son of Frederick Simeon Isaac, a South American merchant, and Sara (nee Levin) Isaac of 28 Queen’s Gardens, London SW.

He was educated at Hazelwood School until July 1890 when he went on to Wellington College where he was in Saunder’s and Penny’s Houses from September 1890 to 1894.He was admitted as a Member of the Stock Exchange on the 3rd of December 1900.


He was married at Jersey City, New Jersey to Florence (nee Carney) on the 20th of November 1911; they lived at 12 Hans Place and at 13 Lower Grosvenor Street, in London and had a son, Wilfred Frederick George, born on the 19th of June 1913.

Following the outbreak of war he applied for a commission on the 18th of November 1914 in an application supported by Lieutenant Colonel R.A. Reith of the 9th Battalion East Kent Regiment who interviewed him on the 23rd of November. He passed a medical examination on the 21st of November and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the East Kent Regiment on the 24th of November 1914. He joined the 9th Battalion who were based at Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex.

On the 16th of July 1915 he attended a medical board at Purfleet which reported the following:-

"He has suffered from refraction errors of vision which has been treated by glasses; three days ago he passed an ascaris lumbricoides the forgoing causes will probably account for his present condition of disability and for the attacks of migraine of which he complains."

He was granted leave until the 15th of August.

On the 16th of November 1915 he attended a medical board at Shoreham which reported the following:-

"This officer has suffered for years from severe attacks of migraine, which now occur about once a month and completely incapacitate him for three days. In these attacks he has such severe hemicrania pain that he has to have a hypodermic of morphia. he has high astigmatism which has been corrected, this has relieved his tendency to ordinary headache but has not improved his migraine. He has a dirty tongue and a sallow complexion and has the appearance of a man suffering from extreme toxaemia."
Signed Lt. Col. Charles J. Jacomb-Hood RAMC and Lt J.H.L. Day RAMC Shoreham Camp.

In their conclusion they judged him to be unfit for the service and recommended that he resign his commission and leave the service. On the 26th of November 1915 he was interviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Reith who stated that he would attempt to find Wilfred Isaac a Home Service position given his poor state of health. On the 7th of December he and Reith agreed that he should resign his commission and Reith confirmed this in writing on the 16th of December. On the 24th of December 1915 Wilfred Isaac wrote a letter resigning his commission on the grounds of ill health.

He left the family home on the 14th of January 1916 and moved to the New Club, Brighton. On the 25th of January 1916 she wrote to him there asking him to return and he replied in a letter dated the 28th of January 1916: - Dear Florence, In answer to yours just received. Please don't ask me any more to return to you. We have been very unhappy together for over two years so believe me, it is best for both of us that I should not. I have really quite made up my mind. Hope you will be happy later on. Your, Willie.

She filed for divorce on the 2nd of February 1916 on the grounds of restoration of conjugal rights and was granted a decree nisi on the 3rd of April 1916.

After the war he lived at 21, Rue Jean-Baptiste Dumas in Paris.
Went on to Wellington College

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