2 WILLIAM AND HIS FAMILY

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A HERO
Section 2

WILL'S EARLY LIFE

William Bentley was born to Edith Inez Barnard and Private William Henry Bentley on 12^th June 1890 in Shornecliffe Camp, the army barracks at Sandgate, Folkestone on the south coast of Kent. William's mother, Edith, had been married to William Bentley on Christmas Eve 1888, in Cheriton parish church, near Folkestone. The young William probably spent the first years of his life on the move - he and his mother following his father around various barracks and garrison towns.

By October 1895 William's real father Private Bentley disappears. I don't yet know how or why. Was he killed whilst serving overseas? Did the marriage fail? I do intend to find out what happened and you will be the first to know the truth, however, as Private Bentley fades out of the picture so Jim Simpson, another soldier, comes into focus. In October 1895 Sergeant Jim Simpson and his wife, William's mother Edith, were given an eight hour pass in Capetown, South Africa. A year later they were back in England, again at Sandgate. In October 1896 they took a trip to London from Sandgate station to visit the Empire of India and Ceylon Exhibition at Earl's Court.

From 1899 to 1905 the Simpson family, including William's sister, Dorothy and his brother, Clarence, were living at Greenwich, New Eltham and Woolwich, all in South London. Jim Simpson worked as an Examiner of Weapons at Woolwich Royal Arsenal. At the age of nine young William was at Greenwich High Street school and doing well. His arithmetic progress was Excellent and for writing and spelling he got a Very Good.. Jim and Edith had another daughter in November 1905 and christened her Joan Rhoda Phylis Simpson. At about this time William's fortune was boosted by some benefactor (I don't believe his mother could afford it) who paid for him to attend boarding school in Bristol. He spent the next three years at Kingswood School, Bristol. It would naturally have been difficult for a boy of fourteen to up and leave his family and to live 120 miles and a full day's travel away. We will see that he loved his mother dearly and he surely missed her every day.

In February 1907 Edith was living in Cliffe, a small village on the marshes a few miles from Rochester, Kent. She may have been employed there in the dynamite factory, which was situated on the isolated and windblown marshes. Her husband, Jim, was in digs in Woolwich, still working at the Arsenal.

By July 1907 the whole family were back at Woolwich, where one of William's sisters, Edith Muriel Simpson, became ill with Scarlet Fever, a disease sometimes contracted by children and sometimes fatal. Initially she just complained of a sore throat, but when the doctor examined her he found a bright red rash on her body, and when the doctor diagnosed the disease her mother was frantic. The little girl was immediately removed to Brook Isolation Hospital, Woolwich for treatment, arriving on 22^nd July. No one was allowed to visit her and all through August her mother fretted about her, unable to help or comfort her. However, by mid August she had improved enough to be sent for convalescence at Gore Farm Hospital in Dartford, and by 24^th August she was at last well enough for a visit but still not free from infection and her mother rushed off to see her. When she arrived at the hospital she was made to wear a wrap over her clothes, she was not permitted to touch or go near the child and she had to disinfect her hands and face after leaving. On 3^rd September her mother eventually received the long awaited letter releasing little Edith from hospital. The family still had to take care, however, and Edith slept on her own in the living room for three weeks. She was also kept away from school.

For a while things were back to normal in the Simpson household. Then on 28^th October William returned from his schooling in Bristol. He had been away from home for more than three years and had changed a lot in that time. He had left a boy and returned a young man, growing to almost six feet, with wide, strong shoulders and deep voice.

After William's return home he began to look for work. It was natural for him to apply for service in the Army, and he tried to enlist with the Hampshire Regiment. Initially he was turned down (14^th October 1908), but 'as a special case' he was eventually taken on. I haven't yet found out why William was a 'special case', he was, after all an eighteen year old youth - ideal for the Army.

LAST UPDATE OF SECTION 2 - 14/9/2002