Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Thomas Bullock a national certificated school master, born 1845 in Pill, Somerset and his wife Emily R., born 1844 in East Langton, Leics. Leonord Cecil was born in 1881 in Smeeton Westerby, Leics., his siblings were Alice M., born 1873, John E., born 1877, George W., born 1879, Constance H., born 1884 and Lilian E., born 1886, all his siblings were born in Smeeton Westerby, Leics., in April 1891 the family home was at Cobleys Lane, Smeeton Westerby, Leics. In March 1901 Leonord was employed as a labourer and was residing as a boarder at Manor House, High Street, Tur Langton, Leics. In April 1911 Leonord was employed as a colliery boiler stoker and was residing as a boarder at 65, Midland Road, Ellistown, Leics. He was register at birth with the Christian name spelling of Leonord, however later references to him give his name spelling as Lenard. The War Diary for today records. Owing to the phenomenal rise of the river, 4.91 feet in the last 24 hours, great difficulty was experienced yesterday in dealing with the floods. Bunds as high as the parapets were built in each trench at the river bank and the new aid post had to abandoned. 5 bays of PRINCES TRENCH were flooded and the water advanced for 50 yards along QUEENS TRENCH. Work on the bunds was continued throughout the night. An early morning raid on the enemy support F7, F5 and F3 having been planned for the various units of the Bde in the front line, the Battn provided a raiding party of 2 officers (2nd Lt C. G. R. SWINDELLS and 2nd Lt G. S. RODGER) and 20 men, grenadiers, bayonet men and covering party for Sappers and Miners. The latter were to demolish Sap F7. The Battn “Stood to” at 4.30am. Punctually at 5.00am a heavy barrage fire on enemy’s first and second lines was opened by our artillery, Field guns and Stokes Mortar Bty. Immediately the enemy sent up Very lights and replied to our fire with bombs, shells and rifle fire. At 5.10am the barrage lifted from the points to be raided and the raiding party, having crept forward under the barrage, made a rush for the sap which was cleared of the enemy. The trench on either side of the sap was found to be strongly wired close up to the fire trench. Only a few including 2nd Lt SWINDELLS got into the fire trench. A good deal of damage must have been done by our bombs. The enemy kept up a heavy rifle fire and sent over a lot of hand grenades. The Sappers and Miners have several men slightly wounded, their officer killed and no galleries were found in Sap F7 to demolish. When the time had expired 2nd Lt SWINDELLS who was in the trench in command of the raiding party, gave the signal to retire before the barrage lowered on the whole front line again. 2nd Lt SWINDELLS was not seen again. Our losses were two officers missing, 6 men missing and 3 men wounded. At 6.15am Stokes Mortars Bty again bombarded the enemy lines. At dawn 2 bodies were seen lying across the enemy wire in front of 12B but it was difficult to recognise them. Our artillery, the monitor and Stokes Mortars again bombarded at 3.30pm and the Turks were observed to reinforce their front trenches during this bombardment. Good shooting was made with rifle grenades during the day. A few bombs were sent over by the enemy into EMPERORS TRENCH wounding two men. Between 6.00pm and 7.00pm a patrol of four went out searching for wounded or dead after the raid, but met with no success. About 8.00pm the enemy opened rapid fire for about ten minutes but did no damage.