Rank: Private Regiment: Dorsetshire Regiment; Hampshire Regiment Died: 1959 Age: 60 Parish: Beer
Leicester White was born in Branscombe on 25 July 1899, the son of John and Rosetta White. He saw active duty along with his brothers Lawrence, Melville, Robert and Peter. He would not have been old enough to join the army until the summer of 1917, and his medal index card from the National Archives shows that he joined the Dorsetshire Regiment as a private, but was later transferred into the Hampshire Regiment.
This often happened when recruits were nearing the end of their training and another regiment suffered very heavy casualties and needed urgent replacements.
His medal index card also proves that he went on active service overseas, but does not record the theatre of war he served in. Unfortunately, his army record of service has not survived, and as he was under 21 at the end of the war he was not eligible to vote at that point, and so his details do not appear on the Absent Voters’ List for 1919, which has provided information on many others whose service records have not survived.
Leicester died in 1959, aged 60.
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