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enclosing a well-preserved photograph of George's little sister. The soldier had found it on the Peninsula but did not know who it belonged to. As it had Mrs Knowles address on the back he had felt it his duty to return it to her. George had carried this photograph with him. The family later moved to Pontardawe, Glamorgan.
Private Benjamin Alec Lane
South Wales Borderers, 4th Battalion, C Coy, service no.
27502
Killed in action in Mesopotamia on February 14th, 1917
Buried at Al Basrah, Iraq. Commemorated in the Basrah
Memorial
Benjamin was born in Kempley, Gloucestershire in about 1877, a son of Allen and Elizabeth Lane. His father was an agricultural labourer and his mother a tailoress. He was the youngest of seven children. The family lived in Gloucestershire for many years but in 1896 Allen died. Benjamin worked as a farm servant and later cowman living at home in Gloucestershire with his widowed mother.
In 1912 Benjamin marries Rosina Sleeman. Rosina was born in Cornwall but in 1911 was working as a nurse domestic at the Vicarage in Kempley They had two children, a daughter Mary born in 1913 in Gloucestershire and then a son John born in 1916 in Brecon. They were living at Penoyre at the time of Benjamin's death. Their daughter Mary continued to live in Brecon.
Benjamin enlisted in Brecon and seems to have spent some time at the depot in Brecon before going to fight in Mesopotamia with the Borderers as part of the 13th Western Division.