Pte Albert Dent, 2nd Lincolnshire Battalion
Albert was born in about 1899 to Mr and Mrs James Dent. Before the war Albert worked as a mule minder at F Doble & Sons until being called up. This did not mean that he worked with animals; a mule (otherwise known as a spinning mule) was a machine used for spinning cotton into yarns and then winding the yarns onto spindles.
After training he was sent to France, joining the 10th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment (the Grimsby Chums). According to the Dewsbury News he joined the battalion ‘at Easter' (presumably his 19th birthday), but within a month had contracted trench fever. This disease was passed by body lice; lice were a severe irritant to the troops and despite strenuous efforts, their spread could not be prevented in the insanitary conditions that were prevalent in the trenches.
At around the time of Albert contracting trench fever, the Grimsby Chums were disbanded, and Albert was transferred to the 2nd Lincolnshires, part of 62 Brigade, 21st Division. The division was operating as part of the Third Army's push on Cambrai, 62 Brigade being in the line just west of the village of Gouzeaucourt. On 27 September 1918 the 2nd Lincolnshires were in support of an attack on ‘African Trench'; the next day patrols found Gouzeaucourt to have been abandoned by the Germans.
On 29 September an attack was launched from Gouzeaucourt towards the village of Gonnelieu, a smaller village 1½ miles to the east of Gouzeaucourt. The attack went in at 3.30am, with the 1st Lincolnshires on the right and Albert's 2nd Lincolns on the left. Unfortunately Albert's battalion was not in position when the attack was launched, and therefore did not have the full support of the artillery barrage; nevertheless the men caught up with the attack despite heavy enemy machine gun fire. The attack did not dislodge the Germans from Gonnelieu, and casualties to Albert's battalion amounted to fourteen men killed in action.
In the early hours of 30 September patrols reported that the Germans had evacuated Gonnelieu, and the 2nd Lincolnshires moved up to occupy the village.
It is likely that it was during these operations that Albert received a severe gunshot wound to the chest. Evacuated to a casualty clearing station, Albert died on 5 October aged 19; his parents received notification of their son's death at their home at 23 Aire Street, Ravensthorpe in the middle of October.
Albert Dent is buried at Thilloy Road Cemetery south of Bapaume; the cemetery was started in September 1918 by a field ambulance unit and used until early October by the 3rd, 4th and 43rd Casualty Clearing Stations. It now contains 240 graves.
5 October 1918
Research by David Tattersfield MA, WFA Development Trustee. Albert Dent is included in David's book "A Village Goes to War". ISBN 0-9534689-3-3.
