Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Bennett
Essex Scottish Regiment

It is with the deepest regret that I find now our paths going in different ways. You on to greater successes than ever. I want to express my great appreciation to you all for your wonderful support, your enthusiasm, your fighting qualities and your good humour. Good luck to you all and give him couple from me as often as you like,

(Bennett farewell, War Diary, Sept 1944)

Born on 7 February 1917 in Fort William, Ontario, Peter Ward Bennett was a University of Toronto graduate, accountant, and junior officer with the 48th Highlanders of Canada. By the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944, he had been promoted to brigade major with the 7th Infantry Brigade. After a commanding officer of the Essex Scottish was relieved of command from nerves in July and his successor was evacuated wounded, the 27-year-old Bennett was assigned to take over the regiment on 8 August 1944. He recalled, “I arrived about dusk and somebody immediately came up to me and asked if I’d seen the new colonel yet. I said ‘That’s me,’ and he looked very surprised.”

Over August and September, he led the battalion through the heavy fighting in the Falaise Pocket and the drive into Belgium. After only six weeks in command, Bennett suffered a shrapnel wound to the leg during a skirmish near Antwerp. The war diary recorded, “He has become admired and respected during his short stay with the Bn, and his going was a great loss to the Essex Scottish.” Bennett recalled, “I was relieved of duty and hospitalized in England. My command ended but it seemed like it had been a lifetime.” Second-in-command Major D. Mackenzie took over until the arrival a few days later of Lieutenant-Colonel J.E.C. Pangman, who had commanded the Carleton and York Regiment in Italy.

On recovery, he was appointed general staff officer to the 2nd Canadian Division, a post he held until the end of the war. Following demobilization, he worked in Toronto as a chartered accountant and succeeded Brigadier Ian Johnston as commanding officer of the 4th Brigade in the Reserve Army in 1949.

The next year, Bennett moved to England. Had had run the sole Canadian branch of W.H. Smith & Son in Toronto before a promotion to managing director of the bookselling and retail business in 1950. He became chairman in 1977 and retired five years later.

He died in Brighton, Sussex, England on 15 September 1996.