Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 1735  BENNETT Thomas Albert (Arthur)                11th Light Horse Regiment
Tom Bennett was born in the Riverina District bordering the Murray River. Tom told the recruiters he was born at Balranald (NSW) but his father when completing the Roll of Honour Circular stated he had been born at Swan Hill, just across the Murray from Balranald.
A statutory declaration in Tom’s file relates a sad story about his early life. Tom’s mother, Sarah, died soon after giving birth to her son. According to the declaration, the marriage between Peter and Sarah Bennett was frowned upon by both maternal and paternal relatives due to the fact that Sarah was Catholic and Peter was protestant. When Sarah died, neither family, including Peter Bennett, was willing to take care of the infant Tom, and that task fell to the Beresford family who were not related but had provided care to Ellen whilst she was ill. Baby Tom, who was perhaps only three days old, became a foster. Tom continued to live with the Beresfords and attended school at Moulamein near Balranald.
The Beresford family, including Tom, at some stage moved to Queensland and lived at Goombungee outside Toowoomba. Tom informed the recruiters at Toowoomba when he enlisted on 12th January 1916 that he was a horse breaker, but this was later modified to the all purpose “labourer.” It does indicate that Tom was probably an itinerant rural worker who could turn his hand to most tasks in rural communities and he probably travelled around seeking work. This may explain the presence of his name on the Nanango War Memorial.
Tom attended the Darling Downs recruiting Office in Toowoomba to enlist. He informed the officer that he was 24 and lived at Goombungee. Tom named his father, Peter of Wanganilla Station NSW as his next of kin, rather than Matthew Beresford of Goombungee. This would cause some conflict after Tom’s death.
Tom proceeded to Enoggera where he was taken on by the 11th Depot Battalion but was subsequently transferred to the 8th reinforcements of the 11th Light Horse Regiment after passing the necessary riding test. Perhaps his experience as a horse breaker also convinced the recruiters of his suitability. On 5th May 1916, the reinforcements travelled by train to Sydney where they embarked on the “Karoo”, disembarking later that month in Egypt.
The first half of 1916 was a busy time for the AIF. After the MEF force had been successfully evacuated from Gallipoli, the infantry was reorganised to create an expanded AIF. The Light Horse, which had also served at Gallipoli, but without their horses, returned to the Light Horse Depots at El Kantara. The infantry was destined for the Western Front but the Light Horse remained in Egypt to meet a Turkish threat to the Suez Canal launched from Palestine across the Sinai Peninsula.
The Light Horse, as part of Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force fought its first decisive battle at Romani, which halted the Turkish advance. The expeditionary force which consisted of British Infantry, the ANZAC Mounted Division and the Imperial Camel Corps pushed the Turks back towards the Palestinian border at Rafah (Raffa).
Tom was finally called up to the 11th Light Horse on 12th October, having missed the entire Sinai campaign while in the 3rd LHR Remounts camp at Serapeum. Once they had withdrawn into Palestine, the Turks fell back on a strongly defended line which ran from the Mediterranean Coast at Rafah southwest across desolate country to the railway terminus at Beersheba.
The 11th Light Horsemen crossed into Palestine in April 1917 in time for the 2nd Battle of Gaza. In this and subsequent efforts by the British Forces, the Turkish defences repulsed the attacks by Allenby’s forces. In these actions, the Light Horse advanced on foot.
Desperate to break through the Gaza Line, a concerted effort was mounted by the ANZAC Mounted Division against the defences at Beersheba on 31st October 1917 – the well known bayonet charge by the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments, two of the units that made up the 4th Light Horse Brigade. The third unit in the 4th Brigade was the 11th LHR. While the 4th and 12th charged towards the town, the 11th had the task of securing the right flank.
With the capture of Beersheba, the Expeditionary Force could roll up the Gaza Line as the Turks withdrew. The 11th LHR was engaged in an attack along the line at Tel-el-Sharia on 7th November when Trooper Tom Bennett received a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was taken to the 4th Light Horse Field Ambulance but unfortunately succumbed to his wounds the same day. Tom was buried in a temporary grave at Tel-el-Sharia by the regimental chaplain and the location of the grave was recorded.
As Tom had named his estranged father as his next of kin, the Beresford family were unaware of the death of their foster son until his name appeared in the casualty lists in the newspapers. Matthew Beresford wrote on several occasions seeking any information from the authorities. When war medals were being issued in the 1920s, Mr Beresford wrote to the authorities requesting that he, as foster father, should be entitled to Tom’s medals.
Matthew Beresford furnished a statutory declaration outlining the circumstances under which the infant Tom Bennett came to live with his family. The medals were granted to Mr Beresford on the condition that he would return the medals if another person lodged a prior claim. The letter written by Peter Bennet in reply to the authorities stated that “he (Mr Beresford) was welcome to them.”
In spite of the recording of the location of Tom’s grave, by the time the Graves Registration Unit began searching the Gaza battlefields, all trace of the grave of Tom Bennett was lost. Tom Bennett is commemorated on the panels of the Jerusalem Memorial in the Jerusalem War Cemetery. He is one of 3,000 British and Dominion soldiers who died in the campaigns in the Middle East but have no known grave.
Tom Bennet is commemorated on the Nanango War Memorial and the Goombungee Memorial Gates.