He was born in 1894, at Whitechapel, the son of Polish-born parents John, a furrier dealer by trade, and Rebecca Greenbaum. At the time of the 1911 census, the younger Greenbaum was apprenticing while living with his family at 7 Princelet Street, Commercial Road. Greenbaum succumbed to malaria on 9 October 1918 while serving with the 2nd Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) on the Salonika Front.
