Virtual
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Australia

Leonard was the son of John Henry KILLEN & Margaret FORSYTH and was born on the 16th of July 1892 in High Street, Queenstown, SA.

His parents were married on the 17th of July 1890 in Crafers, SA.

His father was the son of William KILLEN and was born in 1855 and his mother was the daughter of John FORSYTH and was born in 1861.

Leonard was the second child born into this family of 6 children.

His father was a wharf labourer and Leonard grew up in High Street, Queenstown.

Leonard was educated at Pt Adelaide and joined H Company Senior Cadets (Pt Adelaide).
The family then moved to Long Street, Queenstown and on completing his education Leonard gained employment as a labourer.

In 1908 the family then moved to Spring Street, Queenstown and when Leonard aged out of the Cadets he joined the 1st Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps in Pt Adelaide.

At the age of 22, Leonard enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 3rd of September 1914 in Morphettville and allotted the service number 673 and posted to the newly raised 12th Battalion, F Company in Pontville, Tasmania.

Leonard trained at Morphettville Camp for 2 weeks before entraining to Melbourne on the 21st of September and then embarking for Tasmania and arrived in Pontville Camp on the 26th of September.
Three days later, back in South Australia, his brother; John Henry, enlisted (1143) and went on to serve with the 1st Stationary Hospital.

Leonard embarked on the 20th of October 1914 on board HMAT Geelong, disembarked in Suez on the 10th of December and entrained to Mena Camp.
He then served at Gallipoli before being evacuated to England with diarrhoea and enteritis.
Once he recovered he proceeded to France where he served until the 14th of September 1918 when, as part of the first draft of 1914 men, Leonard marched out of his Battalion for return to Australia.

Leonard embarked from Taranto, Italy on board HT Kasir-i-Hind on the 24th of September 1918 and disembarked in Adelaide on the 23rd of November.
He returned home to his parents at Spring Street, Queenstown and was discharged from the AIF on the 22nd of January 1919.
He joined the Pt Adelaide RSL Sub-Branch and gained employment as a wharf labourer.

Leonard married Olive Federal DOUBTFIRE on the 21st of January 1920 in Adelaide, SA.
Olive was the daughter of Hames Henry DOUBTFIRE & Marion CHRISTENSON and was born on the 26th of January 1901 in Broken Hill, NSW.

They made their first home in Ansell Street, Semaphore and welcomed their first child; Keith Leonard James, on the 30th of December 1920, followed by Reginald Frank on the 19th of November 1921.

They then moved to 56 George Street, Parkside where they welcomed little Allen Maxwell on the 7th of December 1922 and Leonard was employed as a labourer.
Sadly little Allen died the following month on the 19th of January 1923 and they buried him in the West Terrace Cemetery.
John Henry was then born on the 18th of April 1924, but he died just 10 days later and they buried him in the West Terrace Cemetery with Allen.

Leonard then gained employment as a motor body assembler with Holden Motor Body Builders in Woodville, so they moved to 61 May Street, Woodville West.
Here their last child; June, was born in June 1928, but she died a few weeks later.

On the 16th of November 1934 Leonard was injured at work and admitted into the Adelaide Hospital for 18 days.
He was then readmitted on the 3rd of January 1935 for 4 weeks and then again on the 28th of March for 9 weeks.

On the 3rd of June Leonard was again admitted into the Adelaide Hospital but unfortunately he died in the hospital 6 days later, on the 6th of June 1935.

He was buried 2 days later in the Cheltenham Cemetery; Section BX, Drive A, Path 9, Site Number 94S.

Olive was awarded £527 from Holden Motor Body Builders as a workers compensation settlement for their 2 sons as it was deemed that Leonard had died from the injuries he received whilst employed by Holden’s.

With the outbreak of WW2, their 2 sons enlisted;

Reginald enlisted into the RAAF on the 27th of August 1940 (27544) and served with the 5th Central Recovery Depot.

Keith enlisted into the RAAF on the 11th of October 1941 (416861).
He became a Warrant Officer Wireless Air Gunner and in 1944 was attached to 530 Squadron USAAF at Fenton Airfield near Darwin.

On the 28th of October 1944 he was part of the 11 person RAAF crew on board Liberator B24J 110120 which was on a return casualty repatriation flight to Macassar.
They took off at 5:51pm and never returned.
Their last communication stated they had lost 2 engines and were preparing to ditch off the Coast of Flores Island.
Neither their plane nor their bodies were ever recovered.
Keith was reported as being Killed in Action on the 29th of October 1944.

Olive died on the 10th of June 1985 and was buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery; Section BX, Drive A, Path 9, Site Number 94S, with Leonard.

Military

At the age of 22, Leonard enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 3rd of September 1914 in Morphettville and allotted the service number 673 and posted to the newly raised 12th Battalion, F Company in Pontville, Tasmania.
He listed his father, of Spring Street, Queenstown, SA, as his next of kin.

The 12th Battalion was among the first infantry units raised for the AIF during the First World War. Half of the battalion was recruited in Tasmania, a quarter was recruited in South Australia, and a quarter from Western Australia.

Leonard trained at Morphettville Camp for 2 weeks before entraining to Melbourne on the 21st of September and then embarking for Tasmania and arrived in Pontville Camp on the 26th of September.

The official march through Hobart took place on the 4th of October, when the Battalion entrained at Brighton Junction at 8am and proceeded to Moonah where they detrained. They then marched along the Main Road as far as Augusta Road, where they halted and fixed bayonets.
It was a particularly hot day and the march through the city with rifles at the slope was long and tiring. However, the constantly changing crowd which lined the streets and packed the verandahs all along the route was sufficiently interesting to make them forget the fatigue, although the lack of enthusiasm which was displayed tended to prove that the seriousness of the war was not appreciated in those early days.

Parties were then detailed almost daily to proceed to the troopships "Geelong" and "Katuna" for loading purposes.
On the morning of the 20th of October Leonard had a particularly early "reveille", about 4.30am, and breakfast shortly after. They rolled and stacked their blankets, struck their tents and marched out for the last time.

The troop train took them right on to the Ocean Pier, where the "Geelong" was berthed, and they commenced embarking soon after 10am.
Almost the whole of Hobart was there, but no one from the country or outlying districts, for their departure was kept very secret and no mention of it was made in the press.
The troopship commenced to hoot about 2pm, but it took some time to collect the stragglers who had eluded the sentries and got away for a last bit of liberty and to enjoy a last drink at their favourite hotel. The calling of rolls was impossible, and when the piquets at last came back and reported that everyone that could be found had been brought or ordered aboard, it was assumed that the troops were all mustered, and at 4pm the ropes were cast off and they drifted away amid cheers and wishes of "God speed."

Leonard watched the crowded pier recede and listened to the band playing "Rule Britannia" and "The Girl I Left Behind Me," until the sounds were lost in the intervening distance.
The army, however, knew no sentiment, and before they had passed the Iron
Pot they were fallen in and received their issue of mess utensils, hammock and blankets. Leonard leaned over the ship's side and watched the receding shores of Tasmania, and wondered when he would see Australian shores again.

The trip across the great Bight was not bad, considering the weather one does encounter at times in that sea, but the old "Geelong" rolled pretty well and was quite sufficient to make the majority of the men sick until they got their sea legs.
It used to cause great joy on the troop deck at meal times, during this period, as the companion-way which led from the top deck to the troop deck was very steep.
One day they had curry for dinner and the mess orderly had to carry a brimming dish of liquid curry, together with a dish of vegetables.
It was alright until he commenced to descend the steep ladder and then the boat gave a roll, upon which he overbalanced and fell to the bottom - curry and all.
The greasy curry on the deck now made matters worse and 3 mess orderlies suffered the same catastrophe on that particular day.

When they were a few days out they were all inoculated against typhoid fever.
They were afterwards inoculated so many times for so many diseases that they ceased to be interested.
One or two of the soldiers aboard refused to be inoculated and were sent home from
Albany.

They reached King George Sound, Albany on the 28th of October and found some of the troopships already assembled there. Others continued to arrive daily until the convoy was complete, consisting of 28 Australian troopships and 10 New Zealanders.
On Sunday the 1st of November they set sail in 3 long lines, the "Orvieto" with Divisional Headquarters aboard being the flagship for the “Geelong”.

They were escorted by battleships, amongst which were the "Melbourne”, "Sydney," "Minotaur", "Hampshire” and "Aboukir” and after they were out a day or so they were joined by 2 Japanese warships.
There was not sufficient deck space for all the units to parade at the same time and therefore a roster was drawn up and the different decks were allotted to different units at varying times during parade hours.
Parade work generally consisted of physical exercises, rifle exercises, musketry, lectures and kit inspections.

The one outstanding feature of the voyage was the sinking of the “Emden”.
At 7.30 am on the 9th of November, the "Sydney" was seen to belch forth volumes of black smoke and dash off across their front and disappear over the horizon, whilst the other battleships, although they did not leave the convoy, appeared excited.
Some ours later, they were officially told that the "Sydney" had actually engaged the "Emden" and defeated her.
They reached Colombo on the 15th of November where they anchored for 2 days in the extremely war weather, but did not go ashore, before sailing on the 17th for Aden.
Aden was reached on the 25th and they anchored overnight and the following morning they sailed for Port Said.
Two days later they received orders that they were to complete their training in Cairo so they then reached Suez on the 1st of December and entered the Canal the following afternoon.

The Canal was fortified at intervals by strong posts and block houses, garrisoned by English and Indian troops. Questions were freely asked as they slowly passed, which gave plenty of scope for witty and humorous replies.
Of course, the stock quest was “Who are you", and on one occasion a wag from the top boat deck replied, in a shrill, falsetto voice, " We are the Light Horse", which brought forth a roar of laughter.
The climax, however, was reached one evening when out of the darkness someone asked, "Where are you from”?, to which they naturally replied, "Tasmania", and then felt very humiliated when the unknown voice again asked "Where's that?"

It was a very hot passage through the Canal, a hot wind blowing across the desert carrying with it a fine, sandy dust, which made the atmosphere very parched.
Port Said was reached at 12:30pm the following day and after 5 days in anchorage they sailed for Alexandria on the 8th of December and arrived at their berth at 2:30pm the following day.
They disembarked on the 10th of December and entrained to Mena Camp, near Cairo, where Leonard obtained his first glimpse of the Pyramids.

They began their Battalion and Brigade training and Christmas 1914 was spent here.
On the 27th of February they received orders that they were to embark from Alexandria on the 1st of March for an unknown destination.
So on the 1st of March at 4am they embarked on board HMT Devanha and after 3 days at sea they arrived at Lemnos Island and anchored off Port Mudros.

Four days later they continued their landing operation training and landed horses and transport details ashore.
Then on the 7th of April they began to reload the horses and transport details and then on the 23rd they received their orders for the landing operation on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

At 2pm on the 24th of April they sailed from Mudros Harbour and arrived at their rendezvous off the Peninsula at 10pm. The 12th Battalion’s strength on HMT Devanha was 31 officers and 990 other ranks, with 28 officers & 873 other ranks to land.

Whilst loading from the Destroyers onto the boats they came under heavy shell fire from Gaba Tepe and on landing met heavy machine gun and rifle fire from the direction of Fisherman’s Hut.
They landed about 4:10am on the 25th of April at ANZAC Cove and Leonard, with A Company, pushed forward to 1st Ridge and encountered the enemy and they charged them with bayonets.

They then pursued the Turks but found themselves well outnumbered and were forced to fall back to the defensive line.
By nightfall on the 25th the 12th Battalion’s casualties were; 30 killed, 303 wounded and 90 missing.

On the 2nd of May they were relieved by the 8th Battalion and returned to the beach firing line for a few days before going back into the trenches.
Then on the 24th of May an Armistice was called from 8am until 4:30pm so both sides could bury their dead.

The 12th Battalion was heavily involved in establishing and defending the front line of the ANZAC position.
With the attack on Lone Pine on the 6th of August they contributed two companies to the attack, including Leonard. They were the only Battalion in the Brigade to do so.
On the 17th of August Leonard suffered from Diarrhoea and was admitted into the 2nd Field and transferred to the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station on ANZAC Beach.
He was then transferred to HS Georgian and embarked for Malta where he was admitted into St George’s suffering from Enteritis.
After 9 days here he was evacuated to England on board HS Plassey and admitted into the 5th London General at St Thomas’s Hospital in London on the 12th of September.

Leonard spent the next 5 months here before he was well enough to be discharged to the 5th Convalescent Depot in Abbey Wood on the 8th of February 1916.
He was then transferred to Montevideo Camp in Weymouth and proceeded to France on the 7th of June where he marched into the 1st ADBD (Australian Division Base Depot) in Etaples.

Leonard rejoined is Battalion on the 7th of August at Bonneville in training.
Eight days later they moved to Vadencourt Wood and the following day they moved to Brickfields.
On the 18th of August they moved to Sausage Valley into the reserve area and the following day they moved into the front line and relieved the 4th Battalion in Wire Trench. They were heavily involved in fighting on the Somme, specifically around Mouquet Farm and they participated in an attack on August 21st, suffering significant casualties.

They were relieved the following day and moved to Warloy before marching 12 miles to Beauval, the following day. Two days later they moved to Doullens and entrained to Proven, where they marched to Poperinghe and into their billets.
On the 29th of August they moved into the reserve area and into Ontario Camp where they began training.
Two days later Leonard was promoted to Lance Corporal and they then moved to Scottish Lines Camp where they were put through a thorough course of platoon and company training.

On the 12th of September, the 3rd Brigade took over part of the front line in front of Ypres, opposite Hill 60, and the following day Leonard and the 12th Battalion, as Brigade reserve, moved to Halifax Huts.
On the 19th they moved to Chateau Belge and were billeted in dug-outs among the trees in the grounds.
During the next four days they were sent as working parties to improve the front line before moving into the "Railway Dug -outs," and became the Brigade close support Battalion.
On the 26th of September, owing to the Brigade frontage being increased, Leonard and A Company took over part of the front line from the railway to Verbranden Road before relieving the 10th Battalion.

Here the weather was very wet and the sides of the trenches slid in, but after a few days the weather improved and they were tasked with improving their trench system. By mid October they had entrained at Ypres for Scottish Lines Camp where they trained for 5 days before marching out 4 miles in the frost on the 21st and entrained at Ardruicq. They passed through Boulogne, Etaples and Abbeville before detraining at Pont-Remy, on the Somme, about ten miles below Amiens.

The following day they marched to Fricourt where for the next few weeks the rain fell repeatedly and the conditions were deplorable.
They moved to Bernafay Wood at the end of October, into a sea of mud, before moving to through Longueval and Delville Wood into Swith and Gap Trenches. The mud and water in the bottom of these trenches came well over their boot tops.
They remained in this bog for all of November before they moved out to Dernancourt and into billets.

It was here on the 27th of November that Leonard suffered from Trench Feet and was admitted into the 2nd Australian Field Ambulance before being transferred to the New Zealand Stationary Hospital in Amiens, 3 days later.
The following day he was transferred by Ambulance Train and admitted into the 1st General Hospital in Etretat on the 2nd of December.
After 11 days recovering here Leonard was discharged to the 1st ADBD in Etaples where he spent Christmas 1916 before rejoining his Battalion on the 3rd of January 1917 at Flers.

They then took part in the brief advance that followed the German Army's retreat to the Hindenburg Line and then returned to Belgium to participate in the offensive that became known as the Third Battle of Ypres.
On the 8th of April Leonard was promoted to Corporal Vice and detached to the 3rd Training Battalion in England.
Here he attended No.2 Area Gas School and then on the 10th of September he suffered from scabies and was admitted into the 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital in Bulford for 7 days.

Leonard returned to the 3rd Training Battalion and on the 8th of November he was transferred to the Overseas Training Brigade in Longbridge Deverill.
Leonard proceeded back to France on the 31st of December and marched into the Australian Infantry Base Depot in Le Havre before rejoining his Battalion on the 6th of January 1918 in the front line at Wulverghem.
They then spent the whole month of February at Shankhill Huts in training until the 2nd of March when they embussed at Neuve Eglise for Voormezeele and marched to Crater Dug-outs in the vicinity of “The Bluff”.

Here they helped to stop the German spring offensive before Leonard suffered from Furunculosis (boils) whilst in camp at Borre on the 27th of April and was admitted into the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance and transferred to the 2nd Casualty Clearing Station in Ebblinghem.
Two days later he was transferred to the 56th General Hospital in Etaples for 1 day before being transferred to the 39th General Hospital in Aire.

Leonard spent nearly 2 months here before he was discharged to the AIBD in Le Havre on the 25th of June.
On the 10th of July he rejoined his Battalion who were in camp near Weke Meulin in training.
They then participated in the great allied offensive of 1918, fighting near Amiens on the 8th of August 1918.
After Amiens, they were involved in a series of advances as the Allies broke through the Hindenburg Line.

On the 7th of September they embussed and proceeded to Peronne, where they bivouacked on the outskirts of the town on Mt. St. Quentin, and during the 48 hours they spent there, large parties were detailed to bury the German dead, which were numerous in this vicinity.

Another forward move was made on the 10th of September by marching to the Tincourt area, where they Battalion were billeted in huts in Millen Copse, more often referred to as the Tank Wood, from the number of tanks which were parked in the wood for purposes of concealment.
While in this area they carried out the role of support to the Division and a portion of the time was utilised in digging a defensive position.

On the 14th of September, as part of the first draft of 1914 men, Leonard marched out of his Battalion for return to Australia.

Leonard embarked from Taranto, Italy on board HT Kasir-i-Hind on the 24th of September 1918 and disembarked in Adelaide on the 23rd of November.

Leonard was discharged from the AIF on the 22nd of January 1919 and awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War & Victory Medals.