Selected Biography

Crowfoot, Leonard [MSA] – Born: Broome, Norfolk on 18.9.1874.  Parents: William Crowfoot (Brewer) and Mary Ann [née Hughes].  Home: Eastdene, Station Road, Long Melford (1911) to [1925], 2 Wellington Street, Newmarket, Cambridgeshire (1939).  Occupation: Shorthand Clerk (1891), Architect’s Assistant (1901), Architect (1911), Architect and Surveyor [1918] to (1939).  Married: Amy Fisher in 1929.  Service Record: Leonard was the Captain of the Long Melford Cricket XI in 1913.  In March 1916 he went before the Melford Military Service Tribunal and requested a three-month exemption to complete architectural work in hand, principally farm buildings on the estate at Brent Eleigh.  Crowfoot was granted two months exemption, although he may not have actually been conscripted as he was acting as a canvasser for the recruiting drive in Long Melford in April 1917.  Another record from July 1918 also throws doubt on him being drafted when he was again before the Melford Tribunal being granted a ‘final’ month’s exemption.  Whilst his call up should have followed shortly after, no definitive military record has been found.  In 1920 he was awarded several commissions for designing Memorials to the Fallen in Suffolk: namely a Cross on the village green at Cavendish and a plaque inside St Peter and St Paul Church, Lavenham.  Died: Newmarket, Cambridgeshire in 1950.[1]

Note – [1] Date of birth from the 1939 Register for Newmarket.  Crowfoot carried on an architectural practice in Long Melford at least to 1928, see Bury Free Press 2.8.1928.  For Melford Cricket XI see Bury Free Press 22.3.1913.  The War Memorials were unveiled in September and December 1920 respectively, see Bury Free Press 25.12.1920.  For the Tribunal’s rulings see Suffolk and Essex Free Press 8.3.1916 and 10.7.1918.