12517 Corporal Frederick John Denton
was a patient at Beechland House from October 1916 until August 1917. His entry
in Nurse Oliver’s album reads:
Think kindly of those, that thought so kindly of us in our hour of need.
Wounded at Ovillers La Boiselle in the big Push on the 3rd of July 1916.
12517 Cpl. F.J. Denton
9th Battalion Essex Regt.
Better known as the Hungry Ninth.
1 Somerset Rd Linford
Nr Stanford-Le-Hope. Essex.
Mentioned in Dispatches Sept 1915. Mentioned again June 1916. Awarded the Military Medal
Sept 15th 1916 & presented with the Military Medal by Major General Sir G Kitson KCVO CB CMG on the 25th of November
1916 at the Newick VAD hospital.
There is some confusion about Frederick
Denton’s true date of birth. His attestation papers give 20th January 1894 while his daughter gives the same month and day but 1896 as the year. He was probably born on 20th January 1895.
The civil registration index of England and Wales 1837-1983 notes that his birth was recorded in the March quarter of 1895 at Orsett,
Essex and the 1901 census also notes him as a six year old.
When the census was taken he was
living with his family at 17 and 18 Dock Dwellings, Chadwell St Mary, Tilbury. The
household comprised: Henry William Denton (head, married, aged 37, a police constable), his wife Amy Louisa E Denton (aged
36) and seven children: Florence Amelia Denton (aged 11), Edward George Denton (aged ten), Henry Arthur Denton (aged eight),
Frederick (aged six), Victor Harold Denton (aged three), Walter Cecil Denton (aged two) and Alfred Milner Denton (aged ten
months). The children’s father had been born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent;
their mother in Islington, London. Florence’s place
of birth is noted as Custom House, London but all the other children have “Tilbury” noted against their names.
Alfred Denton died in infancy in
1902 aged two years but three more children were also born after the 1901 census was taken: Amy Winifred Denton in 1901, Margaret
Elsie Denton in 1903 (died 1904 aged one year) and Francis William Denton in 1906.
According to his nephew, Frederick’s
father, Henry William Denton was born in 1864 and, prior to joining the police force, was an RSM with the Grenadier Guards.
He had married Amy Louisa at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1886. The civil registration
index for England and Wales notes her maiden name as Danton.
The Denton children
attended East Tilbury village school and when war was declared all of the brothers (except Francis who was still a schoolboy)
volunteered to fight for their King and Country. Florence was
married by this stage and running her own household but her younger sister Amy worked as a nurse during the latter stages
of the war.
Frederick attested with the Essex Regiment at Grays on 1st September 1914. His age is noted as 20 years and 192 days (although he was probably a year younger
than this), his height as five feet, seven inches and his weight as 149 pounds. He
had blue eyes and a fair complexion. He gave his occupation as sailmaker for the Orient Steam Navigation Company at Tilbury
Docks and his home address as 21 Lower Crescent, Linford, near Stanford-Le-Hope, Essex. He
was given the service number 12517.
On the 16th September he was posted
to B Company of the 9th Essex Regiment and remained with this battalion in England until
29th May 1915. Posted with him was his seventeen year
old brother Victor who had joined up the same day as Frederick and been given a service number just 11 digits apart – 12506. In civilian life
he was apprenticed as a painter at the Orient Steam Navigation Company dockyard.
On 11th April that year, no doubt
aware that he was going to be posted overseas shortly, Frederick married his sweetheart, Maud Annie Silver at the Parish Church
in Mucking, Essex.
He was appointed lance-corporal
(unpaid) on 17th May 1915 and less than a fortnight later was in France. He would spend the next thirteen and a half months overseas and during that time would
be Mentioned in Despatches twice (in September 1915 and June 1916) and awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in October
1915. In April 1916 he was appointed corporal.
Frederick was wounded at Ovillers La Boiselle on 3rd July 1916 during the
opening stages of the Battle of The Somme. The following account is
adapted from part 14 of The Hospital Way:
The 9th Essex formed part of the 35th Brigade, 12th Division, its objective the capture
of Ovillers. The Division would attack on a two brigade front with the 35th
Brigade on the right and the 37th on the left. The 9th
Essex would be in support of the
attacking battalions of the 5th Royal Berkshire and 7th Suffolk Regiments and all men would take up positions by the 2nd
July in readiness for an attack the following day.
At around 3:00 am on Monday July 3rd, the attacking troops of the 12th Division left their
trenches and moved under cover of artillery fire to assembly trenches dug in no man’s land. Fifteen minutes later, the barrage ceased and the men rushed the German trenches under cover of a smoke
screen to their left. At first, all went well.
The 5th Royal Berkshires suffered few casualties whilst crossing and used the cover of a sunken road to
lead them straight into Ovillers. The German wire had been virtually obliterated
by artillery fire and the men passed with relative ease through the first and second lines until they reached the ruins of
houses on the Western edge of Ovillers. Here though, they were engaged in heavy
bombing attacks and due to a lack of further supplies of bombs, the leading companies suffered heavy casualties. The 7th Suffolk Regiment’s advance followed a similar pattern. They too passed through the German first line, encountered strong opposition in the second line but pushed
forward to the third. This position was strongly held and made even more uncomfortable
for the attacking troops by German fire coming in from the left flank.
Fred and Victor Denton and their comrades in the 9th Essex fared even worse.
“The march of the Battalion,” wrote one of its soldiers later, “… will forever be remembered
by those engaged. Innumerable gun flashes lit the darkness of the night; they
seemed endless and as one approached the line, the noise was deafening. After
what appeared to be endless marching we reached the trenches in front of Ovillers. They
were of hard chalk and with the bad weather not at all easy to negotiate without trench boards. In moving to positions for attack the congestion in the trenches was awful and mortally wounded men could
not be moved.” To make matters worse, the German defenders, by now fully
awake and repelling the attacking battalions in front of them, were sweeping no man’s land with machine gun fire. Here, states the Divisional History,
“considerable casualties were sustained, and the waves of the attack becoming a series of small parties not strong enough
to give any material assistance to the forward formations, the 35th Brigade attack broke down and the remnants
of the battalions were driven out of the German lines.” C Company, supported by a platoon from B Company managed to
reach La Boiselle and capture 200 Germans but it was an isolated success on a morning of strong initial advances, punished
by vigorous counter attacks and German machine guns brought up from deep dug-outs which had been unaffected by the intense
one hour bombardment which preceded the assault.
By nine o’clock, the Division was reporting that the attack had failed.
A combination of flanking machine gun fire, lack of cohesion by troops advancing in the dark and the pock-marked terrain,
made impassable in places due to the recent heavy rains, had put paid to the Division’s efforts.
The 6th Royal West Kent Regiment, lost 19 officers and 375 other ranks out of an attacking force of 617. Other battalions suffered similarly. The casualties for the
12th Division’s two attacking brigades amounted to 97 officers and 2277 other ranks and Victor and Fred Denton
were numbered amongst them. At around 4am, the 9th Essex attack had come to a standstill
and the survivors withdrew to the front line to be relieved by the 7th Norfolks.
In little under one hour the battalion had suffered 12 officer and 386 other rank casualties. Corporal Fred Denton had survived the bombardment on the way to the trenches but had taken a bullet in
his left forearm which would finish his service as an infantryman. Of Victor
however there was no sign and no news and he was posted as missing. Much later,
Fred would learn that his brother’s body had been found and laid to rest in France by an old school friend from
East Tilbury. Frederick’s nephew records the school friend’s name as
“Gorbrer Salmon” and this may be Alfred Salmon (born 1897 in Tilbury). The grave though, would never be found
and in time Victor’s name would be added to the memorial to the missing at Thiepval.
Frederick
Denton arrived back in England on 8th July and was sent to Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol where
he remained until 18th September. He was then posted to the 3rd Essex before being transferred down to the Eastern Command Depot at Shoreham on Sea where he underwent special arm and leg
drill. He remained there until 17th October when he was again transferred, this
time to The 2nd Eastern General Hospital in Brighton and from there, to Beechland House at Newick.
