Four: Stoker 1st Class T. Bennett, Hawke Battalion Royal Naval Division, who died whilst Interned in the Netherlands, 8 June 1917

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Sto., H.M.S. Terpsichore) large impressed naming, slight edge bruising; 1914 Star, with copy slip-on clasp (SS.163934 Sto. 1Cl., Hawke Bttn. R.N.D.); British War and Victory Medals (163934 Sto. 1, R.N.) very fine and better (4) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Boer War Medals to the Royal Navy.

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Thomas Bennett was born in Hull, Yorkshire on 4 October 1876. A Rivet-maker by occupation, he enlisted into the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in August 1891 and was advanced to Boy 1st Class in September 1892. He was promoted to Ordinary Seaman when on the Mersey in October 1894 and Stoker 2nd Class at Pembroke I in July 1898. He deserted several times between 1895 and 1900. Bennett served on the Terpsichore, February 1901-April 1904 and was promoted to Stoker in May 1901. He was one of 136 men of the Terpsichore to be awarded the Q.S.A. Medal without clasp. He was discharged from the Royal Navy and joined the Royal Fleet Reserve in October 1906 and re-enrolled in 1910. Recalled for war service in August 1914, he was posted to the Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division. After the retreat from Antwerp he was interned in the Netherlands. He died of peritonitis on 8 June 1917, aged 42 years and was buried in Groningen Southern Cemetery.