Pte 30916 Claud Fennell Dennis

• Age: 28
• From: Birmingham
• Regiment: 1 GN MANCHESTER
• Died on Tuesday 16th July 1918
• Commemorated at: Bebington
  Panel Ref: 1.C of E.471

Claud Fennell Dennis was born in late 1889 in Birmingham, but baptised in St. Peter, Rock Ferry, Cheshire, on 28^th December 1890.

His parents William Richardson Dennis and Jane Fennell married in 1888 in Birkenhead.  William was born in Liverpool, and Jane in Tranmere.  Claud was their only child.

In 1891 the family is living at 178 Grange Road, Birkenhead.  His father is a grocer. Claud is 1;  also in the household his uncle Ernest Dennis, and a domestic servant.  

In 1901 they are living at 154 Chester Street, Birkenhead.  His father is a master grocer, own account. Claud is 11.  His father died in 1908, aged 40.

In 1911 Claud is living with his widowed maternal grandmother, Susan Fennell, at 5 Medway Road, Rock Ferry. He is 21, single, and employed as a grocer’s assistant. His widowed mother is working as a temporary assistant cook, resident in the household of Joseph Battersby Duckworth, cotton merchant, in ‘The Heyes’, Eastham, near Birkenhead.

Claud enlisted in Liverpool on 04^th January 1915, in the 18^th (Pals) Bn, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, as Private 24578, giving his age as 25 years and 2 months, and his occupation as clerk.  He is described as being  5’6” tall and weighing 123 lbs, with an appendicitis scar.  He gives his address as 5 Medway Road, Rock Ferry, Cheshire.

Claud was transferred to the 21^st Reserve Battalion and then subsequently transferred to 1^st Garrison Bn, Manchester Regiment on 7^th October 1915.  He was passed for garrison duty because of flat feet and loss of a kidney. He was not fit for service at the front, but was able to serve on garrison duty somewhere in the Empire, replacing a trained and experienced soldier for service at the front.

Claud embarked for India on 25^th February 1916.   He was appointed Paid Lance Corporal on 20^th March 1916.  His grandmother died the same month.  His conduct sheet shows disciplinary infractions whilst at Allahabad, on 28^th July 1916, he was severely reprimanded for ‘being drunk and creating a disturbance in the barrack room’, and on 28^th January 1917 he was reverted to Private for ‘highly improper conduct as an NCO’.

Details of his service was reported in the Birkenhead News on 17th November 1917:

Lance-Corporal Claud Dennis

Lacnce Corporal Claud Dennis is the only son of Mrs Dennis, 5 Medway-road, Rock Ferry. He joined the Liverpool "Pals" in January 1915 and after twelve months at Knowsley was drafted to India and has been there 20 months. In private life he was with Messrs. Williams Bros. nine years and later commercial traveller for Messrs. Shaw Bros. Berry Street, Liverpool.   

He reported sick in about July 1917 ‘while in the hills’ with chest pain and cough.  After over two years in India, Claud was invalided to England from hospital in Fyzabad.  He left India on 29^th March 1918, and arrived in the UK on 24^th April. Claud was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, (on Southampton Water in Hampshire) with ‘tubercle of lung’.  His medical record notes that his  kidney had been removed five years ago (from T.B.), he had lost three stone in weight, had a fever, and continued to decline.  By July he was emaciated, had marked enteritis, and was taking very little nourishment.  His next of kin was notified. On 12^th July his medical record states, ‘going downhill fast’, pulse feeble and rapid.  On 14^th July his condition was worse, his pulse barely felt.  Claud died at 6 p.m. on 16th July 1918.  His next of kin was notified.  He was 28 years old.  

Soldiers Effects and Pension to his mother Jane.

Birkenhead News 20th July 1918

DENNIS - July 16th, at Netley Hospital, of illness contracted on active service, Claud F., the dearly loved only son of Mrs Dennis, Rock Ferry. Military funeral, Bebington, Monday 2:30.

I deemed him mine

But he is Thine,

And He Who gives must take.

-  His sorrowing mother. 

DENNIS - July 16th, at Netley Hospital, Pte Claud Dennis, the most devoted and dearly loved fiance of A. M. Woodcock. (Only those who have loved and lost know the meaning of the word "Gone." - His heartbroken Fiance.

His body was returned home and buried in Bebington Cemetery in Cheshire where he now rests.

There are 150 First World War burials in the Cemetery.

Claud is commemorated on Birkenhead Civic Memorial, St. Peter’s C of E Church, Rock Ferry.

CWGC records his next of kin as: Son of Mrs. Jane Dennis, of 5 Medway Road, Rock Ferry, Cheshire.

We currently have no further information on Claude Fennell Dennis. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

Grateful thanks are extended to Joe Devereux for his permission to use the photograph now shon on this site.