HILL, Benjamin

Benjamin Hill lived at Hayes Lane, Lye, and was a keen member of the Hayes Lane chapel. He enlisted in the Worcesters and was sent to the 14th Battalion, the Pioneers of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, probably in 1917. They had fought on the Somme for the last battle of the long saga of 1916 and in 1917 they were called on to conclude the Third Battle of Ypres. Three attacks on the Paddebeek and its fortified farms were made with little success in the atrocious weather of October and November. In March 1918 they were in the trenches near the Hindenburg Line and faced the first German Spring offensive. They were driven back over the old Somme battlefield and suffered heavy losses. Among the wounded was Private Benjamin Hill who was taken to a military hospital near Rouen where he died of wounds on the 31st March. He was 19 years of age and is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension (P IX 13 A) and commemorated on the Lye and Wollescote and Lye church Memorials.