Australian Army Lieutenant General. A highly decorated combat veteran of World War I, he rose in rank to become the youngest general in the Australian Army. The 6th of nine children, his father was South African-born school teacher. He attended Balwyn State School where his father taught, and then Hawthorn College. In 1903 he was accepted into the Australian Mutual Provident (AMP) Society, a non-profit insurance company, to train as an actuary. In May 1908 he volunteered to serve in the Militia, Australia's reserve military force, and joining the 5th Australian Infantry Regiment as a "recruit officer". After completing a six-month part-time course, he was appointed as a provisional 2nd lieutenant, and posted to the regiment's 'B' Company, in Carlton, Victoria, Australia. He continued to work at AMP during this time, but devoted most of his spare time to his military duties and rose in rank quickly, attaining the rank of major in 1912, and he became adjutant of his regiment. At the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, he volunteered to serve with the First Australian Imperial Force and was appointed second-in-command of the 6th Battalion which was part of the 2nd (Victorian) Infantry Brigade, assigned to the 1st Division. Following a short period of training, the 1st Division began to embark for Europe. His unit was diverted to Egypt with the intention that it would complete its training there before moving to the Western Front at a later date. The decision by the Allies to force a passage through the Dardanelles interrupted this process, as the 1st Division was allocated to take part in the Gallipoli Campaign. During the landing at Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915, he fought on the southern flank of the Anzac beachhead. He led the 300 men of his battalion to an advanced position on Pine Ridge, south of Lone Pine. While directing the defense of this position, he was wounded in the shoulder and wrist and forced to retire to the beach for treatment. When the Turkish forces counter-attacked that evening, the 6th Battalion force on Pine Ridge was isolated and wiped out to the last man, including his younger brother, Godfrey. Instead of accepting evacuation on a hospital ship, after having his wounds treated, he returned to his battalion. The following month, the 2nd Brigade was selected to move to Cape Helles to reinforce the British forces for the 2nd Battle of Krithia. He advanced with his battalion in impossible conditions and was the only officer of the 6th, and one of few in the 2nd Brigade, to survive the advance unscathed. With a handful of men, he achieved the furthest advance of the attack. The next day he became commander of the 6th Battalion and he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In August, when the Allies launched their effort to break the stalemate, the 6th Battalion was involved in one of the supporting attacks at the start of the Battle of Sari Bair. While the best known attack was made by the Australian 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek, the 6th was required to make a similar attack against a neighboring Turkish position known as German Officers' Trench from which machine guns enfiladed the Australian positions as far north as the Nek. After two attempts to capture the trench failed, a third attempt was organized and he resolved to lead it himself but the attack was abandoned and his unit was sent back to Lemnos, Greece. While there, he was hospitalized with paratyphoid and when the 6th Battalion was returned to Gallipoli, he sought to return with them, but was ordered to sail to England for further medical treatment. In January 1916 he rejoined his unit in Egypt and two months later his unit moved to France where he led them through the Battle of Pozieres where they suffered high casualties. He continued to serve as the commanding officer of the 6th Battalion, as well as acting as the 3rd Brigade commander. In December 1916 he was given command of the 3rd Infantry Brigade and promoted to the rank of brigadier general, becoming at age 29 the youngest general in the Australian Army. He led the brigade for the remainder of the war on the Western Front, leading them through several notable actions, including at Bullecourt, Menin Road, and Passchendaele during 1917, and several actions against the Hindenburg Line in 1918. After the surrender of Germany in November 1918 he remained in Europe until June 1919. For his service on the Western Front, he received the Order of Danilo from Montenegro in 1917, was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1918, received a Distinguished Service Order in 1919 and mentioned in dispatches (one whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which is described the soldier's gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy) a further eight times. After returning to Australia, he was offered a position in the Commonwealth Bank in Sydney and he moved there with his family. Later, he purchased a textile factory and worked as a clothing manufacturer and public accountant before being appointed chairman of the New South Wales Repatriation Board in 1922, in which role he was able to help returned soldiers. In 1928 he was appointed as an administrator of the City of Sydney, along with two other commissioners. He was president of the Chamber of Manufactures of New South Wales between 1931 and 1933 and the Associated Chambers of Manufactures of Australia between 1933 and 1934, and was involved in several conservative political groups such as All for Australia League and the Defence of Australia League. He remained active in the Australian Militia, serving from 1921 until 1926 as commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade, before being appointed to command the 2nd Division. He was promoted to the rank of major general in 1930. In 1932 he was transferred to the unattached list. In 1937, amidst increasing tensions in Europe, he came into conflict with the Military Board after he wrote a number of newspaper articles expressing his concerns about complacent defense policy and the efficiency of regular officers. When World War II broke out in September 1939, he was given a command in the Volunteer Defence Corps, the Australian version of the Home Guard. In July 1940, he took over command of the Eastern Command Training Depot and the following month he was appointed commander of the newly formed 8th Division. In February 1941 the 8th Division's headquarters, and along with one of its 22nd brigade, was posted to Malaya. He did not get along well with his superiors, and subordinate brigade commander, Brigadier General Harold Taylor. In December 1941 the Japanese invasion of Malaya began and he found himself in command of an ad hoc force known as "Westforce", which included the Australian 27th Brigade but not the 22nd, which had been transferred to 3rd Indian Corps. His command was not engaged in the initial stages of the fighting, but as the Japanese advanced into Johore, they fought several actions throughout January, with the most significant coming around Gemas and Muar, before being forced to withdraw to Singapore along with the rest of the Allied forces at the end of the month. On Singapore his command was allocated the task of defending the north-western sector of the island and under the assault of two Japanese divisions, the Australians were forced to withdraw. On 15 February the British commander in charge of the Allied forces in Singapore, General A.E. Percival began surrender negotiations with the Japanese. That night, Bennett decided that it was his duty to escape rather than surrender and he handed over command of the 8th Division to Brigadier Cecil Callaghn. With a few junior officers and some local Europeans, he commandeered a sampan and crossed the Strait of Malacca to the east coast of Sumatra, where they transferred to a launch in which they sailed up the Jambi River. They then proceeded by car to Padang, on the west coast of Sumatra and from there he flew to Java and then to Australia, arriving in Melbourne on March 2, 1942. His escape was initially regarded as praiseworthy and in April 1942 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and given command of 3rd Corps in Perth. By 1943 the possibility of a Japanese invasion of Australia faded and he was transferred to the Reserve of Officers in May 1944, having served in the Australian Army for 36 years. He soon published his account of the Malayan campaign, "Why Singapore Fell," which was critical of Percival and other British officers. Upon retirement from active service, he began writing for a Sydney newspaper and as a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The controversy over his actions in Singapore became public in mid-1945, when the war ended and Percival and Callaghan were released from Japanese captivity. Percival, who had never got on with Bennett, wrote a letter accusing him of relinquishing his command without permission. Callaghan delivered the letter to Australian Field Marshall Sir Thomas Albert Blamey upon his release and Blamey convened a court of inquiry, which found that he was not justified in handing over his command, or in leaving Singapore. Veterans of the 8th Division, who were generally loyal to him, protested against this finding. In November 1945, Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley appointed a Royal Commission to look further into it and the Commission concluded that he had disobeyed Percival's order to surrender. However, no action was taken against him as he was already discharged from the Army. He then purchased an orchard, residing at Glenorie in the Blue Mountains until 1955 when, due to deteriorating health following a coronary occlusion, he sold his orchard and moved to Sydney. Australia. He wrote a number of articles on military topics and served on the board of a number of companies. From 1960 to 1962 he was Chairman of Directors of MMI Insurance. He died at the age of 75. The diary he kept while serving in Malaya is held at the State Library of New South Wales, Australia.