Captain Benjamin Harold Rayner received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in November 2014 at the age of 28, joining the North Staffordshire Regiment. Were it not for the war, he would have pursued his career as a schoolmaster. He spent the first years of the war training younger enlisted men first at Okehampton, Devon, then Darlington and finally Rugeley Camp, Cannock Chase. 

While still at Okehampton, Benjamin married his sweetheart, Elizabeth Houlding. She was some 5 years younger than he was, but they had been courting for some time. They were both from Preston and their families knew each other. Benjamin's father was a Departmental Manager at Hawkin's Mill and Elizabeth's father was the mill cashier.

Elizabeth travelled across country by train whenever she could to spend time with Benjamin. It was on one of these trips in February 2017 that my mother was conceived.

Sadly for Benjamin, he left soon after for the front. I would like to believe that he knew Elizabeth was pregnant, but his letters home from the front have not survived. By this time he was a Captain.

In June 1917 he was at Messines and took part in the attack on Messines Ridge, leading A comany of the North Staffs. It was while rallying his men for a further attack that he was fatally struck by a bomb. His body was never recovered. 

My mother, Moira Houlding Rayner, was born on the 5th November 1917. Benjamin's Wife, my grandmother, never remarried, staying loyal, as she said, to her first and only love. 

Jonathan James