Story
Frederick Albert Bennett, from Poole, was an assistant to an outfitter when he attested on 20 September 1916 one month short of his 18th birthday. He was mobilised on 28 February 1917 to serve as a Private with the 13th Devons. He later transferred to the Surreys in June of 1917, then on to the Cameron Highlanders that October and finally to the RAMC on 13 February 1918 where his regimental number was 137889. Demobbed on 8 November 1919, he had, serving for 3 years and 50 days (of which 2 years and 254 days were marked 'at home'). His medical category was initially given as B2 – which meant he was fit to serve in France or in the tropics – though later listed as B1. The latter examination took place in August 1918 in Manchester where his eyesight was tested and he was found to have "high myopia (short-sightedness) in his right eye. His left eye vision was normal. He stood 5ft 3ins and had a 32-inch chest. He named his next of kin as his father, Fred Bennett of the same address of Small Holdings, Darbys Lane, Oakdale. His address was also listed as 8 Darbys Lane, Longfleet. Frederick"s dad, Fred Bennett, had been born in Parkstone but had moved away, married and started a family. He had wed Bessie Amelia Snelling, who was born in Wells, Somerset, in Bristol in the spring of 1897. They had 10 children but, sadly, three of them died young. The family clearly moved around. Frederick Albert was their oldest child and was born in Bristol on 26 September 1898. Their next, Sidney, who came along two years later, was also born in Bristol but the family then uprooted and moved to Ilford, Essex. They lived in four rooms in Bessborough Road and dad, Fred, was working as a bricklayer. He was still in the trade 10 years later. Their other surviving children at the time of the 1911 census were Alfred (then nine and born in Ilford), Wilfred, four, Violet, three, and Ethel, two, were all born in Hanwell, Middlesex and a six-month-old baby called Harry who was born in Poole. The children who had died – Walter, Charly and Winifred – were erroneously listed on the 1911 census form, crossed out and marked, bluntly, as 'Dead'. Frederick was listed on the register of electors for 1918 1919 and 1921, living at the Small Holdings, Darby's Lane address, along with his mum and dad and brother Sidney, who also served in the Army during the First World War. Frederick had married Florence Almira Jessie Ferry in Bridport in 1924. It is believed they had two children. (In the 1930 local Kelly's directory, a Frederick Bennett is still living at 8 Darby's Lane, Longfleet. Was that the former soldier or his dad, Fred? Although still there at Number 8 in 1937, by 1944 a Frederick Bennett is listed as living at Number 88.) In 1939, the Register of England and Wales records Frederick, a journeyman carpenter, and Florence, a housewife, as living at Oakleigh, in Creekmoor Lane, Poole. Frederick A Bennett's address was still Oakleigh, 73 Creekmoor Lane, Poole at the time of his death on 10 July 1962. He was 63. (His father, it seems, outlived him by four years.) Probate was granted to his wife and he left effects to the value of £2,992 16s 5d. Florence, born in Burton Bradstock on 9 August 1903 and the daughter of a Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy, died in 1976 at the age of 73. * Please contact us if you wish to suggest an amendment or have additional information.
Subdivision
- Royal Army Medical Corps