Name
Paxton Malaby Dent
10 Oct 1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
28/04/1915
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
2083
Seaforth Highlanders
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, SOUCHEZ
XVII. A. 27
France
Headstone Inscription
UNTIL THE DAY BREAK
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Letchworth memorials, WW1 Memorial, Bancroft's school, Woodford, WW1 memorial, Worcester College, Oxford
Pre War
Paxton Malaby Dent was born on 10 Oct 1890 in Woodford, the son of Joseph Malaby Dent, publisher, and Alexandra Campbell nee Main).
On the 1891 Census the family of parents, George W (born 1873, apprentice book binder), Hugh R (born 1875, clerk), Harry J (born 1876, apprentice photographer), Annie E (born 1879), Eliza Wiggins (1840, sister in law) and 2 servants were living at 117, Windsor Road, East Ham, London.
On the 1901 Census the family of Mother (father away on business), Hugh R Dent (publisher), Paxton , Austen (born 1892), Muriel B (born 1895), Olive (born 1897), Eliza Wiggins (born 1840, sister in law) and 3 servants were living at Salway Lodge, Salway, Woodford, Essex.
On the 1911 Census the family of parents, Olive, Alexandra (born1900), Ursula M (born 1903), Eliza Wiggins and 4 servants were living at Lodge, Enfield, Middx. Paxton was at Oxford, Austen at Cambridge.
Paxton attended Bancroft's, Woodford as a day boy from 1901-1903, Mill Hill School before attending Worcester College, Oxford He joined the family business from university.
His parents later lived at "Crohamleigh", Harewood Rd., South Croydon.
Wartime Service
Paxton enlisted in Sep 1915 in 1st/4th Seaforth Highlanders (Rosshire Buffs) as Private 2083 as a Territorial Soldier agreeing to overseas service. The 1st/4th went to France on 7 Nov 1914 to be part of 19th (Dehra Dun) Brigade, 7th (Meerut) Division. The Division was deployed in the Ypres area. In Apr 1915 the Seaforth Highlanders had been moved from Bailleul to a position near Wieltje, northeast of Ypres in Belgium.
The dispositions made were in preparation for the Second battle of Ypres (22 Apr-25 May 1915). From the 25 Apr the Highlanders were heavily engaged in the battle. Paxton had been deployed as part of the regiment’s machine gun section. Here immediately after using his rifle to discharge five rounds of rapid fire towards the enemy trenches he fell shot through the head on 28 Apr 1915.
Some text taken, with permission, from the Bancroftian Network website.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £3 and arrears of £6 11s 2d was paid to his mother. Younger brother Austen served in 88 Field Ambulance as Lance Sergeant 2046 and died from wounds at Gallipoli on 2 Jul 1915.
His connection to Letchworth is through his father, Joseph Malaby Dent, Joseph had been born in the Britannia public house in Darlington in 1849 and was very much a dynamic self-made man in the world of publishing. All his life he was a driving force in the family firm that went on to establish an international business. In 1904, Joseph began to plan Everyman's Library, a series of one thousand classics to be published in an attractive format and sold at one shilling. To meet demand, Dent built the Temple Press in Letchworth recently founded as the first Garden City.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Simon Coxall www.bancroftians.net/cgi-bin/bancms3.pl?dn=centdentpm, Jonty Wild
