Calgary Herald, October 1916

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Amos Dent, born in Matfen, Northumberland married Hexham born Elizabeth Ann Pearson in April 1896 and their only child Melvin Wallace Pearson Dent was born on 3rd July 1898 and baptised in Hexham two weeks later. Amos was an agricultural labourer or groom and by 1901 the family were living in Middle Street, Corbridge.

March 1911 saw Amos arriving in Canada, bound for Calgary, Alberta and job as a farm steward; Elizabeth and fourteen-year-old Melvin followed in September of the same year, and the family eventually settled on 13th Avenue West in Calgary.

On 24th April 1915 Melvin enlisted n the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Calgary and instead of a warehouseman became Private 435550 in the 50th Battalion, a week later his father also enlisted as Private 435216 in the same Battalion. Father and son sailed for England in September 1915 and a posting to camp at West Sandling, Kent.

The start of 1916 saw Melvin transferred to the 49th Battalion serving in France, but on arrival he spent two months attached to the Canadian Railway Construction Company. Back with his Battalion he would have been with them in the front line at the Battle for Mount Sorrel in June and then onto the Somme. His Circumstances of Death card states that Private Melvin Dent was “instantly killed by shell fire in trenches near Courcelette” on 9th October 1916.

Amos was discharged from the CEF as medically unfit and returned to Canada in December 1916.

Melvin Dent is remembered in Hexham on H51.03, H51.06, H51.26 and H51.51

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Dent