Leicester Fosse & The First World War: Tommy Benfield
Almost exactly five years later, on 11 September, 1918, he was he shot by a sniper near Heudicourt, a location on the Western Front in the Somme area not far from Cambrai. He died eight days later on 19 September. Three weeks later the war ended.
Tommy played over 100 games for Leicester Fosse between 1910 and 1914. His goal at Highbury, in front of a 20,000 crowd was impressive. A contemporary report described how Benfield 'without wasting time, took deliberate aim and crashed the ball against the rigging - a brilliant shot that left Caldwell helpless'. To mark the centenary of this fixture, in September 2013, Arsenal’s chairman Sir Chips Keswick presented Leicester City with a framed memento.
In June 1914, Tommy transferred to Derby County. He continued to live in Leicester with his wife Elsie at 31 Woodland Road.
League Football was suspended in April 1915. Tommy, who had been a professional soldier in the Leicestershire Regiment until he joined Leicester Fosse in 1910, guested for the Fosse in wartime regional football, mainly in 1915/16.
His last game for the Fosse was in March 1918. By this time he was serving as a sergeant in the 6th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment.
His last days can be pieced together by studying the Battalion’s handwritten War Diary and Intelligence Summary, held at the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Office.
Following an attack at Beaulencourt, near Bapaume, on 1 September, the Battalion held their newly gained position until being relieved for a day’s rest south of the Beaulencourt-Villers road.
On 6 and 7 September the Battalion moved to a wood 1,600 yards north-west of Etricourt-Manancourt and bivouacked there, before setting off at 4am on the 8 September to relieve the 1st Lincolns at Equancourt. By 9pm, they had established the Battalion HQ 500 yards north of Heudicourt.
On 11 September, the day that Tommy was shot, parts of his Battalion moved to front line positions east of Heudicourt. At some stage, Tommy was hit by a sniper.
During the eight days that Tommy was dying, his Battalion relieved the 7th Leicesters on the front line on 12 September and suffered an enemy attack on 13 September, before being relieved from the front line on 15 September. When Tommy died on 19 September, his battalion had been moved back to billets at Etricourt-Manancourt for a five-day rest.
Tommy’s obituary in the Leicester Daily Post described him as 'a cheery and genial personality who was always popular with the crowd. Besides being a first class forward he was also a reliable half-back'.
In October 2014, a party from Leicester City Football Club paid their respects at Tommy’s grave at the Varennes Military Cemetery.