The Staff Sergeant Albert Thomas Bennett Collection
Occasionally, our staff is lucky enough to find artifacts that tell a complete story. Such is the case with a collection of old photos and records donated years ago by Mrs. Mary Bennett, wife of the late S Sgt. A.T. Bennett. The documents tell the story of a man who chose to dedicate most of his life to military service and found a home within the army.
Albert Thomas (Tom) Bennett was born in Bristol, England, in 1898. He and his family soon immigrated to Canada and settled in Dryden, Ontario.
On Christmas Day, 1915, Bennett enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, despite being underage. He served overseas with the 94th Battalion and fought at the Somme in France. There, he was wounded and transferred to the 43rd Cameron Highlanders, with whom he continued to serve until his discharge a few months before the war ended.
Upon his return to civilian life, Bennett went to school to become a plumber and forged his own company in Ontario.
At the Second World War outbreak, he sold his plumbing business and enlisted once more, this time in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Coincidentally, this enrollment date was again on Christmas Day in 1940. Bennett took up service with the Royal Canadian Engineers. He worked as a Sanitary Heating Engineer, installing plumbing in German prisoner-of-war camps east of Schrieber, Ontario. He received a transfer to Camp Shilo, Manitoba, in 1942 and continued working there as a civil servant for another twenty years after his army discharge in 1947.
Many of the photos in the S Sgt. Bennett collection record his time spent in Camp Shilo. He appeared posing in a military jeep and at the YMCA Hostess House with friends and soldiers. Note the two photos above. The collection also includes several snapshots of his wife, Mary Bennett (formerly Clarke), whom he met on base during his service in Shilo. At the time, Ms. Clarke was a receptionist for the YWCA on the base, an inviting place where wives, children, relatives, and friends of soldiers could meet. Mary and Tom married in 1952.
After retirement, the Bennetts bought a lot and had a house built in Carberry, where they pursued their passion for gardening together, winning several lawn and garden competitions. He died in 1989 and is buried in the Foxwarren Cemetery.