Private Henry Patrick Bennett
- Rank
- Private
- Service number
- WX9340
- Unit
- 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion
- Cause of death
- Died as Prisoner of War
- Place of death
- Sandakan, Borneo
- Date of death
- 15 February 1945
- Age
- 30
- Plaque number
- L144A
- Co-located plaques
- L144 - PTE Frank Noble
- Dedicated by
- Family on 17 May 2014
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Private Henry Patrick Bennett, or Pat as he was known, was born at Albany in July 1914. He was one of five sons and a daughter of Albert and Margaret Bennett of Gnowangerup.
Pat attended school at Gnowangerup and after leaving worked as a motor mechanic.
He enlisted at Claremont in October 1940 and was posted to 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion.
This battalion was formed with men from across the state and they all came together at Northam Military Camp where they carried out their initial training.
In July 1941, the battalion moved to Adelaide and then to Darwin and left there in late October, bound for Singapore via Port Moresby.
Due to enemy action, the convoy turned around and sailed to Sydney, then Fremantle, and finally reached Singapore at the end of January 1942.
They were soon in action, Malaya had fallen and Singapore was being attacked.
Following the surrender in February, Pat became a prisoner of war and was sent to Sandakan as part of E Force to build an air strip. There, they were starved, beaten and brutally treated. He, with others, were was sent on infamous death marches.
Private Henry Patrick Bennett, service number WX9340 of 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion died on the Sandakan-Ranau track on 1 February 1945. He was 33 years of age.