Reg Bennett

Photograph of Reg Bennett


Growing up I was in Navy League Cadets, (9 – 12 year olds), Then Army Cadets, (13 – 18), and then Canada’s Militia for one year. In 1996 I dropped my oldest boy off at Navy League and I ended up being Shanghaied into being a Cadet Officer. In 2006 I retired as CO with the rank of Lietenant. I had two Great Uncles serve during World War I and My Grande Father served in World War II. All my family would tell me about my Uncles was only one returned home. He did not say much about the war. The only information he would provide them was, “He walked 30 miles to a POW camp and when he arrived his brother had died of a gunshot wound”. I always thought this strange. Why he was never interned as a POW if he had approached this camp? He received a medical discharge in August of 1918. He was one of the Canadians gassed in the trenches in France. He suffered with respiratory illness, until his passing in 1984. In the mid nineties, I was doing some research on the Servicemen from Drumheller. I walked into the Legion and inquired on info on the Servicemen. All they had was the names off the Cenotaph. In 1999, I came upon a web site called The Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I entered my great uncles name for World War I and I found him. His legal name was George Reginald Bennett, and he was buried in a Hospital Cemetery in France. Not to long after, I was looking at the Honour Roll on a Remembrance Day program for Drumheller. I started entering the name from the program and started receiving hits. I compiled all the info, put it in a binder and presented it to the Legion in Nov of 1999. In 2006, I did the same for Stettler Alberta, and then last Year for Canning Nova Scotia, where my Great Uncle was raised. This year I just finished updating Drumheller’s Book with Attestation Paper and the pages out of the Book of Remembrance. I am also working on the Village of Big Valley and the East Coulee School Museum. All these years I’ve been using the CWGC site, (making sure I give recognition), I thought maybe I could give something back.

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