The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (2373) Private John Bennett, 54th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (2373) Private John Bennett, 54th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

2373 Private John Bennett, 54th Battalion, AIF
KIA 15th May 1917
Story delivered 15 May 2018
Today we remember and pay tribute to Private John Bennett.

John Bennett was born in 1893 in Sofala, New South Wales, to Henry and Bridget Bennett. He grew up and attended school in Sofala and later worked as a miner – the area being known for gold. Standing just five-foot-three-inches tall, John had brown hair and blue eyes.

In May 1916, aged 23, Bennett enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and joined camp at Bathurst early the following month. One of the local papers mentioned Bennett and his good friend Alf Hyland making a “flying visit” home to Sofala just before heading off and wished them both “good luck and a safe return”.

Bennett was assigned to the 5th reinforcements to the 54th Battalion, and at the end of September he and his comrades embarked on the troop transport Aeneas. Bennett was laid low during the voyage, struck down by a case of the mumps.

Arriving in Plymouth, England, that November, Bennett trained with the 14th Training Battalion at Hurdcott in Wiltshire, and was sent over to France just before Christmas, joining the 54th Battalion on New Year’s Day 1917. The 54th was out of the front line at this time, but still close enough to hear the constant artillery fire from the front. The winter was cold, muddy, and miserable.

In early February the 54th Battalion went back to the front lines on the Somme and joined the fighting to take Bapaume. The Germans soon retreated to the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line, and the Australians caught up with them at a place called Bullecourt. Weeks of heavy fighting followed and in mid-May the 54th Battalion was sent into action to hold the hard-won trenches. One digger described it as “a hellish part of the line”.

In the early morning of 15 May the Germans made a last-ditch attempt to recapture part of line near Bullecourt. The 54th Battalion was directly in the path of the attack and was subjected to intense artillery bombardment. With the help of men from the neighbouring London Regiment, the Australians managed to repulse the Germans, but at considerable cost. The 54th suffered almost 300 casualties in just a few hours’ desperate fighting. One of those killed was John Bennett.

His mate Alf Hyland wrote home to the Bennetts to relate how he had died. With a bullet to the head, “poor little Jack’s” death was “instantaneous”, and he was given a battlefield burial by another of his mates, Private Morgan. However, his remains were later lost or could not be identified, and his name is now listed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

Private Bennett’s death was reported in the local papers back home. He was the first from Sofala to fall in the war. This young man had left only a few months ago, “full of youthful courage”, and his death was a sad loss to the community. His good friend Vera Bright wrote wistfully on the first anniversary of his death: “Dear Jack, how much I miss you … Little we thought when we parted, it would be our last farewell.”

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private John Bennett, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meleah Hampton
Historian, Military History Unit