Next of kin: Edward Meredith Bennett (father), Gibson Street, Wellington
Date of enlistment: 31 July 1917
Place of enlistment: Orange
Age at enlistment: 21
Fate: Embarked HMAT A14 "Euripides", Sydney, 31 October 1917. Killed in action, France 1 September 1918.
Date of death: 1 September 1918
Buried: Fenillers Military Cemetery near Peronne, France. Later exhumed and reinterred Hem Farm Military Cemetery, France, Plot 2, Row K Grave 8.
Born in Manildra in 1896 and the son of Edward Meredith Finch Bennett and his wife Elizabeth Wilson, Andrew enlisted in Orange on 31 July 1917 at the age of 21. He formed part of the 1st Pioneer Battalion, 13th Reinforcement, who left Sydney via HMAT "Euripides" on 31 October 1917. Arriving in England he was taken on strength with the 53rd Battalion who marched into Calais on 1 April 1918.
According to Red Cross Wounded and Missing files about fifty men were killed on 1 September by machine gun fire at the Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin. They were buried in a mass grave at Fenillers Military Cemetery and a large cross erected. Andrew's body was later exhumed and reinterred in Hem Farm Military Cemetery.
Andrew Leslie Bennett is remembered on the Wellington Cenotaph in Cameron Park, and on panel number 156 on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
*Sharon Jameson and Margaret Nugent, December 2018
