206010 L/Cpl. Ben Schofield British Army 1st Btn. Cheshire Regiment from:Stockport My great grand father, Lance Corporal Ben Schofield no:9594, enlisted in the 1st battalion Cheshire Regiment on the 28th Feb 1911 at Chester. He was posted to Belfast on the 10th July 1911, where he had his tonsils removed in Musgrave Park Military Hospital and was paid 2 shillings compensation. He was then transferred to Ebrington Barracks in Londonderry on the 10th Jan 1913.At the out break of the War he was returned with the Regiment to the Regimental Depot and sent to France, arriving there on the 16th January 1915. Overall his conduct was listed as good for his time in the U.K. There is only one entry on his ‘crime sheet’ dated 20 January 1914
‘’Awarded 21 days detention by the C.O for being in possession of goods which where the property of a comrade.’’
The Regiment then took part in the second Battle of Ypres. On the 8th of May the First Battalion were fighting around the village of Frezenbuerg, L/cpl Schofield was wounded in the right arm and back then captured. After receiving medical treatment in a German field hospital he was transferred to Mersburg Prisoner of War Camp, Saxony, Germany. It was here that he joined No 2 Company, being given the P.O.W number 1514.
He was repatriated to Britan on the 9th of January 1919 and discharged on the 9th of April 1919. After the war he settled in Belfast, he married and raised 5 children after finding work as a tram driver for the Belfast Transport Corporation.
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