Leonard Comer Wall (1896 - 1917) - British Poet

Leonard Comer Wall was born in West Kirby on the Wirral Peninsula in the north west of England in 1896.   His father, Charles Comer Wall, was a grocer and a director of the firm G. Wall and Company of Liverpool.  Leonard’s mother was Kate Wall, nee Earle, from Newfoundland.  Before her marriage, Kate had attended a boarding school for girls in West Kirby.

Leonard was educated at Clifton Academy in Bristol.  He joined the 1^st West Lancashire Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery and was commissioned as an officer.  The Regiment was posted to the Western Front with A Battery, 275 Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery in September 1915.  During that period, Leonard was mentioned in despatches.

Leonard was killed near Ypres on 9^th June 1917 and is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium.   At the time of his death, Leonard was engaged to be married to a young lady from Kent.


It seems that Leonard was killed while riding his Regimental horse “Blackie” because I found a mention on the Internet that he had left instructions in his Will that his medals should be buried with his horse.   He must have left more than that because “Blackie” was apparently among the few horses repatriated after the end of the War.  "Blackie" lived on until 1942 and when he died at the age of 35 in an RSPCA facility in Hunts Cross in Liverpool, he still bore the scars of the Shrapnel that killed his master.