Lives of the First World War

Thomas was born on 14 June 1894 in Shorne Gravesend Kent to Christopher Bennett and Elizabeth Bennett (Waterman). At that time, they were an agricultural family, most men listed as Agricultural Labourers in the census returns. Most likely they worked for the local land-owner Lord Darnley of Cobham Hall. There were to be 12 children in the family, Thomas was tenth. Unusually, only one of the children died young, Arthur, who died in 1892 at the age of 13. With the decline of agriculture in the late 19th century the boys of the family joined the services. For example, the eldest son, Christopher, having been a black-smith’s apprentice at the age of 14, was in 1907 a soldier and by 1911 a “Machanist Serj Major” The service background of the family was shown by an article in the Dundee Evenining Telegraph 26 Jan 1915: "In the village of Shorne near Gravesend, live Mr and Mrs Christopher Bennett, who have four sons in the army, one in the navy, and three in the Metropolitan police."

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