Site Home
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.
Great War Home
Search
Add Stories & Photos
Library
Help & FAQs
Features
Allied Army
Day by Day
RFC & RAF
Prisoners of War
War at Sea
Training for War
The Battles
Those Who Served
Hospitals
Civilian Service
Women at War
The War Effort
Central Powers Army
Central Powers Navy
Imperial Air Service
Library
World War Two
Submissions
Add Stories & Photos
Time Capsule
Information
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Our Facebook Page
Volunteering
News
Events
Contact us
Great War Books
About
238934Ord.Sea. Richard Frid Dennett
Royal Navy HMS Weymouth
from:Leyton
(d.19th March 1917)
Rufigi River Hero, The Son Of A Leyton Amition Worker.
We are asked to state That Richard Frid Dennet the heroic seaman of H.M.S. Weymouth who refused to sign a declaration of neutrality and in consequence died a prisoner of war in German Fast Africa was not the son of a widow as reported by a news agency. His father is Mr James R. Bennett of 27 Waterloo Road Leyton Essex who is a munition worker. Richard Bennett was serving on a tug reconnoitering at the mouth of the Rufigi River in German East Africa in 1915 when the vessel came under the fire of a German shore battery and was struck in the engine room. The tug drifted ashore and Dennett who was badly wounded in the abdomen was taken prisoner. He was looked after by the wife of the captain of the German cruiser Konigsberg and for eight months he lay in hospital at Dar-es-Salaam. He was then removed to Magdawa. There were no means of extracting the bullet there and the Germans offered to release him if he would sign a declaration of neutrality. Dennett a true hero persistently refused to sign and paid for his fidelity to the flag with his life.
Extract from the Star. 24th Dec. 1917
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:
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.