G.+L.+COUSENS

Cousens, Leonard Gordon, Private, 325735, 17th Battalion, Royal Scots Formerly 36612, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment Enlisted Derby Killed in action 27th April 1918 aged 24 Buried in Martinsart British Cemetery, I, D, 15

Leonard was the second son of Robert Henry (1861-1902) and Rosanna (née Smith, 1860-1900) Cousens. His parents were from the London area; his older brother, Robert, was born in Hampstead in 1891. But by the time Leonard was born in 1894, they had moved to the Kingston area and in 1901 they were living in Hampton Wick, just across the river. His parents both died young and in the 1911 census the two boys were living with their maternal uncle, William John Nimmo Smith, a retired milliner and fancy draper, of 20, Byron Road, Sheffield, Yorkshire. Leonard was then apprenticed to his uncle’s trade.

At some stage, he moved to Ockbrook, changing his trade to dairyman, and married Daisy Constance Wills at St Werburgh’s Church, Spondon on 20 November 1915. She, too, was not a Spondon native, living with her grandparents in Cambridge Street. Her mother had died soon after her birth and her father re-married.

Leonard is also named on the Midland Railway Memorial, Derby as a shop clerk in the chief mechanical engineering department, Derby presumably a career change after his marriage. Daisy and Leonard had one son, Ronald Gordon, born on 8 May 1917. After Leonard’s death, Daisy returned to her family roots in West Bromwich, remarrying in 1924 to William Johnson. She died in 1993, not quite reaching her 100th birthday.




 * Spondon**
 * Back to Memorial**


 * Spondon (St. Werburgh's Church)**
 * Back to Memorial**