Current Information:

Born-Battersea

On 8th December, 1914, the 1st Royal Warwickshire battalion of 10 Brigade, 4th Division moved into trenches at St Yves, near Ploegsteert in Belgium where they remained until relieved on 12th December. On 9th December, 1914, the day on which Walter Bentley was killed, the battalion diary recorded that the trenches were in a very bad state and that the men had to work all night to try to make them habitable. It also noted that 2 men were killed and another 8 wounded but does not go into any more detail. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.