Pre enlistment studio portrait of 1602 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Allan Bennett, 32nd Battalion, of ...

Pre enlistment studio portrait of 1602 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Allan Bennett, 32nd Battalion, of Claremont, Western Australia. A business manager prior to enlisting in July 1915, Allan Bennett embarked from Adelaide with the 1st Reinforcements aboard HMAT Geelong (A2) on 18 November 1915. He was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal on 25 May 1916. L Cpl Bennett arrived in France for service on the Western Front on 23 June 1916 and was killed in action at Fleurbaix, France, on 20 July 1916. He was 31 years of age. After the war his grave could not be located and he was commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles, France. In 2008 a burial ground was located at nearby Pheasant Wood containing the bodies of 250 British and Australian soldiers including L Cpl Bennett. All of the remains were reburied in the newly created Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery. At the time of the official dedication of the new cemetery on 19 July 2010, ninety-six of the Australians, including L Cpl Bennett, had been identified through a combination of anthropological, archaeological, historical and DNA information. Work is continuing on identifying the other remains relocated from the burial ground and buried in the new cemetery as unknown soldiers. Two of L/Cpl Bennett's brothers also served, 1675 Private Henry Collier Bennett, Australian Army Medical Corps and Captain Harold Bruce Bennett, 51st Battalion. Both survived the war and returned to Australia.