CORPORAL 13639 LESLIE SEYMOUR PERKS 10TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 8TH OCTOBER 1916


CORPORAL 13639 LESLIE SEYMOUR PERKS 10TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 8TH OCTOBER 1916



Leslie Seymour Perks was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire in 1897 and was just 17 years old when he volunteered for service with the 3rd Wharfedale Company of the 10th West Riding Regiment in September 1914.

The Perks family had moved to Ilkley a few years before the outbreak of war and his parents, who were domestic servants, worked for Clara Baynes who lived at 6 Longcroft Road, Ben Rhydding. Leslie held a position as apprentice pharmacist at Taylors Drug Store on The Grove and studied at the Northern Institute in Leeds.

Leslie had seen service in France since July 1915 and spent the summer of 1916 with his regiment in the Somme sector. On the 8th October 1916 his battalion were in support of an attack by the 11th West Yorkshire Regiment when he was killed near to the village of La Sars. Leslie was just 19 years of age.

Corporal Leslie Seymour Perks has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial to the Missing and is remembered on Ilkley War memorial.

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