Personal Effects : Private W Benton, 24 Battalion, AIF

Collection of personal effects found on the body of 3775 Private William Benton. They include: Damaged aluminium identity disc, Armentieres souvenir brooch, silver vesta match case containing a lock of brown hair, brass equipment buckle, a coin, a section of brown leather and a filigree brooch.

3775 Private William Benton was born in England and immigrated to Australia when he was 21. He married Eunice Edna in 1914 and had one child, Eunice Miriam, when he enlisted in the AIF on 13 December 1915. His wife Eunice was pregnant with their second child, a son John William, who was born in 1916. Benton embarked for overseas service with the 9th reinforcements of 24 Battalion on 8 February 1916 aboard HMAT Warilda from Melbourne. He was only briefly in Egypt before embarking for France on 27 March 1916.

Benton went missing on 5 August 1916 at Pozieres. That morning he was in the support lines at Pozieres Ridge, OG1 (Old German lines 1) and was wounded in the head by a shell splinter which cracked his helmet. His wound was dressed and he began to make his way back to a Dressing Station with some other wounded men. One eyewitness stated it was about 2 miles (a little over 3 kilometres) away but Benton never made it and was never seen nor heard from again. There was very heavy shelling from the Germans and it was believed he had been killed making his way behind the lines. It was over a year before Benton was officially listed as killed in action by a court of enquiry in October 1917.

As he had no known grave, his name was listed on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial. His body was finally located in 1957, 300 yards (about 275 metres) north of Pozieres and these items; a filigree brooch he bought for his daughter, an Armentieres brooch, a piece of leather, British button, silver vesta (matchstick) case containing a lock of hair - possibly his wife's, buckle and his identity disc, were found with his remains. His damaged identity disc was still sufficiently legible to identify his body. He was reburied at the London Cemetery Extension, Longueval, France. The items were returned to his widow Eunice, who had married Austin Cusack in 1934.