Name
Albert Ernest Bennett
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Royal Fusiliers
17th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Albert Bennett was born in 1899 at Abbots Langley. He was one of eleven children born to Charles and Anne Marie Bennett of Garden Road, Abbots Langley. The couple had five daughters and six sons. Three sons, Albert, Frederick and Charles served in the Great War. Charles (senior) had been employed as a Night Porter working at the Asylum, but by 1911 had retired..
The National Roll of the Great War recorded that Albert volunteered in 1915, and later that year was drafted to the Western Front, where he took part in heavy fighting at Hill 60, Arras, Cambrai, St Quentin and on the Somme, and was wounded three times.
He was recorded for the first time in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour in December 1916, serving with the 3rd Bedfordshire’s, and was recorded with the same battalion through to the end of the War. It is unlikely that Albert would have served throughout the War with the same unit, and especially not with the 3rd Bedfordshire’s, as that battalion was based in the UK for the duration of the War, and was used to receive and train men before passing them on to battalions serving at the Front. It is more likely that his record in the Roll of Honour was not updated by family or friends throughout the War. It is probable that he volunteered in 1915, and joined the 3rd Bedfordshire’s later. Then when in France was posted to the 17th Royal Fusiliers. Albert’s Service and Pension Records have not survived, so it has not been possible to discover more about when and where he was wounded.
He was demobilised in January 1919 to 8 Garden Road, and survived the War. His brothers Charles and Frederick also survived the War.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
