Corporal 106514, 189th Special Company Royal Engineers.
Died of wounds Sunday 3rd October 1915, age 24
Buried in Mazingarbe Communal Cemetery, France, grave ref. 67.
Former student of teaching.
Louis was born at Liversedge, Yorkshire, in 1891 to Dan Ackroyd. He took his elementary training at Millbridge National School, transferred to Heckmondwike Secondary School in 1905 and in 1909 won a County Major Scholarship to Leeds University where he obtained a Bsc. (Honours) Chemistry (Second Class). In 1912 he joined Manchester University and was awarded a Teaching Diploma in 1913. He taught at Heckmondwike Secondary School for a year then went to Rastrick Grammar School as an assistant master.
In early August 1915 Louis joined the Chemical Corps of the Royal Engineers, possibly in response to a War Office appeal for men with expertise in chemistry, and within a week was posted to France where he was in action at the Battle Of Loos. On 3rd October 1915 he was sat with friends outside a dugout when a stray shell burst nearby. He died from injuries that evening in hospital. An obituary noted that Louis “concealed his considerable abilities under an unusually modest demeanour, and from the beginning of his career he exhibited that profound sense of duty which has now called him to give his best abilities and finally his life in defence of our liberties”.