Of all the soldier patients who
left their words in Nurse Oliver's album, Fred Denton had the most to say. Mentioned in Dispatches twice, presented
with the Military Medal at Beechlands and wounded during the opening stages of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, a battle which
cost him his younger brother, he had certainly been through a lot in a few short months. It is fitting
therefore, that I probably also have more information on this soldier than on any of the other patients. His service
record survives, there is a photo of him in Nurse Oliver's album, and some while back, a relative sent me another photograph.
This is Fred's story.
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.
