Tag Archives: Benger

One of my New Year resolutions was to fill in the gaps in my family tree! Quite a big resolution but with my Ancestry subscription I’m hoping it will be a fun task. This evening I thought I would start with George Benger (1838-1896), my paternal great-great grandfather.

For some reason I had only traced him through a handful of census returns – 1861, 1871 and 1891 were so far missing.

I found him in 1861 census under the name Robert Benger (and I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a brother of that name!).

At the age of 21 his occupation was recorded as ‘Musician Royal Marines’ and he was a visitor at the North Star Tavern, Alverstoke. The pub still exists but is currently known as the Coach and Horses.

Description Black and white group photograph showing a football team, one man holds a football which features the words RED 1895, beneath which is a silver cup.

Caption for picture My great-grandfather, George Benger (1876-1951) appears in the centre of the back row of this football team photograph.  In 1895 he was part of the winning team and won a silver shield in the Senior Cup which is now in my possession. The shield he was given is engraved with ‘Portsmouth Football Association’, his name, and the letters GRS. His occupation was a Plumber, he later worked for the Naval Ordnance, and was awarded the Imperial Service Medal for ‘Particular Meritorious Service’ in 1936.

Comments

I chose this photograph as it illustrates a different side to this relative, rather than the usual birth, marriage, death or occupation facts I have usually uncovered.