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Lieutenant Lancelot Arthur LENNY
5th (Service) Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers attached to the 9th (Service) Battalion East Lancashire Regiment Date of birth: 31st March 1896 Date of death: 20th December 1917 Killed in action aged 21 Buried at Karasouli Military Cemetery Row E Grave 1104
Lancelot Arthur Lenny was born at the High Street, Lewes in Sussex on the 31st of March 1896 the son of George Joseph Lenny, a coach manufacturer, and Annie Harriett Archer (nee Bryant) Lenny later of "Ceddwell Cottage", Ewshott, Farnham in Surrey. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in News House from September 1909, Fields House from September 1912 and in Sandersons House from September 1913 until July 1914. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps from September 1909, rising to the rank of Sergeant. He was appointed as a House Captain in 1913 and became the first Head of Sandersons House. He achieved his Higher Certificate in 1914 with distinctions in both French and German. He won a place at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge in 1914 but the outbreak of war interrupted his plans and instead he enlisted at Westminster as a Private in the 18th (Service) Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), University and Public School Corps on the 15th of September 1914. At a medical examination, which was held on the same day, it was recorded that he was 6 feet tall and that he weighed 142lbs. He was promoted to Corporal on the 16th of September, to Lance Sergeant on the 7th of November and to Sergeant on the 28th of November 1914. On the 28th of July 1915 he transferred to the 28th battalion of his regiment and he applied for a commission from Farm Camp, Epsom on the 23rd of August 1915. On the 31st of August he reverted to the rank of Private at his own request. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 11th (Reserve) Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment on the 7th of October 1915 and transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers on the same day. On the 11th of October 1915 he was posted to officers school, based at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He landed at Port Said on the 31st of May 1916 on board HMAT "Orsova" and proceeded to Zeitoun Camp. On the 12th of August he went on to Sidi Bishi and on the 24th of August 1916 he was attached to the 5th Battalion of his regiment and joined them in the field at Salonica on the 13th of September 1916. On the 26th of September 1916 he was admitted to 30 Field Ambulance suffering from paralysis in his forearm and was evacuated to Malta. On the 7th of October 1916 he disembarked at Malta and was admitted to the Military Hospital at Hamrun. He was released from hospital and went to All Saints Camp on the 21st of November 1916 to await transportation back to his unit. He sailed from Malta on the 30th of December and arrived in Salonica on the 1st of January 1917. He rejoined his battalion in the field on the 16th of January 1917. He was attached to the East Lancashire Regiment shortly afterwards and was promoted to temporary Lieutenant on the 1st of July 1917. In June 1917 the 9th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment took over the line running to the west of Lake Doiran in Salonika facing Bulgarian troops. The two lines were separated by the Jumeaux Ravine which formed a formidable natural barrier between the two sides. On the 11th of December 1917 the 9th Battalion East Lancashire Battalion relieved the 9th Battalion King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) in positions known as Camp Hill, near Salda. On the 20th of December 1917 Lancelot Lenny was killed by a machine gun bullet while supervising a working party. His parents received the following telegram dated the 26th of December 1917:- "Deeply regret to inform you that Lieut. L.A. Lenny Irish Fusiliers attached East Lancashire Regiment was killed in action December twentieth. The Army Council express their regret." A brother officer wrote:- "As an officer we valued him as one of our very best." A Chaplain wrote:- "I liked him the best of any officer I have met out here; everyone loved him." Lieutenant Kenneth Gouldie Wilson OL (Olds 1910-1914), who served with him in the same battalion, wrote:- "The men in his platoon worshipped him, and when he was detached from us for a month or two on a special post they were always enquiring when he would be back with them again." Private G.E. Adams wrote:- "He died on duty, amongst his own men who thought so much of him." He is commemorated on the Four Marks war memorial in the grounds of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Lymington Bottom in Hampshire.

Sandersons House