Name
Benjamin Fish
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/08/1917
37
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
54858
Welsh Regiment
16th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Panel 93 to 94.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Sawbridgeworth memorials, Epping War Memorial
Pre War
Benjamin was the son of John and Eliza Fish, of Hadfield Forest, Harlow, Essex; husband of Ellen Gertrude Fish, of 1, Causeway Cottages, High Rd., Epping, Essex. He is recorded as being born in Sawbridgeworth in March 1879 and was baptised at Great St. Mary’s that September.
He was raised at Hatfield Broad Oak and in 1909 married Ellen Gertrude Fewell at Epping and they had one daughter. Benjamin and his family lived at 1 Causeway Cottages, High Street, Epping and from 2nd February 1906 he worked as a Postman.
He enlisted at Epping.
Wartime Service
Benjamin was assigned to the 16th Battalion Welsh Regiment. A regiment which had massive casualties on the Somme.
In July 1917, Benjamin’s unit were at Ypres and were a reserve battalion in the assault on Pilckem Ridge on the 31 July 1917.
On the 27 August 1917, the Battalion was used in an assault. This time the objective was a German breastwork trench astride the Langemarck-Poelcapelle Road. The weather conditions were atrocious, with torrential rain and driving wind. The Divisional History notes that men were literally up to their necks in freezing water. It was a quagmire. Soldiers who fell into shell holes could only escape with the aid of their colleagues whilst under fire. Amazingly, some of the attackers made it to the German line but could not hold it.
That day, the 16th Welsh lost 71 killed and 135 wounded from a strength of 400, (over 50%). One of those killed was Benjamin Fish. He was aged 37.
Benjamin Fish has no known grave and is named on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Douglas Coe
