Name
Benjamin George Oakley
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/12/1915
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
12404
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HUMBERCAMPS COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
I. D. 1.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Leverstock Green Village Memorial, Leverstock Green Village School Memorial
Pre War
Benjamin George Oakley was born in 1893 in St Pancras, London, the son of Rachel Bennett and Henry Oakley, who had married in Holy Trinity Church, Leverstock Green in 1874. He was the youngest of six children.
On the 1901 Census, the family were living at Belconey, Leverstock Green, Herts and his mother was listed as Head of the household, while his father was boarding at Sandridge, Herts and working as a Carman. His father died in 1905 in Hemel Hempstead.
By the time of the 1911 Census, he was living with his widowed mother at 11 Bennetts End, Hemel Hempstead and working as a labourer on the Thrashing Machine. [probably in the paper mill], but was Carter for Mr Mallard, a coal, coke and firewood dealer in Apsley by the time of enlistment.
He married widow Helen (Ellen) Beatrice Coxhill (nee Wilson) during embarkation leave on 25 July 1915 at the Register Office in Hemel Hempstead. Her husband John had died in late 1911 and left her with children Dorothy, William, Violet, Beatrice and Charles. Benjamin's son, Benjamin George, was born 23 January 1916. (Dorothy was born in 1901 prior to her mother's marriage to John Coxhill).
Wartime Service
Benjamin enlisted in Hemel Hempstead at the recruiting office at No. 1 Marlowes and joined the 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He was sent for basic training at Andover and Salisbury Plain.
He sailed for France from Southampton on the Empress Queen, and arrived at Le Havre on 30 July 1915. The Battalion spent the next four months digging and improving trench defences near Arras.
He was wounded on 4 December 1915 at Bienvillers-au-Bois when the Battalion was shelled in retaliation for the British having shelled the Germans in the morning. He died at 48th Field Ambulance from his wounds later the same day, aged 23, and was buried in Humbercamps Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
A letter was published in the "Gazette" local newspaper from Corporal J Delderfield of 6th Battalion, Beds Regt., writing a letter of sympathy to the widow of Private Oakley as he did not know her address.
"Dear Mrs Oakley, I thought I would like to write just a few lines showing my deepest sympathy with you in regard to the loss of your dear husband, also all the boys send their sympathy too. I am sure he is greatly missed as he was always full of life and spirits. The morning your husband was wounded the Germans sent nearly hundred shells over. Most of them dropped quite close to us and I saw one drop in the barn where your husband was billeted. He was wounded down the right side. We did all we could for him and we thought he would get over it. He was taken to hospital at once but I am sorry to say the news came that he had passed away and also another chum who was wounded with him. Several others were wounded too. It was rather strange that we were only talking about trying to arrange to come home on leave together, as my home is at Northchurch, close to Berkhamstead and we often used to chat in civilian life, I mean when he used to work for Mr Mallard of Apsley. I knew him quite well that's why I thought I would like to write to you. He was quite cheerful up to the last and was buried in a churchyard quite close here. There is a cross with his name, also that of the regiment on it and I think the company is arranging to have a wreath put on it. Private Oakley always did his duty and was an honest upright soldier. I will close now, again expressing all our deepest sympathy with you. Yours sincerely, Corporal J Delderfield, 6th Beds Regiment.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £1 4s 9d. She also received a pension of £1 4s 6d a week (increasing to £1 7s from 12.9.16), which included allowance for four of his youngest stepchildren. His widow gave her address on pension records as 137 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, where she and her first husband had been living on the 1911 Census. She remarried to Tom Slow in 1921.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, google.com/leverstockgreenwarmemorial, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
