Army
Swain, Ben
Ben Swain
Rank: Rifleman
Regiment: 1st Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps
Parents: Mr & Mrs G Z Swain
Address: 41 Githa Road, Clive Vale, Hastings
Other Info: Ben Swain died aged 21 on 25th December 1920. According to the information here, he died of an accidental gunshot wound. He is buried at Hastings Cemetery. Ben is not named on Hastings or Ore War Memorials.
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person, or provide details through the ‘Add a Serviceman’ form found here.
2 COMMENTS
The Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 8 January 1921, page 7, has some details on this man plus a detailed description of his military funeral and a list of some attendees and a list of the wreaths.
It says that he had joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps “a few months back. Subsequent to his serving in France he was sent to Ireland. On December 24th, while at Bally Kindley, a comrade was cleaning his revolver, when it accidentally discharged, and Swain was shot through the stomach. He was immediately taken to the hospital and operated on, but died two days later.” According to a family tree on Ancestry he died at Downpatrick, county Down.
The notice gives his father as G. Swain, his brother as Fred Swain, and his fiancee as Ruby Camps.
His medal card for the Victory and British medals show his service number as 63682, the Queen’s [West Surrey] Regiment; then 102610, Notts and Derby Regiment, and then 49522, King’s Royal Rifle Regiment.
The 1911 census entry for 41 Githa Road shows it to be a 5-roomed dwelling. His father was George Zebulon Swain, 56, a general labourer for the borough council, born Hastings. His mother was Mary Ann, 54, born Smarden, Kent. They are recorded as having had 12 children of which 7 were still alive. Brother Edwin, 19, was a baker. Ben was age 12, at school, like his brother born Hastings.
The parents had married 29 September 1878, All Saints Hastings. Mary Ann’s surname was Law.
The fiancee, Ruby Camps, was born in about 1898, Tottenham, Middlesex, son of George, a bus conductor. She married in 1922, Hastings, Albert John Snashall. They were voters at 91 Marina, St Leonards on Sea, Sussex, in the 1929 Electoral Register. She died in 1998 in Portsmouth.
Thanks Stephen. I suspect I have photographs of his brothers on this site, but can’t match them as the address information is different, although the names match. Kieron