Person

Benjamin Leggett joined the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) just one month short of his 37th Birthday. By the time he had been invalided out, just as the Great War was drawing to an end, he had been wounded, gassed and was suffering from what the army called “premature senility”; his body and probably mind worn out by three years of military service.

Benjamin was born in Chilton, near Ferryhill, on 26 December 1879. His parents, Thomas and Mary (nee Carlick) had moved to County Durham from West Bergholt, Essex, with their three young daughters. Thomas found work in the limestone quarries of Weardale. Another three children, including Ben, were born in the Ferryhill area. Despite having a house full of children, the Leggetts also took in two lodgers, presumably to make ends meet.

In 1899, Ben married a Durham girl, Esther Thompson, in Sedgefield. The young couple settled nearby in the village of Trimdon where Ben described himself as a “stone worker” in the coalmine. Over the next ten years, Ben and Esther had three children, and like Ben’s parents before them, took in a lodger in their terraced home in South View, Trimdon Grange.

Ben and Esther took their little family to start a new life in Australia in 1912, leaving England for Hobart, Tasmania, on the Arawa on 15 August. They settled in the industrial town of Lithgow, New South Wales (NSW), where Ben found work as a quarryman.

On 3 December 1915, Ben joined the AIF in Kiama as a private in the 16th Reinforcements of the 1st Battalion. He was almost 37 years old, his hair was turning grey: he had a three-inch scar on his arm and another under his chin.

After basic training, Ben left with the other reinforcements for Europe on 9 April 1916. Two months later he finally joined his Battalion in France, as the armies massed for the forthcoming Battle of the Somme. For three days from 24 to 26 July, the Germans relentlessly bombarded Pozieres where the 1st Battalion were positioned. 25 July was the worst day, an unforgettable scene of death and destruction. It was on that day that Ben was wounded for the first time with a gunshot wound to his arm.

As he recovered, he contracted “pyrexia”, or trench fever. As well as delaying his return to the Front Line, this had an added bonus for Ben when he was sent back to hospital in Trimdon Grange, the County Durham village the family had left four years earlier.

Ben spent much of 1917 in England, in the Australian Army Depots on Salisbury Plain. On 19 August, Ben failed to return to camp after a night out, not returning until 10.45 the following morning. He was punished with one day’s Field Punishment Number 2, and docked two days’ pay.

On 9 November 1917, Ben finally returned to his Battalion in action in the Ypres Salient.

In 1918, Ben’s Battalion helped stop the German Spring Offensive in March and April before taking part in the Hundred Days Offensive, launched near Amiens on 8 August. Two days later, Ben was caught in a gas attack, which proved to be the end of his war. He was invalided back to the Reading War Hospital on 5 September and finally returned to Australia on 10 December 1918. Doctors recorded that he was medically unfit now, suffering with “premature senility”; too old and worn out by three years’ Army life.

For much of the rest of their lives, Ben and Esther lived in the New South Wales town of Kiama. Ben returned to the quarries to earn a living and over the years, they both returned to Trimdon to visit family and friends.

Ben died in 1968, 14 years after Esther passed away.

Civil Parish: Trimdon

Birth date: 26-Dec-1879

Death date: 1968

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Railway Road, Chilton (ecclesiastical Parish of Ferryhill St Luke’s 1881 census)
Trimdon Village (ecclesiastical Parish of St Mary Magdalene 1901 census)
13 South View, Trimdon Grange (ecclesiastical Parish of St Alban’s 1911 census)
Hay Street, Oakey Park, Lithgow, New South Wales (NSW), Australia (1915 attestation papers)
Gipp Street, Kiama, NSW (1930 electoral roll)
Terralong Street, Kiama, NSW (1935 electoral roll)
13 Porter Street, Keira, NSW (1949-54 electoral rolls)

Employment: Quarryman; stone worker in coal mines

Family: Parents: Thomas Leggett (1856-1937), Mary Leggett (nee Carlick 1853-1921)
Siblings: Martha Emma Leggett (1873- 1953), Alfred Leggett (1875-1952), Mary Ellen Leggett (1877-1912), Mark Walter Leggett (1883-1965), Rose Leggett (b1891)
Wife: Esther Leggett (nee Thompson 1876-1954)
Children: John Thomas Leggett (1900-1926), Benjamin Leggett (1903-1968), Esther Leggett (1910-1995)

Military service:

Service Number 5148
Private
1st Battalion, AIF
Enlisted 03-Dec-1915 in Kiama, NSW

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Gender: Male

Contributed by Kelloe Visitor, Trimdon Station