DAMPIER-BENNETT Owen Hewett

1. Lieut., R.N.A.S.
Born September 26th, 1899. Killed when Flying, April 26th, 1918.
Owen Dampier Bennett was the only son of the Reverend O. C. Dampier Bennett, Rector of Abberley. He entered the Hostel in the Lower School from Borlase School, Marlowe, in January, 1913, with a Diocesan House Scholarship. He subsequently became a day boy, and left in April, 1915, to pursue a course in engineering, in which he was always keenly interested; working for a year at Austin’s Munition Works, and then spending a year in the City and Guilds Technical Institute in London. In 1917 he entered the R.N.A.S as Probationer Flight Officer Greenwich R.N.C., and soon made his mark, gaining his certificate as a first-class pilot with two months training. He was killed accidently when flying in the Eastern counties through a collision with another machine, owing to a sudden fall. Another O.V. in the same service writes of him: “He was such a nice chap, a first-class pilot, and a very good officer.” He was tender-hearted and considerate to a degree, and his last act on the day before his death was to rescue a wounded and tortured bird at great personal pains.
W. H. C.

2. Owen Dampier Bennett was born on Tuesday 26th September 1899. The Reverend Owen C. D. Bennett became Rector of Abberley on 20th April 1904, remaining there for almost 20 years before accepting a religious position in Nassau, Bahamas.

After entering the R.N.A.S in 1917 and gaining his First Class Pilot certificate, Owen Junior spent some time at the School of Aerial Fighting and Bomb Dropping. He was granted a temporary commission as 2nd Lieutenant on 8th April 1918, the notification of his promotion appearing in the London Gazette two weeks after his death.