Sydney Garner Bennett (1888 - 1916)
First World War Roll of Honour
Sydney Garner Bennett was born in 1888 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, the only son of Henry and Mary Bennett. His father served as a Primitive Methodist Minister at various churches in Suffolk and Norfolk and he was stationed at Cambridge for four years. During this time, Sydney was educated at the East Anglian School, Bury St. Edmunds, and the Higher Grade School, Cambridge. Whilst teaching at Springfield School, Ipswich, he gained a scholarship, and passed on to Downing College in 1907. According to his obituary in The Griffin, he played cricket for the College and also for Suffolk, and was also a member of the Association Football team (pictured below). On leaving Downing, he secured a teaching position in Egypt.
After war broke out he returned home to volunteer for military service and received his commission mid-1915. He was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant with the Royal Fusiliers and later served with the 3rd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. He served several months in the trenches and was killed instantaneously in action by a shell on 20 July 1916.
Lieut. Bennett is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme (Pier and Face 1 C and 2 A).
Image:
Downing College Association Football Team, 1907-8 (DCPH/2/3/5/1) © Messrs Stearn/Lafayette Photography Ltd
Sources:
The Griffin, College Magazine, Michaelmas 1916.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission