Menu of dinner held at Spa Hotel Ripon for the Seaforth Highlanders Football Team, signed by members of the team on the reverse; 6 photographs: 1 of Eric and his brother Elgy in their uniforms respectively Seaforth Highlanders and Duke of Wellingtons; several photographs of Eric himself and one of him and his comrades; 2 medals
George Eric Bentley was born on June 2, 1899 at 15 Retford Place, Bradford, the youngest of 6 children to Joseph and Sarah Ann. He is the grandfather of the contributor. Eric was a footballing prodigy destined for a professional career (he had been advised to consider signing for Aston Villa, a pre-war powerhouse in the game). Strong and athletic and big for his age, he was whitefeathered in a packed Darley Street, Bradford at age 15 still too young to fight. He runs away and enlists with the Black Watch and makes it to France. A chance meeting with his brother Elgy reveals the truth and he is sent home. He is not home long before he runs away again and enlists in the 51st Highland Division, Seaforth Highlanders, spending his 17th birthday in the trenches on the Somme. The Highlanders are remembered for their courage and bravery on the Somme and in their attempts to capture the strategic area at Beaumont Hamel where a permanent memorial to the fallen of the 51st was erected after the war. One Highlander wrote of the attack: The morning was dark and misty. Long before zero hour, the first waves had climbed out of the trenches and lay on the parapet. At 5:45am the signal was given and the artillery opened a fearsome barrage on the German front line and over went the infantry, not dawdling, not even walking but wading knee deep, sometimes waist deep through the sticky mud and water in the shell holes that made up No-Man's Land.\n Eric, just 17, was here. He shouldn't have been! At some point during the battle Eric is sheltering in a shell hole with comrades including a badly wounded officer. He forsakes the relative safety of the hole and ventures out in to No-Man's Land to take the wounded man to the British lines and medical treatment. He heaves the man on his back and sets off. This is the last he remembers. Almost immediately a shell explodes. The officer takes most of the force and is killed. Eric is badly injured and wakes in a field hospital, wounded, shocked and temporarily deaf. It is not clear what if any action he sees after this. He makes a recovery of sorts and in February 1918, he is garrisoned in Ripon and representing the Battalion at football, any dream of a professional career now shattered. Eric survived the horrors of the Western Front but did not speak much of his experience. He marries Elsie Spalding in 1924 and they have 2 boys, Keith and Ian. When WW2 breaks out the recruiters come knocking. He gives them short shrift. He dies on 31 January 1960.

United Kingdom
Medal
Front
Images of obverse of the Allied Victory Medal and of the British War Medal, 1914-18.
Other
Eric Bentley's medals (obverse)
Latin
Remembrance
Images of reverse side of the British War Medal and of the Allied Victory Medal.
Eric Bentley
Eric Bentley's medals (reverse)
Back
Images of reverse of The British War Medal, 1914-18 and The Allied Victory Medal.
Images of rim of Allied Victory Medal and British War Medal, 1914-18. Visible are recipient's service number, rank, name and unit: 4707 PTE. G.E. Bentley, Seaforth
Eric Bentley's medals (rim)
Ripon, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Menu of dinner for Seaforth Highlanders Football Team
54.1357031,-1.5267426999999997
Memorabilia
Menu of a dinner held at the Spa Hotel Ripon on February 14th, 1918. A dinner given to The Seaforth Highlanders Football Team.
The reverse side of the Menu with signatures of guests attending dinner. Last signature on the list is of Eric Bentley, signed as Geo. E. Bentley.
Eric and Elgy Bentley
Photograph of the brothers Eric and Elgy Bentley. Eric was in Seaforth Highlanders.
Photograph of Eric and Elgy Bentley
Photograph
Eric Bentley in football shirt
Eric Bentley in his Seaforth Highlanders uniform
Eric Bentley in his uniform
Eric Bentley in uniform
Otley, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Photograph of the Seaforth Highlanders, Ripon Garrison. Eric Bentley is in the middle, front row. Photographer: H. Stephenson of Otley.
Seaforth Highlanders Ripon Garrison
Eric Bentley in Seaforth Highlanders uniform