Second Lieutenant Leslie Howard Elliott Wells
3rd (Reserve) Battalion, attached to the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers
Died of Wounds
Date of Birth: 1885
Place of Birth: Wallingford, Berkshire
Date of Death: 1st May 1915 aged 31
Buried: Sotwell (St James) Churchyard, Berkshire. Remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. Michael’s Church Memorial, Teignmouth
Awarded the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
2nd Lieutenant Leslie Howard Elliott Wells, age 31. Born in Wallingford 1885,
Leslie was the elder son of Harriett and William John Howard Wells.
Shown on the 1891 census living with his family at Sotwell Street, Sotwell, Wallingford and on 1901 census boarding with a clergyman and his family at Worthing.
The 1911 census showed him working as an articled clerk for Tozer & Dell, solicitors; he was living in Glendaragh Road, Teignmouth.
Leslie was well known in the Teignmouth local amateur dramatic group and also was an all-round sportsman.
Lancashire Fusiliers cap badge
He obtained a commission and was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant on 30 March 1915 serving with 3rd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. He was attached to 2nd Battalion and arrived in France in spring 1915.
Leslie died in the 7th General Military Hospital, Boulogne, on 4 May 1915 as a result of gas poisoning on 1st April.
His will left £1,651.10s.2d to his sister, his only remaining sibling.
His father had his body brought back to England and he was interred in Sotwell Churchyard, Berkshire.
Remembered on Seafront Memorial and St. Michael’s Church Memorial, Teignmouth.
His younger brother died at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, Cyril Edward Elliot Wells
