Name
Ralph Bentley
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/01/1915
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4/6961
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RUE-DAVID MILITARY CEMETERY, FLEURBAIX
I. G. 28.
France
UK & Other Memorials
Stanstead Abbotts Village Memorial
Barkway Village Memorial
St Mary Magdalene Church Memorial, Barkway
Nuthampstead Plaque, St Mary Magdalene Church, Barkway
Pre War
Born in 1892 lived with parents Ralph, a farm labourer and mother Rebecca, brothers Stanley, Francis and Henry (Harry) and sisters Kate, Eva and Connie, at 60 High St, Barkway near Royston.
The 1901 census search confirms parents’ names and they were then living in Barkway. On the 1911 census he was an unemployed groom. Later the family moved to Stanstead Abbotts and lived at 26 South Street.
Born and resident of Barkway Enlisted Hertford.
Wartime Service
Joined Army in Hertford in September 1914, posted to 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, which was in South Africa at the outbreak of war, they were sent back to England arriving on 19/09/1914, refitted for European warfare and sent to Belgium on 5th October. They were part of the original British Expeditionary Force (The Old Contemptibles) and first saw action on 23rd October in the 1st Battle of Ypres. By January 1915 his unit was in France near the village of Fleurbaix. On the day of his death his unit were in billets at Pont de la Justice, not in the front line.
Additional Information
At the time of Ralph’s death the Battalion, part of the 21st Brigade of the 7th Division.
Acknowledgments
Paul Johnson, Adrian Pitts, Terry Collins
