Ernest C Benn - Liverpool

[IMBER]

There is an Ernest Benn, born Liverpool 1888, on someone's tree on GenesReunited.

[ainslie]

There is website with much detail on Toxteth Park Cemetery and inscriptions.  Try Googling, in one word, 'toxtethparkcemeteryinscriptions', and you should  find it useful.
A

[mmm45]

Can only see a Ernest P Benn on Merchantile Marine Medal lists on Ancestry Naval Medal Rolls but cant see him on the Naval Records so COULD be a mistake maybe worth purchasing the record to see what info is given.
Think he is down as Ernest C Bean on the 1911 census?

Ady

[ainslie]

Deleted

[ALCAVTAY]

There is website with much detail on Toxteth Park Cemetery and inscriptions.  Try Googling, in one word, 'toxtethparkcemeteryinscriptions', and you should  find it useful.
A

got it!

Ernest BENN, / who was lost at sea 20th March 1918, / aged 28 years. 

He could be the Benn (no first name) on the deaths at sea index for 1918, on the Olympic, I believe it was used as a troopship, googled it and can't find any 'action' on that date so he wouldn't have been eligible for a war grave.

His mother's name on the inscription matches the Ernest Charles Benn from the census returns (Bean in 1911!) so I think it's him... may spend some cash and look at the mercantile marine record to see if that ties in too.

Thanks a lot everyone, good spot Ainslie!

[newburychap]

Ernest BENN, / who was lost at sea 20th March 1918, / aged 28 years. 

He could be the Benn (no first name) on the deaths at sea index for 1918, on the Olympic, I believe it was used as a troopship, googled it and can't find any 'action' on that date so he wouldn't have been eligible for a war grave.

Not sure it is irrelevent whether there was an action or not - if he was merchant marine the qualification requirements are that his death has to be 'war related'.  I would have thought that death while serving as crew on a troopship (eg Olympic - His Majesty's Transport 2810) would qualify.

[IMBER]

Basically to qualify the death has to be related to enemy action.

Imber

[ALCAVTAY]

I thought it was quite a narrow definition for the Mercantile Marine, being lost overboard from a troopship in stormy weather or dying of flu while on a troopship for example wouldn't count. 

I guess I'll have to try and get a copy of the death certificate.

I've been unable to find any mention of anything happening on the date given on the grave although one diary entry does say it was a rough crossing:


A stormy crossing added a full day and a lot
of discomfort to the return crossing from
Liverpool to Halifax. Diary entries by the SMO,
Colonel Leprohon, record a number of storms
during several Atlantic crossings. "All night
furious gale and boat pitching heavily", he wrote
on 18 March 1918. "A great number of people
sick.... Waves are mountainous high."

[ALCAVTAY]

CONFUSED 

so, the Benn on the Olympic was Ernest's brother Harry. Accidentally drowned so no war grave. His Mercantile Marine ID card doesn't have much info but does have a photo of him.

BUT the date of death matches the one given for Ernest on the grave inscription and Harry isn't on the war memorial.

I'm going to have a cup of tea, this is making my head hurt.

Mand