Chapter XVI 



Captain the Rev. William Benton—" Doing a Bunk "—He Enlists— Fights a 

 Corporal — Deserts — Joins Australian Artillery — Becomes Richard White 

 — On Robben Island — Cooks for the Lepers — A Mission of Help — Father 

 Engleheart's Work — Lives of the Lepers — A Court-Martial — The King's 

 Pardon — Ordained — First Curacy — " Beer and Baccy Free " — In the 

 Slums — Boxing Classes — At the Wash-Tub — A Poor Church Collection — 

 South Africa Again — An Encounter with a Madman — Return to England — 

 An Anonymous Letter — A Moving Sermon — Becomes Chaplain in France — 

 An Act of Vengeance — Mr. Benton Cooks for the Soldiers — Doctors at Work 

 — Ordered to Bed — Mr. Benton becomes a Combatant — As Sniping Officer 

 Wounded — Impressive Services — Wounded Again — Home on Leave — 

 Scouting and Scouting Officer — Dressed as an Old Woman — A Woman Spy 

 — With Refractory Soldiers — A Long Good-bye — Wounded once More — 

 Unconscious in Shell-Hole — Leg Amputated — The End. 



I DOUBT if this great war has ended any more remarkable 

 and valuable life than that of Captain the Rev. William 

 Richard Benton, who fell in the battle of the Somme in 

 August, 1916. He was a man of many parts, his whole life a 

 big adventure, a real and living romance. 



As a boy he was undoubtedly a scallawag, and scallawags 

 are usually the most lovable members of a family ; we love them 

 much better than " the good young man who died." 



Captain Benton's parents lived at Heme Bay, in Kent. His 

 father, Thomas Mansford Benton, was a stockbroker and must 

 have been sorely tried by his son, who was an emotional, 

 headstrong youth, resenting any form of discipline, and, to 

 impress this upon the minds of his parents, ran away from school 

 three times. He always enjoyed what he called " doing a 

 bunk." Twice he was sent back in ignominy, but the third time 

 it was considered wasted energy. 



At the age of ten he ran away from home and sold his play- 

 box to get money to buy food. He was by way of being edu- 

 cated at Framlingham College. When he was seventeen his 

 father died and he came into a small fortune. He chose stock- 

 broking as a profession, presumably because his father had been 

 a stockbroker, but of all the professions he could hardly have 



