Strickland, Benjamin

Benjamin was the only son of Frederick Edward and Eliza Ann (nee Wilkins) Srickland, born at Ashwell, Hertfordshire in the 2^nd quarter 1882.  Benjamin was a pupil at the Merchant Taylors School in Ashwell.

Benjamin enlisted on 3 September 1914 and joined the Royal Fusiliers, Regimental Number 7687.  After training on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire he was sent to the Western Font on 26 July 1915.  The 11^th Battalion saw active service in most of the major battles of the Western Front.  Benjamin fell ill and was invalided home in October 1918, about 2 months before the battalion was demobbed.  He survived the War.

Benjamin was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Silver War Badge.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

His mother died when he was not quite two years old and his father married Hannah Waldock in 1888.

The 1901 census shows him boarding with the Skerman family in Highbury, Islington, London and working as a general labourer.

It is not known when he died.