Name
Frederick George Bennett
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Frederick Bennett first enlisted at the age of 18 on 14th October 1907. A Gardener by trade he joined the 4th Bedfordshire’s and by January 1908 had been promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. On 1st February 1910 he was posted to the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment, and when War was declared in August 1914 he was serving with the 1st Battalion. The 1st Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment left for France, with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on 14th August 1914.
Frederick had been born at Abbots Langley in the winter of 1890. He was one of eleven children born to Charles and Anne Marie Bennett. The family lived at Garden Road, Abbots Langley, Charles had been employed as a Gate Porter and then as a Night Porter at the Asyslum since before the 1901 Census. By the time of the 1911 Census he had retired. Frederick had five brothers and six sisters, and two of his brothers served during the Great War.
He was first recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in November 1914, serving with the Bedfordshire’s, and was reported as wounded in April 1915, whilst serving with the 1st Bedfordshire’s. There must have been some delay in receiving this information, as Frederick’s Service Record indicated that he had been evacuated back to England on 21st January, suffering with a slight gun-shot wound to the head. The War Diary of the 1st Bedfordshire’s recorded that the battalion occupied trenches near Wulvegem, south of Ypres, and between 13th and 16th January 1915 suffered a trickle of casualties from rifle fire and shrapnel. After a period in England and a period with the 3rd Bedfordshire Depot from the 1st May 1915, Frederick was posted to 5th Bedfordshire’s on 6th November 1915.
The Bedfordshire Regiment Web Site (Steve Fuller) noted that the 1st Bedfordshire’s had left Devonport on the 26th July 1915, bound for “somewhere out East”. After a brief stop-over in Egypt it disembarked at Gallipoli, and served there from 10th August to 4th December, at which point it they returned to Egypt. The battalion suffered many casualties and was rebuilt whilst in Egypt between January and March 1916. It is likely that Frederick joined up with the Battalion at this point, and missed the carnage of Gallipoli. The Bedford’s then guarded the Suez Canal until early 1917, and then, on 3rd February 1918, Frederick was transferred to the Royal Engineers and for the rest of the War served with the 8th Field Survey Company. He was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal on 27th March 1918, and after returning to the UK on 30th March 1919 was promoted again, this time to the rank of Corporal. Frederick was Discharged on Termination of Engagement having served for eleven years and two hundred and eight days and shown “exemplary military character”, and was demobilised on 13th October 1919 to 25 Old Lane, Colchester.
Frederick and his two brothers, Albert and Charles all survived the War.
Additional Information
Formerly 1st, 3rd & 5th Battalions Bedfordshire Regiment
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
