Leonard Murrant was born in Farringdon in 1890, the son of William and Laura who were living at The Cross in 1901. William died the following year and Laura then married John Ellis in 1903. They moved, together with her younger children (including Leonard), to Silverton in Essex.

Leonard enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment at Woolwich and became 12723 Lance Corporal Murrant. He entered the conflict in the Balkans on 21st August 1915, dying at sea on the 12th October. The ‘Roll of Glory’ for Farringdon in the Alton Gazette of January 1916 listed ‘Corp. L Murrant, 1st Essex Regiment, died in the South of Greece’.

He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the British War and Victory Medals.

As his step-father had died, Leonard’s mother moved back to Farringdon - living at 1 Kathleen Place - and his family still attend his uncle’s grave in the village.

Lance Corporal Leonard Murrant is commemorated on the Helles Memorial - Panel 144 to 150 or 229 to 233.

Source: “The Remembered Ones of the Great War”, 2014, The Alton and Villages Local History Forum (with permission)