Leon Roth was born in London, 1896 to Joseph and Etty Roth, both of whom were descended from rabbinic families in Poland. Joseph engaged a tutor, Rabbi Moshe Vilenski, to teach his four children: David, Daniel, Leon, and Cecil. Rabbi Vilenski was well-versed in philosophy, and Leon’s first exposure to both Jewish and European classics came from his lessons. Roth won scholarships first to the City of London School, and then to Exeter College at Oxford, where he read Classics. At the outbreak of World War I, Roth suspended his studies and joined the army, where he saw action in France. Commissioned in 1917, he joined the newly-formed Jewish Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. Upon his return to Oxford, he won the John Locke Scholarship in Mental Philosophy and the James Mew Scholarship in Hebrew.