Leonard George Simpson

He served with 12th Bn. Enlisted at Newark on 27th November 1915. Mobilised as Private 23560, 26th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers on 29th March 1916. Posted to 31st Battalion on 27th May 1916 and went to France on 16th August 1916. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on 18th July 1916, transferring to the Middlesex Regiment on 31st August 1916, joining the battalion in the field on 1st September 1916. He was killed in the attack on Thiepval.

Newark Herald 25th November 1916 “Lance-Corporal Leonard George Simpson, formerly chief cashier at the London City and Midland Bank, Newark, who has been killed in action joined the Royal Fusiliers on the 31st March, and after training in Epping Forest and at Portobello, Edinburgh, was sent to France in August, when a draft was formed to make good the losses of the Middlesex Regiment. He went into action at Thiepval in September, and when last seen was wounded and making his way to the dressing station. The War Office is now satisfied that he is killed. Deceased was a keen soldier and had been recommended by his colonel for a commission.” 12th Battalion Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own), a K2 (Service) Battalion, formed at Mill Hill, London, from volunteers in August 1914 and, on being equipped, in 1915 trained at Colchester, Essex, and later at Codford on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. The Battalion landed in France on 26th July 1915 as part of 54th Brigade in 18th (Eastern) Division, initially concentrating near Flesselles. 12th Middlesex was committed to the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. Simpson was killed in the successful attack by his battalion and brigade on the Thiepval Chateau, very close to this monument. Two men of Simpson’s battalion won the Victoria Cross during this attack on 26th September 1916. 18th Division Memorial If you return to the main entrance to the Thiepval Memorial, and look down the road to the left (as you exit the Memorial grounds) an obelisk memorial can be seen. Close to the main Thiepval memorial is a memorial to the 18th Division. The 18th Division fought here on the 26th September 1916, in the Battle of Thiepval Ridge, when most of the village was taken (the 12th Middlesex advanced through the village itself) with further advances made later. The attackers left their trenches and crept forward into No Mans Land before the British barrage lifted, meaning that they had less distance to go to reach the German front line, and that the German counter-barrage fell on the British front line, while the troops were ahead of it in No Man's Land. Research Simon Williams