A CANDLE will be lit at Askam War Memorial this evening, Monday, September 26, to mark 100 years since the death of Private Arthur Benn.

The light will be placed in his memory at 6pm by a representative of Askam and Ireleth History Group, which has been remembering each of the men named on the memorial exactly a century after they were killed in the First World War.

Arthur Benn, aged 25, served with the Irish Guards and is buried at St Sever Cemetery, Rouen.

His wife Margaret lived at 12 Greenhaume, near Askam brickworks, and he was the son of George and the late Mary Benn of 31 Adelaide Street, Barrow.

Private Benn died of wounds at No. 12 General Hospital in Rouen and had suffered serious head wounds.

It is likely he was injured in the fighting for Les Boeuf during the battle of the Somme.

News of his death came as his wife was a patient at High Carley Sanatorium suffering from the respiratory condition TB.

She died one year later on September 7 in 1917.

Pte Benn joined the Irish Guards in July 1915 and went to France in December.

He had been PC 120 with the Halifax Borough Police before joining the army.

As a youth, he worked for Mr Briscoe, a butcher of Market Street, Dalton and later for farmer James P Clarke.

In 1911 he was a caulker’s labourer with Vickers and left to join the Barrow Police Force.

About a fortnight before he died he wrote at letter home saying they were making ready for the “Big Push” on the Somme and that he trusted God to come out safely.

Also killed a century ago today was L/Cpl Frederick Eli Temp, from Haverigg, who served under the name of Travers.

He was the son of Tyson and Amelia Temp, of 64 Cains Cottages, Haverigg.

L/Cpl Temp was aged 24 and served with the 13 th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry.

He has no known grave and is named on the Vimy Memorial.