Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Alderman Samuel Lennard J.P., Mayor of Leicester 1900-01, a boot and shoe manufacturer, born on the 5th June 1851 in Leicester and his wife Annie Eliza Lennard (nee Wood, married in the 2nd quarter of 1899 in the Leicester district), born 1864 in Leicester and who was the eldest daughter of Sir Edward Wood Kt. Samuel Frederic was born on the 5th August 1894 in Leicester his siblings were, Eveline Annie, born 1890, Edward Wood, born in the 3rd quarter of 1891 and Kathleen Mary, born 1893, all his siblings were born in Leicester in March 1901 the family home was at 14, West Walk, Leicester. On the 14th September 1901 in Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire, Samuel’s father died aged 50. In April 1911 Samuel was absent from Shirley Lodge, Shirley Road, Leicester, this being the family home of his maternal Grandfather, Edward Wood, living on private means, born 1839 in Derby, also residing in his Grandfather’s home was his widowed mother, living on private means, and his siblings Eveline, a student, Edward, a boot manufacturer and Kathleen, a student, Samuel, a schoolboy, was residing as a boarder at Grove House, Leighton Park House, Shinfield Road, Reading Berkshire. After completing his education at Leighton Park School, he subsequently entered the business of Messrs. Freeman, Hardy and Willis Limited. Samuel joined the 4th Battalion Leicestershire Territorials as a Private in August 1914 after the outbreak of war, serving with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from February 1915. He returned to England after obtaining a commission in the same Battalion in July 1915, rejoining his Regiment in November 1915 and was killed in action near Souchez on the 30th March 1916. He was buried at Ecoivers, Mont St. Eloi. Samuel was unmarried. His elder brother Edward Wood also fell in action.
The War Diary records: 30 Mar-16 - Casualties 2nd Lt S. F. LENNARD killed in action, also one NCO and one man. Two other ranks wounded.
An account of events in this sector during March 1916 written by Captain John Milne, Captain 1/4th Battalion Leicestershire Regt. records. The 4th Leicesters had sat in trenches overlooked by the Boche on the Messines Ridge and at Hill 60. And now at Vimy the enemy were at the top of the ridge again thanks to those responsible for our shortage in guns and munitions.
If you had wished to visit the trench system at Vimy in March, 1916, you would first have arrived at the huts of the battalion at rest at Camblain L’Abbe.
These were not much to write home about. They were dirty because they had been occupied by dirty troops. For the French Army standard of cleanliness is not the same as ours. They do not notice little things like broken meats and garbage littered about. A dead animal or two in the vicinity of the men’s huts does not worry them. And any old place is good enough for any old latrine. The French are great fighters, great thinkers, great artists. But collectively their proclivity for tidiness is not pronounced, and their sense of smell is undoubtedly deficient. Camblain L’Abbe was not a bunch of violets, but a sanitary sergeant and a few defaulters can work wonders, and did.
If Camblain L’Abbe four miles from the front line was not salubrious, Villers au Bois a mile nearer the enemy was far more uncomfortable. It consisted of support trenches and dug-outs which were the remains of a French camp. Filth and then more filth.
To get to the front line there is a plateau two miles wide to be crossed, which is unhealthy as it is in full view of the enemy who can snipe with whizz-bangs. So it is safer to cross by a long brick-bottomed communication trench called the Cabaret Rouge (from an estaminet bearing that name long since blown to bits). The centre bricks of the trench have sunk so much that it is necessary to walk like a Red Indian on the war path, placing one foot straight in front of the other, a severe trial to the heavy footed, heavy loaded British soldier. This trench seems endless, but it isn’t. And after an hour or more of discomfort, halts, trips over telephone wires and jams caused by stretcher parties, it suddenly opens into a valley, the Talus de Zouves.
There is much to be said for this Cabaret Rouge trench. It is wide, it is safe, as communication trenches go. Of course it is wet in many places. Its chalk sides are not revetted, and have a habit of falling in at untimely moments. It is the long red and white road that leads often to death, sometimes to glory, always to squalor and filth. But it is also the road that leads back to the longed-for rest after much weariness, to blankets, to baths, to comparative safety, and to Blighty either on leave or on a stretcher. It remains in the memory a long line of indelible French chalk.
The Talus des Zouves is not a happy valley. It takes its name from the number of dead Zouves that lie unburied in it. They attacked with much dash and élan at the time of our Loos battle and managed to take the ridge, but could not hold it. They lost terribly, and their dead lie just as they fell in their red coats and white trousers which the winter has now turned nearly as black as their faces. Africa will never see them again, but truly they have earned a place in the sun.
The valley has very steep sides. This is all to the good because the Boche find it difficult to shell effectively. There are trenches and dug-outs on the eastern side for the battalion in support. They are good dug-outs. They would be; they are old German ones. The Germans lead the world in dug-out construction. No waterproof-sheet-cum-sandbag-cum-corrugated-iron for them. They must have something safe, deep, roomy and well lighted. So the battalion in support lived in some comfort in the hillside, but outside the atmosphere was charged with the sizzle of sausages and the stench of Zouaves.
There was a similarity in the trenches at Kemmel in April 1915, and those at Vimy a year later. Both were wet and under water in places. Both were disconnected, and posts rather than continuous trenches. Both were on a ridge just below and close to the German line. Both stank abominably from the filth purposely drained down on them by the protagonists of culture on top of the ridge. And around both lay the dead soldiers of France.
Six days in brigade support trenches at Villers au Bois. Six days in support trenches at Talus des Zouves. Six days in the front line. And then six days so-called rest in Camblain L’Abbe huts. Thus was the line held.
It is unpleasant to get wet by day. It is perfectly vile to be out in the wet for six days and six nights, and roughly that was life in the front line at Vimy. Sandbags were filled. Trenches were drained. A good morning’s work was done, and then “plonk” and a “sausage” from a minenwerfer would land in the middle of the trench in the middle of the afternoon. It was lucky if there were no casualties, but in any case it would take all night to repair the trench. “Sausages” could be seen in the air, which gave someone time to blow a whistle, and then everyone would dash round to the nearest traverse for cover. We retaliated with trench mortars and Stokes guns, which were being used for the first time. We gave the Boche all the hate we could.
But there he sat at the top of the ridge with sausages galore at his disposal, and snipers with telescopic sights who blew the brains out of any head which showed over our parapet. Second Lieutenant S. F. Lennard was killed in this way. He was a fine young officer who had joined on mobilisation and gained much experience in the ranks of the battalion before receiving a commission. He was an officer the battalion could ill afford to lose.
On the 31st January 1920 the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester published a Roll of Honour in which Samuel is shown to have been a pupil at the school between the years 1903 and 1905.
On Friday April 7th 1916 The Melton Mowbray Times & Vale of Belvoir Gazette published the following article under the heading. “MELTON AND THE WAR.” – LIEUT. S. F. LENNARD KILLED. We regret to hear that official intimation has been received from the War Office that Second-Lieut. Samuel Fredk. Lennard was killed in action on March 30th. The gallant soldier was the younger son of the late Ald. Lennard, J.P., who it will be remembered died during his mayoralty, and therefore the grandson of Sir Edward Wood. He was educated at the Wyggeston School, and at Leighton Park School, Reading. On the outbreak of war he joined the Leicesters as a private. This was on August 14th, 1914, and he gained his commission in 1915, rejoining his regiment in November last. His elder brother is in the Public Schools Battalion. The deepest sympathy will be felt with the mother of the deceased and the family in the great loss they have sustained by the death of a young officer so greatly esteemed by all who knew him.