Benjamin Bertrand DUTTON

DUTTON, Benjamin Bertrand

Service Number: 823
Enlisted: 29 August 1914, Randwick, New South Wales
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 1st Infantry Battalion
Born: Liverpool, Lancashire, England, 12 November 1881
Home Town: Newcastle, Hunter Region, New South Wales
Schooling: Park Hill Church School, Liverpool, England
Occupation: Railway porter, Labourer
Died: Killed in Action, France, 23 August 1918, aged 36 years
Cemetery: Heath Cemetery, Picardie
Plot VII Row A, Grave 17
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board
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World War 1 Service

29 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 823, Randwick, New South Wales
18 Oct 1914: Involvement Private, 823, 1st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Afric embarkation_ship_number: A19 public_note: ''
18 Oct 1914: Embarked Private, 823, 1st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Afric, Sydney

Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board

Benjamin Bertrand DUTTON, (Service Number 823) was born on 10 November 1881 in Liverpool, England. He first worked for the NSWGR as a porter at Bullock Island, Newcastle, in November 1912. By September of the next year he had progressed to be a 3rd class shunter. On 9 October 1913 he was dismissed ‘for being absent from duty without leave on 12/9 - 29/9 13’. Here his railway employment record ends, nearly a year before the outbreak of the war.

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Biography contributed by Elizabeth Allen

Benjamin Bertrand DUTTON was born in 1881 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England

His parents were Benjamin Joseph DUTTON and Annie Maria BROWN who married in 1877 in Liverpool, England

Biography contributed by John Oakes

Benjamin Bertrand DUTTON (Service Number 823) was born on 10th November 1881 in Liverpool, England. He first worked for the NSW Government Railways as a porter at Bullock Island, Newcastle, from November 1912. By September of the next year he had progressed to be a 3rd class shunter. On 9th October 1913 he was dismissed ‘for being absent from duty without leave on 12th to 29th Spetember. 

He enlisted in Newcastle and was assigned to the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion.

Benjamin Bertrand Dutton left Australia from Sydney, onboard HMAT ‘Afric’ on 18 October 1915.

Dutton described himself as single and named his sister, Mrs E. Owen of Belfast, as his next of kin.

In early April 1915 he was in hospital in Heliopolis (Egypt). Therefore, he did not take part in the Gallipoli landings. However, he did re-join the 1st Battalion at Gallipoli on 6th June. In August he was evacuated to Mudros (on the Greek iisland of Lemnos) with dysentery. He was transferred to hospital in England. In November he was Absent Without Leave for 12 days for which he forfeited 12 days’ pay and received a 12 days detention.

In February 1916 he was reported for travelling without a train ticket. In June he returned to the 1st Battalion. In the same month he was debited 20 shillings for loss of his kit. In August he was in hospital again, this timewith scabies. He went through a number of medical units and depots.

In January 1917 he went absent without leave for 29 days. He was given 29 days detention and the forfeiture of 56 days pay. Then he went to hospital for 17 days with Venereal Disease. He re-joined the 1st Battalion in September 1917. On 23rd January 1918 he was convicted of ‘Whilst on Active Service conduct to the prejudice of good order & military discipline in that he refused to obey a lawful command of his superior officer.’ For this he received seven days confined to barracks and lost another seven days’ pay.

In April 1918, he was gassed and withdrawn from the front line.

In May he was charged with drunkenness, Absent Without Leave, and being in Paris without a pass. For these crimes he incurred 14 days Field Punishment No. 1. [F.P. No. 1 involved periods of two hours being shackled to an immovable object, often an artillery piece.] In June he re-joined the Battalion. He was killed in action on 23rd August 1918.

He was buried at Harbonnières. His remains were exhumed after the war and re-interred at the Heath Cemetery.

He had left a will in favour of his sister. However, he had married Beatrice in 1905 and two children had been born. The authorities knew this. After the war they paid a pension to the widow, who was now re-married as Mrs Kirby, as well as the children and the sister, Mrs Owen.

- based on notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board

 

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