250099 Pte. Benjamin Walter Keatley British Army 5th Btn Oxfordshire and Bucks Light Infantry from:Griff, Nuneaton (d.15th September 1916) Benjamin Keatley was born in 1891, the 9th of 11 children(at least 2 dying when infants). He came from a farming and mining background at Griff, near Nuneaton in Warwickshire. We know 2 other brothers also served in WW1, in different regiments. The youngest was the only one to return home - badly gassed and an invalid for the rest of his life.
I do not know for certain how Benjamin was listed in the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, other locals joined the Warwickshire Regiment. It may be that his original enlisting battalion was diminished to the point he was absorbed into another one. He is likely to have had valuable experience with horses and tunnelling. We are still doing family history research.
He died at 25 years old on 15th September 1916 in the Battle of the Somme, we think he may have been at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette and seen the early use of tanks. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial and on a Roll of Honour Board which existed at his old workplace, Haunchwood Colliery in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
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