Biography of William Leonard SMITH
[Ref. R.424]
| Ancestors |  |
Profile | |
Naval Service | |
Index for SMITH |
Biography of William Leonard SMITH
[Ref. R.424]
| Ancestors | |
Profile | |
Naval Service | |
Index for SMITH |
William Leonard Smith was born at 50 Little Queen Street in Dartford, Kent on 5 December 1909. Known as Bill, he was the third of the six children of William and Lillian Smith.
The census of 1911 shows him at home with his family at 1 Wellington Road in Dartford. When the next census was taken in 1921, the family were living in The Bungalow in Lowfield Street in Dartford.
Bill had been working with his father as a milkman but, on 25 June 1925, he joined the Naval Training Establishment HMS Ganges at Shotley in Suffolk, starting as a Boy rating class 2.
In 1937, whilst stationed at HMS Pembroke, Bill married Elsie Crickmore. The electoral registers from 1937 to 1939 list Bill at his father's house, The Bungalow in Lowfield Street, Dartford. Bill and Elsie's daughter Barbara was born in 1940.
Bill remained in service with the navy until 5 November 1945. He took a job as a baker's roundsman.
Son Roderick was born in Chatham in 1951 but nothing thereafter is known of Bill or his family until his death in Dartford in 1974. He had been living at 11 Haywards Close in Crayford, Kent. He was cremated and his ashes spread in the churchyard of the parish church in Crayford on 8 June that year.