Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

32nd Bn. Australian Infantry, Australian Imperial Force.

Births Sep 1885   Samson Benjamin  Narberth 11a 946

Benjamin was born at Henllan Amgoed, the son of David Samson, of Trefedw, Hebron., Carmarthenshire, Wales. Benjamin and his brother David emigrated to Australia, where they found work as miners at Collie. Ben attested on 11 May, 1916 into the Australian Imperial Force at Belmont, Western Australia. On 5 September 1916 Ben was assigned to the 10th Reinforcements to the 32nd Battalion, and embarked at Fremantle aboard H.M.A.T. Port Melbourne, bound for the U.K. on 28 October that year. On 1 March 1917 Ben arrived at Etaples from England, and joined his Battalion on 6 March. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on 9 April, and the Battalion, as part of 8 Brigade, 2nd Australian Division, moved to Flanders, where they fought at the Battles of Third Ypres. It was during the Battle of Polygon Wood that Ben was Killed in Action on 30 September 1917, aged 32. A German aeroplane had come down near the Australian lines, and German Artillery was trying to break it up with shellfire, when a shell landed in a dugout occupied by Ben. He was buried on the spot by some of his ‘mates’, and his body was later reinterred at Tyne Cot Military Cemetery.

His brother also fell and they are commemorated on the Crymych War Memorial. He was David Samson, Private, 3548, Australian Imperial Force. The village of Crymych sits at the north of the County of Pembrokeshire. It developed around the Crymmych Arms Railway Station, which sat on the line from Whitland to Cardigan. The Parish of Crymych covers the nearby villages of Eglwyswrw, Blaenffos, Llanfyrnach, Hermon and Glogue, and the names on the Crymych Memorial cover the men from the entire Parish. Several of these men have since been added onto the new Eglwyswrw War Memorial.