Soldier Record

Leonard Billington was my great uncle on my mother's side. He was shot through the cheek at Paschendale and left for dead. He fell into a trench and the next morning when the trenches were cleared of the dead, someone realised he was still alive and took him to a field hospital from where he was shipped back to England. One of the new breed of doctors specialising in reconstructive surgery managed to put his face back together but he was left with hair growing on the inside of his cheek. I used to visit him as a small child and he always had a tin full of boiled sweets which needed an old penny to open. I got three sweets and the penny!!