Denzil was born on 1 August 1923 at 33 Priory Road, Hampstead, London to Jack (John) and Elizabeth (Betsy) nee Leveson and he had an older sister Helen and younger brother Montague. Their parents ran a boarding house at 158 Sutherland Avenue in Paddington and on 11 October 1940, Jack was killed during the Blitz. He was injured on 11 October 1940 and died the next day at Paddington Hospital.

Denzil enlisted early in the war. He was serving in the Netherlands when he went into woods near to Oosterbeek to destroy a German tank. He was badly wounded losing a leg and bought back to be evacuated. He was laid across the front of a jeep but as it pulled away the jeep received a direct hit from an enemy tank with all occupants killed. He has no grave and is remembered on his father’s grave at Willesden Jewish Cemetery.