Leopold Adolphus Light Maskell was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England in early 1886.  He was baptised at St Mary's Church, Southampton on 14 February 1886.

He was the illegitimate son of domestic servant Esther Ann "Hester" Maskell (b. 1864), a native of Landport, Portsmouth, and painter Leopold Adolphus Light (b. 1863) of St Mary's, Southampton. The couple were never married and Leopold Light died towards the close of 1890 aged 27.

Esther Maskell was the daughter of John Maskell (b. 1834), a tailor, and Mary Ann Savage (b. 1835) natives of Shaftesbury, Dorset and Bishop Waltham, Hampshire respectively who had married in 1856, raising a large family of which Esther was one of the middle children. Her mother died in 1886.

Perhaps with the stigma of illegitimacy, Leopold was apparently raised by his maternal grandfather John Maskell (b. 1834) and was listed as his son on the 1891 census when they were living at 6 York Square, St Mary, Southampton. His mother was listed elsewhere with a new family of her own.

Esther Maskell had married around 1887 ¹ to Benjamin S. Young (b. circa 1860), a Southampton-born dock stevedore; from that union, Leopold had three surviving half-siblings: Julia Mary (b. 1888), Benjamin Staneith (b. 1890) and Rose (b. 1892). 

It was perhaps not until 1899, with the death of his grandfather that young Leopold went to live with his mother and stepfather; he appears with them on the 1901 census living at 15 Lime Street, Southampton and, aged 14, had no stated profession.

Leopold was married in Southampton in early 1909 to Nellie Louisa Amelia Hoare (b. 1891), a native of Poole, Dorset and daughter of Sidney and Frances Hoare. Their first child Benjamin Adolphus had been born a year earlier in Southampton on 18 December 1907, his birth name being registered as Hoare; their second child Ivy Amelia arrived on 6 July 1910. The young family appears on the 1911 census living at 26 Albert Road, Southampton and Maskell was described as a railway docks labourer.

When he signed-on to the Titanic on 6 April 1912 Maskell gave his address as 26 Albert Road, Southampton. His previous ship had been the Kenilworth and as a trimmer he received monthly wages of £5, 10. 

Leopold Maskell died in the Titanic disaster and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

Leopold's son Ben was married in 1933 to Edith Brown and he passed away in Southampton in 1997.

His daughter Ivy was married in Southampton in 1929 to Henry Bailey and she died in 1996, also in Southampton.

His widow Nellie was remarried in 1915 to Richard William Wyeth (b. 1888 in Southampton), brother of Titanic victim James Robert Wyeth. She was again remarried in 1934 to George Smith before her death in 1957 in Southampton.

His mother Esther died in Southampton in 1950 aged 86.