Drake Battalion, Royal Naval Division
Clifford Bennell was born at Berkeley on 24 September 1886, the son of Phillip Bennett (an engine driver) and Ann Bennett.
According to the 1911 Census he was living at Lynch Road, Oakhanger, Berkeley and his occupation was given as ‘dock worker’, most likely at the nearby Sharpness Docks.
He joined the Army Reserve on 9 December 1915 and was later posted to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve mobilisation into the Royal Naval Division (RND) on 17 July 1917, joining the 2nd Reserve Battalion on the following day.
He was sent to France with a draft for the British Expeditionary Force on 3 December 1917 and joined the Howe Battalion on 5 January 1918. He was posted to 7th Entrenching Battalion on 28 February 1918.
On 14 March 1918 he joined Drake Battalion of the RND and stayed with them until 27 March 1918. His record then states that he joined the RND Depot Battalion as a ‘Straggler from Line’.
This was the time of the German Spring Offensive and he had probably got detached from his unit in the rapid retreat of the British forces at that time.
Clifford was admitted to the 7th Canadian Hospital at Etaples on 3 April 1918 with ulcers in the leg and groin area and did not rejoin Drake Battalion until 6 August 1918. He was granted leave from 25 October until 8 November 1918 and returned to England. He died at home of influenza and pneumonia on 1 November 1918, whilst on leave. He was 32.
He left a wife Amelia (née Kilmister) whom he had married in 1912 and a daughter, Florence, who was born in 1915. The family home was at 11 New Street, Newtown, Sharpness.
Clifford Bennell’s grave in Berkeley Churchyard has a CWGC headstone which, interestingly, also bears details of a Scots Guardsman E R Skidmore, from June 1940. It would appear that the CWGC headstone has been placed on what was originally a private (or family) grave. Research reveals that Edwin Raymond Skidmore was the son of Clifford Bennell’s wife’s sister Harriet and therefore was his nephew.
Clifford is commemorated on the Roll of Honour in St Mary the Virgin, Berkeley.
Researched by Graham Adams 11 July 2012