Selected Biographies

Whitehead, Leslie Hugh Haydon – Born: Peckham, London on 17.11.1899.[1]  Parents: John Haydon Whitehead (Elementary School Teacher) and Annie Florence [née Elliott] (Assistant School Teacher).  Home: School House, The Green, Long Melford (1901), 4 Westgate Terrace, Westgate Street, Long Melford (1911), 27 Lister Street, Chorlton-upon-Medlock, Lancashire (1921), 4 Westgate Terrace, Westgate Street, Long Melford (1939) to [1984].  Occupation: Student Teacher (1921), Record Searcher and Genealogist (1939).  Married: Madeleine Edith Laura Byford of Glemsford, Suffolk in 1926.  Service Record: Leslie enlisted as Pte.51028 with 6^th [Service] Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment.  This unit had been in France since the summer of 1915 as part of 54^th Brigade, 18^th [Eastern] Division and saw action during the Somme Offensive of 1916, the Battles of Arras and Third Ypres in 1917, and the First and Second Battles of the Somme and the Hindenburg Line in 1918.  Private Whitehead was transferred to the Army Reserve in January 1919.[2]  In 1939 he is identified as an Air Raid Precaution Communications Officer and by August 1942 is a member of ‘H’ Company, 10^th Battalion, Suffolk Home Guard, his name being recorded in the official tribute to the organization entitled The Lion Roared his Defiance, photographed in and around Long Melford in 1944.[3]  Died: Leslie died sometime after he was last seen alive on 22.12.1984 and eventual discovery six days later.[4]

Whitehead, Mrs Madeleine Edith Laura [née Byford] – Born: Glemsford, Suffolk on 10.1.1902.[5]  Parents: Edward Stanley Byford (Coconut Mat Finisher) and Sarah [née Brewster].  Home: Chequers Lane, Glemsford (1911), 43 Cadogan Square, Chelsea, London (1921), 4 Westgate Terrace, Westgate Street, Long Melford (1939) to [1976].  Occupation: Kitchen Maid (1921), School Teacher (1939).  Married: Leslie Hugh Haydon Whitehead in 1926.  Service Record: Madeleine was a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment and the West Suffolk Air Raid Precaution Service during the Second World War.[6]  Died: Long Melford, Suffolk on 24.7.1976.[7]

Notes – [1] Date of birth from Death Index. [2] For details of 6^th Northamptonshire’s movements see War Diary [WO 95/2044/2].  See also his Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [3] Published by Marten & Son, Ltd., of Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk in 1946.  [4] National Probate Calendar.  [5] 1939 Register.  [6] 1939 Register.  [7] National Probate Calendar.