BORN HULL 1895. SON OF ROBERT BENTLEY (1865-1935) & AMANDA HUTCHINSON (1872-1956), OF 50 SHARP STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). AN APPRENTICE PRINTER. SERVED WITH THE 2MD/1ST EAST RIDING YEOMANRY. TRANSFERRED TO BECOME A LEWIS GUNNER WITH THE 11TH HULL PALS. HE DIED OF GAS WOUNDS, ON 28/04/1918, AGED 23. HE IS BURIED AT HULL WESTERN CEMETERY, IN THE SAME CWGC GRAVE, WITH HIS BROTHER RICHARD, ALSO OF THE 11TH EYR, WHO DIED OF FLU, ON 05/12/1918, AGED 27. THEY LEFT SISTERS, BEATRICE, AUDREY, DORIS, ZADIE, AND BROTHERS, ROBERT, ALEC AND CHARLES. HIS NAME WAS RECORDED ON THE KINGS HALL CHURCH ROLL OF HONOUR, SYMONS STREET, HULL.
A PHOTO OF HIM WAS PRINTED IN THE BEVERLEY GUARDIAN ON 2ND SEPTEMBER 1916, PAGE 5.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. Private, HAROLD BENTLEY 11/1141. Born in April 1895, Harold was the third of nine children to Robert and Amanda Bentley of 50 Sharp Street, Hull. A Printer by trade, he enlisted at the start of the war joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. He and his elder brother Richard both joined the 11th, very possibly together, though Harold has the earlier regimental number suggesting he went first and Richard wasn’t about to be upstaged by his kid brother. Harold trained and fought as one of the battalion Lewis Gunners, but was wounded and shipped back home to recuperate. He died of those wounds at home in Hull on 28th April 1918 and is buried in Western Cemetery. Richardt survived the war but died of influenza, at home in December 1918. They are buried together under the same CWGC tombstone at Spring bank cemetery.
