Rfn
James Gordon Bennett
Information about birth
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Date of birth: 00/03/1885 |
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Place of birth: Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom |
General information
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Last known residence: 54 Mount Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom |
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Profession: Mail Carrier - Postman |
Army information
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Country: England, United Kingdom |
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Force: British Expeditionary Force |
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Rank: Rifleman |
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Service number: 372469 |
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Enlistment place: London (City), Middlesex, England, United Kingdom |
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Units: — London Regiment, 2/8th Bn. (Post Office Rifles) (Last known unit) |
Information about death
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Date of death: 20/09/1917 |
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Place of death: Hübner Farm, Langemarck, Belgium |
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Cause of death: Killed in action (K.I.A.) |
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Age: 32 |
Memorial
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Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial Panel: 54AA |
Distinctions and medals 2
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British War Medal Medal |
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Victory Medal Medal |
Points of interest 4
| #1 | Place of birth | ||
| #2 | Last known residence | ||
| #3 | Enlistment place | ||
| #4 | Place of death (approximate) |
My story
James Gordon Bennett, born in 1885 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, had married Emily Hancock in 1907 and was the father of three daughters May, Dorothy and Joan. By 1911, the family was living in Sheffield, Yorkshire, where James worked as a postman. During the war, James was taken on by the 2/8th Battalion of the London Regiment, known as the Post Office Rifles, part of the 174th Brigade in the 58th Division.
In August 1917 the Post Office Rifles moved to Belgium, where they were to be engaged at the Battle of Passchendaele. In September they held a shell-hole outpost line near Alberta just north of the ruins of St. Julien. In the night of the 19th-20th September the battalion assembled on a taped line for the attack on the Wurst Farm Ridge, east of St. Julien. Several attempts to capture the ridge had already failed, with only casualties to show for it. The difficulties were increased by the wretched state of the terrain. The Steenbeek stream, and its irrigation canals in front of the German positions, had become a wide swamp due to incessant shelling. The landscape was honeycombed with waterlogged shell holes, with only one duckboard path leading to the starting position. Beyond the duckboard path in no man's land lay a sodden plain, every inch of which had been ploughed over by shells. The attack on 20 September began at 05.40. Instead of a frontal assault on the entire ridge, the 2/8th London Regiment penetrated the north side of the ridge, where they concentrated their attack on three German strongholds: Marine View, Genoa Farm and the strongly fortified position of Hübner Farm. Once these fell, the German front line on the north side of the ridge gave way and other battalions were able to roll up the defences on the ridge and eventually capture Wurst Farm on the south side.
Although the Post Office Rifles reached their objectives, casualties were high. More than half the battalion became casualties. 430 men went into action, of whom 100 were killed and 138 wounded. James Gordon Bennett, aged 32, fell on 20 September 1917. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate.
In August 1917 the Post Office Rifles moved to Belgium, where they were to be engaged at the Battle of Passchendaele. In September they held a shell-hole outpost line near Alberta just north of the ruins of St. Julien. In the night of the 19th-20th September the battalion assembled on a taped line for the attack on the Wurst Farm Ridge, east of St. Julien. Several attempts to capture the ridge had already failed, with only casualties to show for it. The difficulties were increased by the wretched state of the terrain. The Steenbeek stream, and its irrigation canals in front of the German positions, had become a wide swamp due to incessant shelling. The landscape was honeycombed with waterlogged shell holes, with only one duckboard path leading to the starting position. Beyond the duckboard path in no man's land lay a sodden plain, every inch of which had been ploughed over by shells. The attack on 20 September began at 05.40. Instead of a frontal assault on the entire ridge, the 2/8th London Regiment penetrated the north side of the ridge, where they concentrated their attack on three German strongholds: Marine View, Genoa Farm and the strongly fortified position of Hübner Farm. Once these fell, the German front line on the north side of the ridge gave way and other battalions were able to roll up the defences on the ridge and eventually capture Wurst Farm on the south side.
Although the Post Office Rifles reached their objectives, casualties were high. More than half the battalion became casualties. 430 men went into action, of whom 100 were killed and 138 wounded. James Gordon Bennett, aged 32, fell on 20 September 1917. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate.
Sources 4
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2/8 Battalion London Regiment (The National Archives, Kew (TNA), British Army war diaries 1914-1922, WO 95/3006/3). https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Sources used |
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Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911 (The National Archives, Kew (TNA), RG14). https://www.ancestry.com/ Sources used |
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McCarthy, Chris. Passchendaele: the Day-by-Day Account. (Londen: Unicorn Publishing Group, 2018) 84-85. Sources used |
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N.N. Post Office Rifles, 8th Battalion, City of London Regiment, 1914 to 1918, (Aldershot:Gale & Polden, Ltd. Wellington Works, 1919) 22-24. Sources used |
More information 3
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Commonwealth War Graves Commission Database https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/927470 |
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Namenlijst (In Flanders Fields Museum) https://namenlijst.org/publicsearch/#/person/_id=fa2dfd04-3e6f-4889-b84b-f87ad254f4a3 |
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Lives of the First World War (Imperial War Museum) https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/303537 |