Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Plot 536 Ralph Leggett (1893-1954) Ralph was born in Harpenden 18 April 1893 to Benjamin and  Alice (née Nunn) Leggatt. Both his parents were from Suffolk and his father was a Civil Service clerk in the savings bank section of the Post Office. In 1911 Ralph was living at home with his parents and some of his siblings at “St Keverne”, King’s Road, Berkhamsted. He was 17 and an apprentice bookseller and stationer. During the First World War Ralph joined the Durham Light Infantry, then transferred to 1st battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. He remained with the regiment after the end of the war and in June 1921 was an acting sergeant based in Dublin. Ralph would have found himself in the thick of the civil war for Irish independence, dealing with the IRA. “By July 1921 there were 50,000 British troops based in Ireland; by contrast there were 14,000 soldiers in metropolitan Britain. While the British Army had historically been heavily dependent on Irish recruitment, concern over divided loyalties led to the redeployment from 1919 of all regular Irish regiments to garrisons outside Ireland itself.” [Wikipedia]. It has not been established when Ralph left the Army, but by April 1931 he was a member of Berkhamsted Rural District Council. He was also Secretary of the Little Gaddesden branch of the Royal British Legion. Ralph never married. By 1939 he was a dispenser lodging with William and Sarah Deacon in Holliday Street. Ralph 11 February 1954. He is buried here with his brother Gilbert who died in 1911. His sister Olive and brother Cyril are buried in Plot 503.