Stephen was born in Isleworth, Middlesex on 8th January 1885, the eldest of the eight children of Stephen Lancaster Benn (a farmer) and Annie Benn, of The Homestead Farm, Isleworth.
On 16th August 1908 he married Mary Ellen Chilton and they lived at 14 Station Road, Hounslow, Middlesex. They had four children, George Stephen (born in 1909), Maude Elizabeth (born in 1910), Herbert Alexander (born in 1913, died in 1915) and *Stephen Thomas (born in 1915).
He enlisted at Hounslow, Middlesex and went to Egypt on 24th August 1915 and from there to France. Stephen died on 6th October 1916, aged 31, while returning from trenches in the Lesboeufs area.
Serjeant, TF/3474, Stephen Lancaster Benn, 1st/8th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, has no known grave and is commemorated on Pier & Face 12D of the Thiepval Memorial in France.
*His youngest son Lance Bombardier Stephen Thomas Benn, 1727393, 2 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, died of malnutrition on 16th December 1942, aged 27, while a prisoner-of-war. He is buried in grave 8.J.33 in Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in Thailand.
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