Malta was one of the largest hospitals in WW1, treating 2,000 soldiers a week from Gallipoli. At its
peak there were 27 hospitals with 25,000 beds. Lionel was invalided home on Hospital Ship
“Dunvegan Castle” to the Royal Haslar Hospital, the Naval Hospital at Gosport, Plymouth.
From research, we know that Lionel was 5’7ins. tall, with an extended chest of 35”, fresh
complexion, dark brown hair and grey eyes.
Later in 1916 Lionel was drafted to the Howe Division. So on the 13th November 1916, Lionel
found himself on the very front line of the offensive known as the Battle of Ancre. This battle was
the final large British attack of the Battle of the Somme; After the Battle of Flers Courcelette on
22nd September, the Anglo-French armies tried to press their advantage with several smaller
attacks in quick succession, rather than pause to regroup and give the German armies time to
recover. Lionel died there and his body was never recovered to receive an individual burial. He is
remembered at The Thiepval Memoral. On 15th March 1919 his final payment from RNR was
received by next of kin - £8 10s 0d.
Two years later, his brother Kenneth was killed. The “Western Mail” on 31st August reported:
“Second Penarth Brother killed – Mrs Window of Cornerswell Road, Penarth learns that her son
Kenneth Window has died as a result of an aeroplane accident in England. He was only nineteen
years of age and is the son of Lieut. Percy Window, who is now in Ireland. Another son, Lionel
Window, who was serving in the Navy, was killed about twelve months ago”
Both his sisters, Constance and Dorothy, survived the war. Their father, Percy, died in 1945 and
their mother in 1960. They are buried with Kenneth.
The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,246 missing British
Empire servicemen who died with no known grave.