PRIVATE 6/4204, SAMUEL BENTLEY, 1/6TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT.


PRIVATE 6/4204, SAMUEL BENTLEY, 1/6TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 26TH JULY 1916.


On 20th April 1915, 17 year old Samuel Bentley entered the recruiting office of the Duke of Wellingtons Regiment in Skipton and enlisted in the 2/6th territorial battalion. Even though he was under age and only 5' 2" in height he could join the army, but was not allowed, because of his age, to serve overseas. The 2/6th were, however, a home service battalion where men who could not or would not fight at the front could serve in the army. The battalion was also a place where men would be trained before being assigned to a fighting battalion. Samuel would have been with the 2/6th as they moved around various training camps set up to deal with the vast influx of army volunteers. His 18th birthday was in October 1915, but he remained in Britain until the 6th June 1916, when he landed in France and was posted to the 1/6th Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Within 7 weeks of arriving at the front young Samuel would be dead. The Bentley family lived in the hamlet of Burley Woodhead on the south facing slope of the Wharfe Valley at Spinning Mill Farm. Samuels father, William, was a yarn bleacher and all the family worked in the woollen trade as spinners. William and his wife Cecilia had twelve children and appeared to have worked in a sort of cottage industry preparing woolen cloth. At the beginning of the war 3 of Samuel's elder brothers joined the army and this may have encouraged him to enlist as a territorial. He had elected to serve overseas and in June 1916 was part of a draft of reinforcements for the 1/6th Battalion. On the 26th July 1916 the battalion were in the front line near to Thiepval when they came under heavy artillery fire. Samuel, now in 'C' Company took refuge in a dugout which suffered a direct hit killing him instantly. Private 4204 Samuel Bentley is buried in Lonsdale British Military Cemetery and is remembered on the war memorials in both Burley in Wharfedale and Ilkley. Four months later his older brother Henry would also be killed whilst serving on the Somme battlefield.


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