| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Ben Dennis was born in Hull in 1894, one of eight children born to Charles Dennis , a joiner and carpenter, and his wife Alice, who married at St Mark’s Church, Hull, in 1887. They lived at Harcourt Terrace, Buckingham Street. Ben is recorded in the 1911 census as an “under-coachman” at Bainton Farm, Beverley Parks.
In the early 1900s Ben’s family moved to Beverley; his younger brother, Thomas was born in 1905. They lived in Beaver Road. His father Charles was working as a joiner at the Beverley shipyard. His brothers John, born 1889, and George born 1893, became apprentice drillers at the shipyard. Ben also worked at the yard in 1913, he is recorded as having joined a trade union there.
Ben enlisted in Mar 1915 and became a private in the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, the “Beverley Terriers”. He married Annie Edith Gardham at Beverley Minster on 12 Jun1915, Annie was born in Hull in 1898 and had lately lived in Eastgate and then Lurk Lane. Their son Ben was baptised at Beverley Minster on 28 Sep 1916. The couple initially lived at Ben’s parents’ house at 12 Beaver Road.
Ben joined the Royal Engineers serving as a sapper and a photograph of him appeared in the Beverley Guardian Feb 1917. It is possible he may have served in either the 301st Road Construction Company of the RE or the 266th Railway Operating Company RE (who were in Egypt from Sep 1917 until after the end of the war).He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Ben resumed work at the shipyard in April 1919. He and Annie had a further ten children. The family lived at 6 Corporation Road in Beverley. Ben died aged 58 in 1.953
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |