In the Census taken on 5 April 1891, the Greenwood family were living at 344 Queen's Road, Halifax and John was a coal merchant. Sadly, Louis's mother died when he was aged just 2. She was buried in Luddenden Cemetery, near Halifax, on 10 January 1893. By 1900 the family had moved to 173 Warley Road, Halifax and Louis had been admitted to the Warley Road Board School. They were still at the same address when the Census was taken on 31 March the following year. John Greenwood had become a furniture packer.
In May 1902 the family moved to 3 Porchester Place, Cleveleys and early in the following year John married Jane Gradwell. Jane was born in Fleetwood in 1868 and this was her third marriage. Children from her first marriage to William Rimmer came to live with family.
After leaving school Louis became an assistant postman at Cleveleys. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in August 1907. Whilst serving aboard the battleship Triumph in 1909, he was leading gunner in a team which won the 12-pounder field-gun competition of the Mediterranean Fleet. In May 1911 he took part in a gunnery exhibition in the Naval and Military Tournament at Olympia, when guests in the Royal Box included the Emperor and Empress of Germany. In 1912 Louis joined the Lancashire County Constabulary at Shaw, near Oldham, Lancashire, becoming Police Constable 280.
Following the outbreak of war, Louis was transferred to the cruiser HMS Cressy at Chatham, Kent on 2 August 1914. The ship was assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron and tasked to protect the supply route between England and France at the eastern end of the English Channel. Cressy and her sister ships, Aboukir and Hogue, were on patrol on 22 September 1914 when they were attacked by the German submarine U-9. Cressy was the last of the three to be attacked after her sister ships had been sunk by torpedoes. She too was struck by a torpedo and capsized before sinking. Several Dutch ships and later British fishing and naval vessels rescued 837 men from the three vessels but a further 1,459 lives were lost.
News of survivors was eagerly awaited by Louis' family. His name was not listed amongst the known survivors but at first they were given some cause for hope. Louis was seen aboard the listing vessel by Gunner William Kendrick, also from Shaw, who threw him a plank of wood on which to support himself in the water. Gunner Kendrick believed Louis had been saved and taken to Holland but this was not the case. Louis was one of 560 men from the Cressy who died. He was aged 24. A.B. Louis Leonard Greenwood, SS/2077, is remembered with honour on the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent and on the St. Andrew's Parish School memorial plaque at Cleveleys.
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