Second Lieutenant John Martin BENSON (1910)

4th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, commanding 149th Trench Mortar Battery
Born 23 July 1891 in Airdrie, Scotland
Killed in action 27 May 1918, aged 26
Commemorated on the Soissons Memorial, Aisne, France; and on a family gravestone in New Monkland Cemetery, Strathclyde

John Benson was the son of John Benson and Jeanie Law Martin Benson of Marionville, Airdrie.

He was educated at Airdrie Academy, St Salvators in St Andrew’s and Fettes College – where he played cricket for the First XI – before matriculating at Merton in 1910. Whilst at Oxford he played cricket for the Oxford Freshmen.

He enlisted in the 9th (Glasgow Highlanders) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry in September 1914, and was gazetted to the 6th (City of Glasgow) Battalion in October of the following year.

Twice previously wounded, he was killed in action between Craonne and Pontavert on the Aisne, on 27 May 1918. The 4th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers virtually ceased to exist after the Battle of the Aisne, because so many fusiliers were killed, wounded or captured. His death was only confirmed in November 1918.