Cecil Leslie Kilford was the elder son of Walter Kilford and Clara Maidment. He was born in Sydenham in South East London. He had one brother (Reginald) and twin sisters Winifred and Ivy. Ivy died from tuberculosis at a very young age.

Clara, Cecil's mother, died in childbirth in 1905 when Cecil was 11 years old.

When WWI began, Cecil and his brother enlisted in the army. Fortunately both survived, although Cecil apparently contracted a disease on the front and spent some time convalescing in England.

He married Ethel Chandler from Godmanchester (Hunts) in 1917 and they had three children, Gwen, Cyril (Jack) and Sidney (Dick), and lived in the Goodmayes area of Essex. 

He had a talent with numbers, and if born 50 years later would probably have been an accountant, engineer, scientist or some other type of technical person. As it was he spent most of his working life as a Clerk at Euston station in London.

Cecil died at an early age from tuberculosis. It may have been contracted because of a wartime accident. It may however have been with him since the time of his sister's death more than 40 years earlier.

Cecil's descendants have shown abilities in mathematical, engineering and other technical areas. One grandson in Australia has studied Chemistry at postgraduate level, one is an Accountant in Norfolk and two in Essex have made careers in Engineering. The other, living in Bedfordshire is a computer support manager.

He has a great grandson who recently received a PhD in Mathematics at Imperial College, London, and who represented Imperial at the 2002 University Challenge where Imperial was the runner-up.