This is part of a series of essays about the First World War casualties commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Massachusetts.

William Bent was a tragic figure, whose war was not how he later made it out to be, and who took his own life some years after he returned home.

William Francis Bent was born on 27 July 1872 in West Hartford, Vermont, the youngest of the three children of Charles and Mary Bent.^[1] His father, a Civil War veteran, was a shoemaker but William Bent and his brother George were mechanically minded and both went to work in the early automobile industry. In 1892 his mother died of pneumonia and ten years later his father shot himself with his pistol. Continue reading →

This essay is about the single First World War casualty commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Utah.

Lawrence Manning served in France with 72^nd Canadian Infantry Battalion (Seaforth Highlanders of Canada), taking part in its final actions in late 1918. Greatly affected by his experiences, he took his own life after he returned to Utah after the war. Continue reading →