2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Until 1931 Blockley was an enclave of Worcestershire, after which it came under Gloucestershire.
Benjamin Albert Keen was born in Blockley on 6 February 1893 and was baptised there on 2 April 1893. In most records his middle name of Albert does not feature. His parents were James Keen (1843-1905) a shoemaker (who appears in some records with the surname ‘Keen-Hopkins’) and his wife Mary Anne (née Driver: 1846-1928). The couple appears to have had fourteen children, born between 1866-1889, inclusive.
At the time of the 1901 Census those members of the Keen family still living at home lived at Landgate, Blockley. James Keen had died by the time of the 1911 Census and Benjamin, aged 18, was living with his mother and two of his brothers at Mount Pleasant, Blockley. The census notes that one of the fourteen children was deceased. Benjamin’s occupation was shown as a farm labourer.
Unfortunately no Army Service Record has survived for Benjamin. However, a number of facts can be determined from such records as have survived. Benjamin’s service number, of 12357, indicates that he joined the Gloucestershire Regiment very early in the war. The 2nd Glosters were sent to the Western Front on 18 December 1914, as part of 81 Brigade, 27 Division but Benjamin was no doubt based at the Depot, undergoing training until he was sent to join the battalion on 25 March 1915. The Battalion War Diary entry for 29 March 1915 notes the arrival from England of one Officer and 203 Other Ranks and Benjamin was almost certainly one of these.
The 2nd Glosters were located in the Ypres Salient, in the area of Sanctuary Wood, for the whole of April and were not involved in any significant action until the 24th, when they sector they held came under frequent attack.
According to the Evesham Standard & West Midlands Observer of 15 May 1915: ‘A letter has been received from the General Hospital at Boulogne stating that Private Benjamin Keen, 2nd Gloucesters, a Blockley man was wounded on Wednesday in last week in the head and arm’.
The 2nd Battalion Glosters’ War Diary of 29 April 1915 (a Thursday) states: ‘Sanctuary Wood: Heavy fire direction of Fortuin, 3.30am which died down in ½ hour. Continual artillery fire all night. Started on a new line of dugouts in Zouave Wood. A Coy. in trenches C9.10.11 reported all quiet on this front’.
Unusually, in the margin column of the War Diary, against the 29 April entry, there is a list of five members of the battalion wounded that day and 12357 Private Keen, ‘A’ (Company) is one of those named.
He would have been treated at a First Aid Post and then passed down the evacuation route of Casualty Clearing Station and possibly Base Hospital before being returned to England. When he returned to England is not known but it appears that he was sent to a military hospital in north London, as his death was reported in the Hackney Registration District.
Private Benjamin Keen died of his wounds on 14 May 1915, aged 22 and was taken back to Blockley for burial on 18 May. A standard CWGC headstone marks his grave and he is commemorated on the Blockley War Memorial.
Researched by Graham Adams 12 May 2021