Private 21684 Oswald Evan Bennion
19th Bn, The King’s (Liverpool Regiment)

Oswald Evan Bennion was born in 1897, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Bennion of Berllan, Llanfyllin. His Battalion was attached to the 89th Brigade, a unit of the 30th Division which landed at Boulogne in November 1915.  In 1916 it was involved in the Somme offensive (July - November 1916) and distinguished itself during the Battle of Albert (July 1916) where it captured the town of Montauban and subsequently fought in Trones Wood and in the Battle of the Transloy Ridges.  Oswald Evan Bennion died during this offensive on Sunday 30th July 1916 aged 19; the youngest of the ten servicemen named on the Llanfechain War Memorial.  He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 1 D 8 B and 8 C) Somme, France. He is also remembered on the grave of his parents (grave 269) in the Llanfechain Church yard.

The Thiepval Memorial can be found on the D73, off the main Bapaume to Albert road (D929). It bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before March 1918 and have no grave.  Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.  The memorial also serves as an Anglo French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial.