Leonard Horace Foster was born in Carleton Rode on the 14th April 1890. His parents were Horace, a horseman on a farm, and Ellen Page (both were born in the village). On the 1911 Census, it records 12 children, 5 of whom have died. Known siblings include Alice, Herbert, Agnes, Bessie, Dorothy, Reginald James, May and Walter. (There is a Clara Foster admitted to Carleton Rode school in 1907; she is Leonard’s cousin and still living with the family in 1911.) On the Carleton Rode Roll of Honour board, Leonard is listed as N Foster, which probably means that he was known as Ned.
The school records for this family are very interesting. They include Herbert caught selling cucumbers illegally in New Buckenham, constant problems with ‘attendance irregularity’ (in 1897, Ned attended 16 out of 37 sessions and his sister, Bessie attended 8 out of 37 – although she was still awarded Best Pupil for 1897!), and illnesses. These include mumps, impetigo and nettle rash.
In 1911, the family lived in Brittain’s Buildings – now on the Old Buckenham Road – and Ned is working as a farm labourer.
Ned joined up on the 14th September 1914 and it is telling that on his enlistment papers he spells his name incorrectly. He joined the 9th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment. Sadly, his mother died the following year just before his posting to France in October 1915.
By August 1916, the regiment was sent to take part in the Battle of the Somme and the battalion was at Trones Wood when it took part in the attack on an area known as The Quadrilateral, Ginchy on the 15th September. This was the first day that tanks were used in battle. Losses to the 9th Battalion were extremely high; 17 officers and 431 men were lost of whom 160 were killed outright. Ned was one of those killed – the same day as James Brown who was in the same regiment. Ned’s body was never found, although his identity disc was recovered. He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial – along with over 72,000 other missing soldiers.
Ned’s brother Reginald also served – with the Essex Regiment -and was captured during the Spring Offensive, becoming a Prisoner of War in 1918. However, his father, Horace, died in May of the same year not knowing that Reginald was alive as he had been reported as ‘missing’ since March of that year with no further information available.
Ned’s effects were sent to his brother Reginald (who was released from his POW camp in January of 1919) living at Hall Cottage on Borough Common, Attleborough. All his sisters and only surviving brother (Walter) had left Carleton Rode by this date.