|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
QMS. John Bentley
British Army Royal Field Artillery
from:3 Fielden Terrace, Victoria Rd, Todmorden, Yorkshire
John Bentley (born 22nd March 1890) joined the RFA in France in 1915 as a bombardier and was promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant. He may have been in the 49th (West Riding) Division, which saw action at The Battle of Albert, The Battle of Bazentin Ridge, The Battle of Pozieres Ridge, and The Battle of Flers-Courcelette (all phases of the 1916 Battles of the Somme). After the war he returned to his job as a school headmaster and he and his wife Elsie had three children. He died aged 84 in March 1974 in Todmorden, Yorkshire.He didn't talk much about his time in the trenches. However, his son David related these stories:
In a skirmish during the Great War, presumably after the officers had been killed, an NCO colleague of Dad's, surname Julian, countermanded the orders which led to a successful result. However, to avoid a court martial for insubordination, Julian was promoted straight to Lieutenant Colonel Julian.
On an occasion when Dad was coming home on leave he found himself at a railway station in Manchester in the middle of the night. The driver of a coal train saw him, stopped, asked him where he was going, and as the train was going through Todmorden anyway, invited him to ride in the engine. Approaching Todmorden, the driver stopped the train by the row of houses where Dad lived for him to alight. When Dad knocked at the door of his house, his father, Sam Bentley wouldn't let him in until he'd undressed outside because, as with all soldiers from the trenches, he was infested with lice.
One dark night he heard some movement close by his trench, and clobbered this Jerry over the head with his rifle butt only to discover that he'd brained a badger - and as a keen naturalist he was most upset about it.
John Bentley surveying the battlefield
John Bentley, 1917, painted by an army colleague in the trenches
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
