Woodworth, Benjamin R.

Born August 5, 1886, in Stockton, California. Son of Benjamin Russell and Ruth G. Woodworth. Home, Germantown, Pennsylvania. Educated Milton Academy, Milton, Massachusetts. Traffic Department, Pennsylvania Railroad, Philadelphia, 1905 to 1912. Lumbering, Maine woods. Joined American Field Service, May 31, 1915; attached Section One, to July 5, 1916. On leave in America to October. Rejoined Section One, October 21, 190.- Commandant Adjoint, March, 1917. Killed in aeroplane accident near Soissons, June 15, 1917. Croix de Guerre. Buried, Châlons-sur-Vesle. Marne.

ON leaving Milton Academy in 1905, Benjamin R. Woodworth made his residence in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad, traffic department, in Philadelphia. Here he remained until 1912, when, finding the confines of an office too irksome, he left for several seasons in the Maine woods. He spent some time at Cedar Swamp, West Sebois, Maine, following the woodsman's life in all its phases: lumberman, hunter, and guide. In the spring of 1915, drawn by the opportunity for action which the war offered, he enlisted in the American Field Service and joined Section One at Dunkirk in June.

It has meant much to any American who had any share in the life of France during those first years of the war, and how much more to anyone who served as a part of the French Army at the front. One of the members of Section One, writing in the "History of the American Field Service in France," has described an impression of those early days: "At our base, Dunkirk, we shared the life of a town under sporadic but devastating bombardment; still farther forward, in Ypres, we beheld a town bombarded from the face of the earth in a single night. There we shared no life, nor yet in Nieuport, for there was none to share."

Woodworth played no small part in the life and activities of the section. W. Yorke Stevenson, who succeeded him as leader of the section in June, 1917, wrote: "Absolutely fearless, of remarkable cheerfulness under the most unpleasant circumstances, a born leader, he made war for me almost seem pleasant. He met every disagreeable happening with a laugh and a shrug. A born athlete, he was always the first to make us, many of whom were distinctly lethargic, get busy. At times of repos, football, baseball and other sports kept us in condition and checked the 'growsing' and 'Benny' was the one that started all the games. In time of stress he made the most cowardly of us feel ashamed. Many a time I said to myself, 'Well, if that bird can do it I suppose we've got to. And above all his unfailing cheerfulness I shall never forget. Of all the bully crowd that I had the privilege of knowing he stands out alone. He needs no monument nor written words, all those who knew him can never forget 'Woody.'"

In July, 1916, having served for more than a year with the section, he returned to America. He spent some time in the vicinity of Boston and Philadelphia, getting in touch with old friends, and made a trip to the Pacific Coast to see his mother who resides in San Francisco. While there he was instrumental in collecting the money for an ambulance which he subsequently drove. He reenlisted in October and returned to France, rejoining his old section in the Argonne, and the following March he was appointed Chef while the section was en repos at Vadelaincourt, near Verdun.

His term of leadership was to be brief. Three months later, June 15, 1917, Woodworth was instantly killed while riding as a passenger in a French aeroplane. The accident occurred as he and Chatkoff, a pilot from an escadrille near Muizon where the section was quartered, were leaving the grounds of the Lafayette Escadrille not far from Soissons. One of his comrades wrote, a short time afterward: "Woody was buried Sunday morning, June 17th, with all military honors, in the little cemetery of the shattered church of Châlons-sur-Vesle, while the guns thundered. Every day some of the men coming back from twenty-four duty at the front line posts stop off a few moments at the little cemetery and we keep his grave covered with wild flowers plucked near the lines."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921