With the help of the Portsmouth section of the National Roll of the Great War, I have identified another Portsmouth family – the Dennis family from 53 Amelia Street, Landport – who lost three men between 1914 and 1917.
Sergeant John Dennis, aged 24 and of the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, was a regular soldier who according to the National Roll had joined the Army in 1906. He was killed on 25 August 1916. He has no known grave, and is remembered on the Loos Memorial.
Corporal Arthur Dennis, of the 15th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, volunteered in 1914. He served at Galipoli with the 2nd Hampshires, and then in France. He was killed on 5 August 1917. He has no known grave, and is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. Neither the Commonweath War Graves nor the National roll record his age. However records show that an Arthur Dennis was born in Portsmouth between January and March 1895, which would make him 22 at the time of his death.
Private J. Dennis, of the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment, joined the Army in July 1917. Aged 19, he was killed on 28 August 1918. He is buried in Assevilliers New British Cemetery, France.
Their ages certainly suggest that all three men were brothers, and that John and Sarah Dennis of Amelia Street, Landport lost three sons between 1916 and 1918.
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