Benjamin Pogson lived only a short life of 20 years. There is only one known photograph of him. He had no wife and no children. He never met any of his nephews and nieces. He had no funeral, no mourners present and no known grave. Apart from his name on two memorials his life goes relatively unrecorded. And yet, his relatives, their descendants and the rest of the nation owe him a tremendous debt; one that can never be repaid.

Ben was born at 20 Arthington Grove, Hunslet on the 11th of November 1894, one of eight children to Edward Pogson and Mary Sheard from Hunslet.

At some time in 1913 the entire family relocated to 69 Clement Street in Birkby, Huddersfield. Relocation was not surprising. Father Edward strongly supported the Trade Union movement and was a known agitator for workers’ rights. Family stories suggest that, he found it hard to secure work in the leather industry because of his union activities.

The move to Huddersfield brought changes; new jobs and new directions. Maybe Ben was finding those changes hard to adjust to after only a short time in a strange town; he had left his friends behind. Perhaps he was struggling to find work. It is not certain when he joined the army. The most likely possibility is that he volunteered as a reservist in May 1913, shortly after the move from Leeds and well before the outbreak of war. It would have been a good way to make new friends and to start a new social life.

Recruits to the Special Reserve usually carried out five months of full time training at the regimental depot (in this case likely to be the Drill Hall in St Paul’s Street, Huddersfield) after which they were obliged to attend for annual training. The motivations for enlisting in the Special Reserve would be the social aspect of meeting others from a similar background, and the appeal of the annual fortnight-long camp.

The younger recruits tended to walk-out of the lines of the camp in their smartest uniform, often to flirt with local girls for whom the annual summer camp was by all accounts a pleasant distraction.

These summer training camps were often the nearest that these working class and lower middle class men had to an annual holiday. In those days it was a significant factor towards successful recruitment to have what was in effect a paid holiday comprising manly events like shooting, marching, field manoeuvres, and sport such as football and cricket, as well as exploring the local villages when stood down from parades.

What is certain is that by the outbreak of war on the 4th of August 1914, with the heavy casualty numbers being kept a strict secret from the press, at nineteen years of age, Ben had already joined the 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve) of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment (known as ‘the Dukes’ with a base in Huddersfield but with its home barracks in Halifax) as an infantryman.

His Battalion was mobilised for war service on the 8th of August 1914.

The plan of the French and British to advance into Germany was quickly frustrated by the Germans who were sweeping through neutral Belgium.

On the 24th of August six German divisions came up against the two divisions of II Corps at Mons. Despite their overwhelming superiority the German attack crumpled in the face of the superb rifle-fire from regiments of the 3rd and 5th Divisions. Mons was followed by a retreat towards Paris but the tide was turned at the Marne and the Germans withdrew. Now began ‘the race to the sea’ as each army tried to outflank the other.

Ben still needed further basic training. It looks likely that, following the mobilisation of the 3rd Battalion Special Reserve on the 8th of August 1914, he completed that training at Sunderland, Gateshead and then Earsdon in North Tyneside where he practised constructing trenches and barbed wire entanglements.

Thereafter he was sent out to join the Regiment, leaving Earsdon on the 2nd of September but not reaching the theatre of war in France and Flanders until the 8th of September 1914.

The Battalion War Diary records that it was a very cold and damp day when 102 Other Ranks caught up with ‘the Duke’s’ at Cr(h)ezy-en-Orxois in Aisne, France on the 10th of September.

He had missed out on the early fighting, particularly the regiment’s involvement in the Battle of Mons and the first Battle of the Marne. It was just as well because the casualties had been heavy and Private Benjamin Pogson and the other untested recruits were sent forward to fill those gaps in the ranks.

It is impossible to say exactly if or where Ben fought in those early weeks during September and October but records show that he formally transferred to 'D' company, 2nd Battalion as a front-line soldier on the 23rd of September 1914. Furthermore, what is also certain is that Ben fought in the brutal conflict which became known as the 1st Battle of Ypres in November 1914, only two months after arriving in Flanders.

On October the 19th 1914, near the Belgian city of Ypres, the ancient Flemish city with its fortifications guarding the ports of the English Channel and access to the North Sea beyond, Allied and German forces had begun the first battle of Ypres. It was an attempt to control the city and its advantageous position on the north coast of Belgium.

Nonne Bosschen was a small wood to the east of Ypres.

On Wednesday, the 11th of November 1914  at 06.00 hours – exceptionally heavy shelling began, practically all shrapnel, but with rifle and machine gun fire across the whole Allied position from the firing line back to the reserves.

Private Harry Ryder, who was out in the firing line with Ben and the others from 'D' company that day, said later, ‘I should think it was the heaviest shell-fire that ever was known. The air was white with smoke. We could not see more than ten yards in front of us.’ Major Harrison, the Commanding Officer of the Regiment, and his reserve troops were concealed in the wood behind them.

At 07.30 hours – the shelling ceased. ‘The Dukes’ reserves were ordered up to the support trenches as the Prussian Guard attacked. The message from Lt. Carey, leading 'D' company in the fire trenches, to Harrison said, ‘Very hard pressed but would hang on as long as possible.’

'D' Company was forced to vacate the forward trenches and retreat to the wood. Harrison’s response was to advance with the rest of his forces to find that the Germans had broken through. The French opened fire from the left whilst 'A' Company held steady and repulsed the attack upon their position. Harrison and 'C' Company staged a bayonet charge to regain the ground almost back to the fire trench from which Lt Carey and 'D' Company had been driven.

The Battle lasted from the 19th of October to the 22nd of November. It is generally regarded as having achieved an indecisive result because it did not lead to a positive outcome for either side.

By mid-to-late November both sides were exhausted from the continuous assaults and loss of numbers. The soldiers were tired and suffering from poor morale. The First Battle of Ypres was deadly on all sides and led to numerous casualties. It is estimated that Britain suffered around 58,000 casualties in the battle, with nearly 8,000 deaths, that France experienced approximately 50,000 casualties, while Belgium endured over 21,000 and Germany suffered about 130,000. (Casualties include wounded, killed or missing in action).

In the end, the battle was typical of the conditions at the time, in that defensive fortifications ensured numerous dead and injured with little or no results.

On the 12th of November winter arrived and the fighting tailed off. The weather became much colder, with rain from the 12th to the 14th of November and a little snow on the 15th. The nights were frosty and on the 20th of November the ground was covered by snow. Frostbite cases added to the existing stressful situation endured by troops occupying trenches half-full of freezing water, falling asleep standing up and being shelled and sniped at from opposing trenches only 100 yards away.

However, Ben Pogson never experienced that winter...

It should be borne in mind that the greatest number of casualties in World War One were caused by artillery fire. It is quite possible that Ben was killed in the intense bombardment, on the morning of the 11th. However, unlike much of the fighting elsewhere, this was not solely an artillery battle. At Nonne Bosschen the fighting was mainly rifle-fire and then desperate hand-to-hand combat in the trenches.

Ben was with 'D' Company occupying the forward trenches which were overrun by the Prussian Guard, where those that did not escape were either killed or captured. So there is every possibility that he may have died in that close-quarter fighting when the enemy attacked those trenches at around 07:30 hours or in the wood if he survived the retreat from the trenches.

Whether he was covered by debris during the early shelling or killed later in the hand-to-hand fighting and buried in a temporary grave is not known, but either way he was recorded as being killed in action.

Almost inevitably, along with the graves of so many others, the subsequent movement of troops backwards and forwards across that location, including the 2nd and 3rd Battles of Ypres, over the next four years of war, turning it from fields and woods into a sea of mud, ensured that his final resting place remained unknown.

He died aged 20 years on his birthday on the 11th of November 1914, only two months after his arrival in France; still not old enough to vote. It was that day that the regiment won the Battle Honour for Nonne Bosschen.

If there was a birthday package from home for him at the next mail-call then it remained unclaimed. His death merited a listing on page 3 of the Thursday the 10th of December 1914 edition of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner and a repeat on Page 11 of the Saturday the 12th of December 1914 edition of the Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner.

On the 25th of October 1916 Mary Pogson, Ben’s mother, was awarded a Dependent’s Pension of five shillings per week payable from the 28th of December 1915 resulting from Ben’s death.

For his contribution Ben was posthumously awarded his medals around the 19th of February 1921. These were the 1914 ‘Mons Star’ and clasp, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal. The clasp bore the dates 5 August – 22 November 1914 and was awarded to all men who had been under fire in France or Belgium on or between those dates.

The people of Huddersfield erected a war memorial at Norman Park in the Fartown and Birkby area, not far from Clement Street where Ben had lived. With others, his name is recorded on that memorial. Edward and Mary Pogson and the remainder of the family must have been amongst the large crowd attending the unveiling on Saturday the 2nd of April 1921.

On the 24th of July 1927 the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing was unveiled by Field Marshall Lord Plumer at Ieper, West Vlaanderen in Belgium. ln company with over fifty-four thousand others, the name of Benjamin Pogson was carved on that memorial (Addenda Panel 58). As Plumer said at that ceremony, “He is not missing: he is here.”

Note: This is an abridged version of a longer story about an ordinary Huddersfield family caught up in extraordinary events at a pivotal time in world history. To read the full story (with more images, more detail of Ben’s relatives and what became of them and a more detailed account of the battle) go to:      https://davidlewispogson.wordpress.com/the-name-on-the-menin-gate/