Leo Hyland was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on 6 March 1893, later being baptised on 25 March at St Anthony's Roman Catholic Church, Scotland Road. He was the son of an English-born father of Irish ancestry, John Charles Hyland (1864-1926) and an Irish-born mother, Catherine Bergin 1 (1864-1923) who were married on 1 July 1889 in Our Lady of Reconciliation Church, Liverpool. His father, a ship's baker and later a coal porters' foreman, hailed from Birkenhead, Cheshire whilst his mother was a native of Mountmellick, Queen's County (modern-day Co Laois) in the Irish midlands. They produced a total of four children, losing one in infancy. Their surviving children, besides Leo, were: John Charles (b. 1891) and Thomas (b. 1895).