Lieutenant Lionel Pilkington ABBOTT
7th (Service) Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment

Date of birth: 30th December 1887
Date of death: 14th July 1916

Killed in action aged 28
Commemorated at Flat Iron Copse Cemetery, Mametz on Special Memorial 18
He was born at Old Clee near Grimsby in Lincolnshire on the 30th of December 1887 the only son of the Reverend Arthur Abbott, Vicar of Corby Glen, and Lucy Blanche (nee Pilkington) of Corby Vicarage, Grantham.

He was educated at the Matthew Humberston Foundation School at Chatsworth Place, Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1902 to July 1907 where he played in the Rugby XV from 1904 to 1906 being Captain in 1906. He was in the Rowing IV from 1904 to 1907 and was Captain of Boats from 1905 to 1907. He was a member of the Sports Committee in 1905, earned his Sports Colours in 1906 and 1907 and was Captain of Games in the same two years. He was appointed as a Monitor in September 1906. In October 1907 he entered Exeter College Oxford as a commoner where he gained a BA in December 1911. He played cricket for the college, despite not having played for the school while at King's. He was also stroke of his college boat, stroking them to victory in the Morrell Fours at Oxford in 1908. He was a member of the Oxford University Officer Training Corps.

After Oxford he became a schoolmaster, first at Bramcote School in Scarborough and later at Glebe House School at Hunstanton.

He was commissioned as a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the Leicestershire Regiment on the 3rd of December 1914 and was posted to the 7th Battalion of his regiment. He embarked for France with his battalion at Folkestone on the 29th of July 1915, landing at Boulogne the next day. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 19th of February 1916.

On the morning of the 14th of July 1916 the 7th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment was detailed to attack the enemy held village of Bazentin-le-Petit as part of the ongoing Somme offensive. They were assembled in trenches to the front of Mametz Wood in four waves with D Company on the left, with B and C Companies in the centre and A Company on the right of the attack. They were to capture and consolidate the first three German trench lines. At 3.25am the preparatory barrage lifted and the men rushed the German first line with A Company quickly gaining the enemy trench. B and C Companies were held up for twenty minutes by machine gun fire before they managed to outflank the position. The men of D Company were also held up but were able to work their way up to the enemy parapet and rush the defenders, many of who were captured or killed while still in their dugouts. The second wave quickly followed, crossed the old first line and headed for their second objective by which time there was only one officer remaining from each of B and C Companies and none left from D Company. Lionel Abbott had been killed attacking the first line. The enemy second line fell at 4am and Captain Clarke, who had assumed command of the battalion, led a final charge on the third and final objective. After fierce fighting and many casualties, including Captain Clarke, the third objective fell at 6.25am. For much of the rest of the day the new positions were subjected to heavy fire from enemy artillery. The village was later cleared of enemy troops and a new line was established in Bazentin-le-Petit Wood. The battalion had suffered casualties of eighteen officers and five hundred and thirty five men killed wounded or missing during the attack.

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Exeter College Oxford, on the memorial at the Matthew Humberston Foundation School, on the Corby Glen war memorial and on a bronze plaque inside the church of St John the Evangelist, Church Street, Corby Glen, South Kesteven, Lincolnshire. He is also commemorated on a monument in St George's Chapel at St Martin's Cathedral in Leicester and on the memorial at the King's School, Grantham.

 

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