Z / 1015 Lance Serjeant OSWALD BENTLEY, MM Rifle Brigade

[Peter Bennett]

A friend is trying to find the citation or at least a link to the page of the London Gazette for her relative below.

Z / 1015 Lance Serjeant OSWALD BENTLEY, MM, 1 / The Rifle Brigade, KIA aged 23, 28/3/1918. On Arras Memorial.

The Gazette entry for the MM was 11/11/1916.

I would be grateful for any assistance.

Thank you

Peter

[ralphjd]

Peter.London Gazette issue 29819 dated 10-11-1916 page 2/20 Z/1015 Cpl O Benley Rif. Bde. Citations are as rare as hens teeth, best bet local newspaper of the time. Ralph.

[MBrockway]

Peter,

Andy's the man , but he's more likely to spot this if you edit the Topic title to mention the Rifle Brigade

I only opened it because of the "Z" prefix and the spelling of "Serjeant" hinted at a rifles matter - LOL!

As Ralph has said though, MM citations are rare.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Mark

[stiletto_33853]

Peter,

Will have a look through the 4th Division material I have for you as I have sometimes found mentions of awards in the A & Q branch war diaries. The 1st RB war diary is not the best for personnel unless an officer, but, the war diary notes on 5/12/16:-

Awarded MM for bravery in the field (Retrospective awards)

1689 L/C Andrews, H.E., Z/1015 Sergt Bentley, O., 3734 Rfn Clapson, E., 9944 Sergt (now Lieut.) Cording, L., and another 8 names listed for M.M.s

Andy

[Peter Bennett]

Thanks very much to all who have replied

Peter

[stiletto_33853]

Peter,

Nothing in anything I have on the 4th Division and having gone through the diary from 1/7/16 I can find no mention at all of how he won the MM.

Andy