Leslie Armitage MIDGLEY

53220, Private. b. 1899, Bradford d. Wed. 27th March 1918 (age 19).

A further casualty of the German Spring Offensive, Leslie was one of the many young soldiers still trying to adapt to the drastically changing Front Line positions. Aged 19 at the time of his death, he had enlisted under age in June 1916 shortly after his 17th birthday into the 10th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment whom he then trained with. One of the lucky few to retain a place in his original battalion, Leslie docked in France on 11th March 1917 and was sent very quickly to the trenches to help replace the losses being incurred in the rapidly dwindling unit.

At 19, Leslie was one of the many men of the Great War who never actually experienced adulthood in civilian life; as soon as they were ‘of an age’ they were drafted into the Armed Forces. Many of the soldiers to die in the latter stages of the war also suffered this fate, as the average age in the Armed Forces gradually got lower and lower.

The son of Sam Midgley, Leslie had grown up around Clayton and lived with his family at 10 Victoria Street, Clayton. Aged 12 Leslie is shown as being part time at school and working as a Bobbin Layer in an Alpaca and Mohair spinning mill. His elder brother, William aged 13, is listed as a Bobbin Taker-offer. Leslies father Sam, has the unusual job working as a News Compositor for an evening newspaper.

Leslie is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Arras, France.