Many of you may recognise local resident Tony Benham as the organiser of Remembrance Sunday ceremonies and Wally from Yaşam İçin Yarış (Race For Life Turkey) – well you may not recognise him dressed as Wally!
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Where’s Wally? – Tony ready for Yaşam İçin Yarış (Race For Life Turkey) 2019. Photo by Norman Clark.
This year, coronavirus pandemic allowing, Tony plans to take part in the Frontier Walk to raise money for ABF The Soldier’s Charity.
Fethiye Times met with Tony to find out more.
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Fethiye Times meeting with Tony at Nefes Breakfast Salon
A bit about Tony
“My name is Tony Benham and I am a retired Firefighter now residing with my wife, Sonia, and 15-year-old daughter in Ovacık. We have owned property here for 16 years and moved out here in 2016.
In 2018, I inaugurated the first Remembrance Sunday here in Ovacık.
I had always attended the ceremonies in the UK, from being a flag bearer as a Cub Scout, to taking my daughter as a babe in arms.
2018 was a massively significant year as it was the centenary of the start of The Great War.
I was given permission to hold a ceremony by the local Mayor and advertised it locally. The response was very good and people asked if it would become an annual event.
We held a second ceremony last year, which coincided with the anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürks. Our ceremony was a remembrance of both occasions and was attended by British and Turkish people standing shoulder to shoulder.
I have been interested in the World Wars since studying the subject to GCSE level at school, helped by a very passionate and knowledgeable teacher.
My father also had a passion for the subject and built a cabinet for the purpose of displaying family war medals.
When I joined the Fire Service in 1985, I found myself working alongside many ex-servicemen, who were drawn to the disciplined environment, similar to what they had been used to during their time in the services.”
How did I get involved with the Frontline Walk?
“I lost my Father in 2014 and inherited the box of medals and some of the paperwork from his efforts to trace relatives from the World Wars.
Having also gone through a personally challenging couple of years between 2013-2015, including the death of my father, I wasn’t in a particularly good place.
And then, in 2015, I saw the “Frontline Walk” on Facebook.
I turned to my then girlfriend – now wife – and said, if I get through this, I’m going to sign up for this walk”
And that’s what Tony did.
This was in the October of 2015. Tony walked it again in 2017 and 2018.
What is The Frontline Walk?
ABF The Soldiers’ Charity is the national charity of the British Army, providing a lifetime of support to soldiers, veterans and their immediate families when they are in need. The Army Benevolent Fund (ABF) was founded in 1944 to ensure that soldiers returning from World War Two were well cared for. Since then, the welfare of soldiers, past and present, and their families has been at the heart of everything the charity does.
The Frontline Walk is a sponsored trek following in the footsteps of those who fought in WWI or WWII whilst supporting the soldiers and veterans of today.
Covering 100km of the Western Front, the Walk starts at Lochnagar Crater, the location of the start of the Battle of the Somme, and finishes at the Menin Gate, with the Ceremony of the Last Post.
Click here to see the full itinerary for the Western Front route.
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Tony with Barney who stood on an IED in Afghanistan. He was given a hand up by the charity and is now an ambassador for them. Photograph taken at the Ulster Tower.
Click here to read Barney’s story.
More than just a walk
Tony talks about his experience of the walk.
“Back to back days of walking make it a fairly tough challenge. Your feet take a pounding, where you are, the purpose of the walk and the camaraderie carry you through.
The walk takes in memorials such as the Thiepval Memorial, the Ulster Tower, Vimy Ridge, Tyne Cot Cemetery and ends at the Menin Gate in Ypres, one of the most visited war memorials in Western Europe.
In 2018, there was one of many emotional moments when I found my great uncle George Charles Benham remembered on the Arras Memorial. He was in the 2nd/10th London (Hackney) Regiment.
The memorial commemorates 35,942 soldiers of the forces of the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand, with no known grave, who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918.”
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Tony (centre) and two ex-service pals from Northern Ireland, about to lay wreaths at The Menin Gate.
” I was able to lay a wreath, both at the memorial in Arras where he is named, and at the Menin gate on the last evening of the walk, a truly humbling and very emotional experience. Indeed, the whole walk is a roller coaster of emotions.”
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An emotional moment as Tony (centre) and two ex-service pals from Northern Ireland, lay wreaths at The Menin Gate.
The Frontier Walk 2020
Tony plans to take part in this year’s walk which is scheduled to take place between 7-11 October. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is a question as to whether events of this type will be able to take place however, as an optimist, Tony is making plans and gathering sponsorship in the hope that the walk will go ahead.
If it is rescheduled, Tony plans to carry over any sponsor money raised and complete the walk next year.
How to sponsor Tony
If you would like to help Tony raise money for this great cause by sponsoring him, please click on the official link below.
Anthony Benham – Fundraising for The Front-line Walk 2020
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