GEORGE BENSLY IVESON
One day during 1835 at Hull in Yorkshire, John Henry, the father of George Bensly, was born to Thomas and Dorothy Iveson. In the 1850s John Henry left home to join the Royal Navy, and though he wouldn't have realised it at the time, he began an association with Portsmouth that would last the rest of his life.
On the 14th June 1859 John Henry Iveson married the 21 year old Lucy Taylor at St. Mary's Church, Fratton Road. Although Lucy had been born at Great Yarmouth, her parents Benjamin and Lucy Taylor had brought her to Portsmouth in the 1850s and it was in their household at 79 Grosvenor Street, Southsea that John Henry and Lucy lived for the first years of their marriage.
John Henry left the navy in the 1860s to become a cork cutter (later storehouseman) at Portsmouth Dockyard and by 1871 he and Lucy were living at 78 Grigg Street with the first five of their children, Henry jnr. (b. 1863), Benjamin (b. 1863), Thomas (b. 1866), Frederick (b. 1868) and Evelagh (b. 1870). Over the succeeding years the family lived at 5 Jersey Road (1881 census), 182 Clive Road (1891 census) and 52 Pitcroft Road, North End (1901 and 1911 censuses). During this time four more children were born, Richard (in 1873), Arthur in 1876, Hubert in 1878 and George Bensly in 1883.
In 1911 George was a 28 year old grocer's assistant, probably with few prospects, still living at home. So when the Great War was declared three years later he may have seized the opportunity for a new experience. It's not known exactly when he enlisted in the army but when he did so he joined the Hampshire Regiment and at some later stage transferred to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He probably fought in the Battles of the Somme and the Third Battle of Ypres and was then killed in action in August 1917.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) lists George Bensly Iveson, Private (260156), 6th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, died on 22/08/1917, age 35. Commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial, (Panel 80 to 82 and 163A.). Son of John Henry Iveson, of 52, Pitcroft Rd., Portsmouth, and the late Lucy Iveson.
George Iveson is commemorated on the Cenotaph in Guildhall Square. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War', Section X.
Tim Backhouse
February 2015