PRIVATE 25299 HENRY BENTLEY, 9TH BATTALION SHERWOOD FORESTERS.



PRIVATE 25299 HENRY BENTLEY, 9TH BATTALION SHERWOOD FORESTERS. KILLED IN ACTION 29TH NOVEMBER 1916





Still grieving from the loss of the youngest son, Samuel, four months earlier, William and Cecelia Bentley received the news in early December 1916, that a second son had been killed in action.
The Bentley family lived at Spinning Mill Farm, Burley Woodhead and altogether had twelve children. The four oldest boys would enlist in the army during the war. Working in the woolen trade the Bentley's operated as a sort of cottage industry on the side of the Wharfe Valley.

Henry Bentley, the family’s eldest son, was born in Ben Rhydding in 1894 and married Ada Hunt from Bolsover, Derbyshire in 1914. Henry and his new wife moved to be near her parents and lived in Spencer Street, Carr Vale, Bolsover. He took work as a miner working at Glapwell Colliery and by 1916 was the father of two very young children. 

In September 1914 Henry enlisted in the 9th Sherwood Foresters, a locally raised service battalion. The battalion was posted to Gallipoli in August 1915 and saw action during the remainder of that campaign. The 9th Sherwoods missed the opening phase of the Somme battle as it only arrived on the Western Front in mid July 1916. Nevertheless, it was soon in action and took part in the fighting throughout the summer and autumn. 

As the Battle of the Somme petered out in early November the battalion remained in that sector of the front line. Attritional warfare continued to take its toll of men in the front line with most units taking casualties almost every day. 

On the 29th November the Sherwoods were manning the trenches near to the village of Martinsart when they were subject to an intense enemy bombardment. The battalion suffered eight casualties, of whom three were killed, including Henry Bentley. A letter from his commanding officer, Lt R S Bishop, stated that he had been killed instantly and that a small wooden cross marked his final resting place.

 Sadly, his grave was lost during subsequent fighting and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. Henry Bentley is remembered on the war memorials in Bolsover and Burley in Wharfedale. Strangely he is not named on the Ilkley War Memorial unlike his younger brother

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