Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Warrant Mechanician W. Bennett, Royal Navy, one of a handful of survivors from the loss of H.M.S. Hampshire in June 1916

Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1902-04 (W. Bennett, Sto., H.M.S. Cossack); 1914-15 Star (Wt. Mech. W. Bennett, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Wt. Mech. W. Bennett, R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (292952 W. Bennett, Mechn., H.M.S. Arethusa), minor contact wear, generally very fine and a scarce warrant rank (5) £400-500

William Bennett was born at Wall Heath, Kingswinford, Staffordshire in April 1881 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in August 1899. He subsequently served aboard H.M.S. Cossack in the period March 1900 to August 1903, when he was present in operations off Somaliland and advanced to Stoker (Medal & clasp).

Having then gained further advancement in the period leading up to hostilities - he was rated as a Mechanician in March 1910 - Bennett was serving aboard the light cruiser Arethusa in August 1914. As a consequence, he was present at the battle of Heligoland Bight on the 28th, on which occasion the Arethusa was seriously damaged by the German cruisers S.M.S. Frauenlob and Stettin and had to be towed home; so, too, in the Cuxhaven Raid at the end of the year and at the battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915.

Bennett, who was awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal in September 1914, departed Arethusa in March 1915, when he was appointed Warrant Mechanician. He next joined - in June 1915 - the cruiser Hampshire and - via Jutland - was similarly employed at the time of the ship’s loss on 5 June 1916. The Hampshire departed Scapa Flow immediately after the battle, with Lord Kitchener embarked on a diplomatic mission to Russia. She encountered heavy seas, lost her destroyer escort and, about a mile and half off the mainland of Orkney, struck one of several mines that had earlier been laid by the U-75. The detonation holed the ship between her bow and the bridge, and she sank after just 15 minutes. Of the 655 crew and 7 passengers aboard, only 12 crew on two Carley floats managed to reach the shore alive, one of them being Warrant Mechanician Bennett; Kitchener and his staff were lost; for further details and special mention of Bennett, see: http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/black-country-sailor-survives-kitchener-drowns/story-29328827-detail/story.html

Bennett was appointed to the battleship Glory in July 1916, came ashore to the training establishment Ganges in September 1917 and returned to sea in the sloop Sefton in April 1918; sold with copied service record.