Gordon Bennett ( general ) Lieutenant General Henry Gordon Bennett CB , CMG , DSO , VD ( 15 April 1887 – 1 August 1962 ) , Australian soldier , served in both World War I and World War II . Despite highly decorated achievements during World War I , during which he commanded at both battalion and brigade level and became the youngest general in the Australian Army , Bennett is best remembered for his role in the Fall of Singapore in the Pacific War when in early 1942 , as commander of the 8th Division , he escaped while his men became prisoners of the Japan ese . After this , Bennett ' s military career waned and although he rose to command a corps , he never commanded troops in battle again . In 1945 , his escape caused controversy and resulted in a Royal Commission , which found that he had been unjustified in relinquishing his command . A citizen soldier , before World War I Bennett had worked in the insurance industry and at the conclusion of hostilities pursued his commercial interests while continuing to serve in the military in a part - time capacity , commanding at brigade and divisional level . He retired from the military after World War II and turned to farming in the Blue Mountains . He remained active in the world of business and as military commentator , before dying at the age of 75 . Early life . Bennett ( who was always known as Gordon ) was born in Balwyn , Melbourne , on 15 April 1887 , to George Bennett , a South African - born school teacher , and his Australian - born wife , Harriet . He was the sixth of nine children and attended Balwyn State School , where his father taught , and then Hawthorn College as a teenager having been given a three - year scholarship . While at Hawthorn , he did well at mathematics and in 1903 , as a 16 - year - old , after completing a competitive examination he was accepted into the AMP Society to train as an actuary . In May 1908 , just after he turned 21 , Bennett volunteered to serve in the Militia , Australia ' s reserve military force , joining the 5th Australian Infantry Regiment as a " recruit officer " . After completing a six - month part - time course , he was appointed as a provisional second lieutenant , and posted to the regiment ' s ' B ' Company , in Carlton , Victoria . He continued to work at AMP during this time , but devoted most of his spare time to his military duties and rose in rank quickly , gaining his major ity in 1912 , at the age of 25 , when he became adjutant of his regiment . At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , Bennett volunteered to serve with the First Australian Imperial Force and , after securing his release from AMP on full pay , was appointed second - in - command of the 6th Battalion , which was part of the 2nd ( Victorian ) Infantry Brigade , assigned to the 1st Division . After a short period of training , the 1st Division began to embark for Europe . Just prior to his departure overseas , Bennett became engaged to Bess Buchanan , who he had met at a dance in Canterbury . As an engagement gift , Bess bought her betroved a miniature photo of herself , set in a gold frame . Bennett carried the picture in his jacket pocket while serving overseas and it later saved his life on the Western Front , deflecting a German bullet . Gallipoli . While in transit , as a result of overcrowding in training camps in the United Kingdom , the 1st Division was diverted to Egypt with the intention that it would complete its training there before moving to the Western Front at a later date . The decision by the Allies to force a passage through the Dardanelles interrupted this process , as the 1st Division was allocated to take part in the Gallipoli Campaign . During the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 , Bennett fought on the southern flank of the Anzac beachhead . He led 300 men of his battalion to an advanced position on Pine Ridge , south of Lone Pine . While directing the defence of this position , Bennett was wounded in the shoulder and wrist and forced to retire to the beach for treatment . When the Turkish forces counter - attacked in the evening , the 6th Battalion force on Pine Ridge was isolated and wiped out to the last man , including Bennett ' s younger brother , Godfrey . Instead of accepting evacuation on a hospital ship , after having his wounds treated , Bennett returned to his battalion . In early May , the 2nd Brigade was selected to move to Cape Helles to reinforce the British forces for the Second Battle of Krithia . After being transferred by boat , on 8 May , Bennett advanced with his battalion in impossible conditions . Bennett was the only officer of the 6th , and one of few in the 2nd Brigade , to survive the advance unscathed , although he was lucky do so ; as he led the charge , a Turkish bullet hit the ammunition pouch he wore , exploding the ammunition in it . He was knocked off his feet , but otherwise unharmed . With a handful of men , he achieved the furthest advance of the attack . He became commander of the 6th Battalion the next day . The battalion was then returned to Anzac by a trawler , and shortly afterwards , Bennett ' s command of the battalion was confirmed and he was promoted to lieutenant colonel . Throughout June and July , Bennett ' s battalion occupied the front line during a period of reduced tempo fighting as a stalemate developed . On 7 August , when the Allies launched their August Offensive to break the stalemate , the 6th Battalion was involved in one of the supporting attacks at the start of the Battle of Sari Bair . While the best known attack was made by the Australian 3rd Light Horse Brigade at the Nek , the 6th was required to make a similar attack against a neighbouring Turkish position known as German Officers ' Trench from which machine guns enfilade d the Australian positions as far north as the Nek . Two attempts to capture the trench failed . A third attempt was organised and Bennett resolved to lead it himself but fortunately the commander of the 1st Division , Major General Harold Walker , after consulting with the corps commander , Lieutenant General William Birdwood , agreed to abandon the attack . The 6th Battalion ' s losses totalled 80 killed and 66 wounded . Following the attack on the German Officers ' Trench , Bennett ' s battalion was withdrawn from the front line briefly , before relieving the 1st Brigade , which had successfully captured Lone Pine . The August Offensive failed and a further lull in the fighting occurred . The following month , as reinforcements in the shape of the 2nd Division arrived at Anzac , the original Australian units were relieved on a rotational basis , including the 6th Battalion , which was sent back to Lemnos . While there , Bennett was hospitalised with paratyphoid and during his stay in hospital , he received word that he had been appointed a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George ( CMG ) . When the 6th Battalion was returned to Gallipoli , Bennett sought to return with them , but was ordered to sail to England aboard the transport " Aquitania " for further treatment . As well as his CMG , Bennett was also mentioned in despatches twice for his service at Gallipoli . Western Front . Bennett spent Christmas in Southampton , before returning to Egypt early in January 1916 . There , he rejoined his battalion , which was stationed around Gebel Habeita , defending the Suez Canal . He arrived just as the AIF began a period of reorganisation , which saw the experienced units of the 1st Division being split to provide cadres to the newly formed 5th Division ; as a part of this , the 6th Battalion was split to help form the 58th Battalion in late February . In March 1916 , the 1st Division moved to France . Bennett subsequently led the 6th Battalion through the Battle of Pozières . After the 1st and 3rd Brigades had captured the town on 24 July 1916 , the 6th and 8th Battalions of the 2nd Brigade moved in to occupy the ruins where they had to endure a prolonged artillery bombardment . Bennett ' s battalion HQ was in a log hut . The hut received six direct hits from shells but survived due to the debris that had accumulated around it . Shortly after Bennett relocated his HQ the hut was finally demolished . On 26 July Bennett protested at the conditions his men had to endure , reporting : " My men are being unmercifully shelled . They cannot hold out if an attack is launched . The firing line and my headquarters are being plastered with heavy guns and the town is being swept by shrapnel . I myself am O . K . but the front line is being buried . " In the capture of Pozières , Bennett ' s 6th Battalion suffered 190 casualties , the least by a considerable margin of the 12 battalions in the 1st Division . After this , Bennett continued to serve as the commanding officer of the 6th Battalion , as well as acting as the 3rd Brigade commander . In mid - November , Bennett took a brief leave in London , where he was reunited with his fiancee , Bess , who had sailed from Melbourne with her father to meet him . On 16 November , they were married in Chelsea , and after a short honeymoon in Scotland , Bennett returned to the front . On 3 December 1916 , he was given command of the 3rd Infantry Brigade and promoted to brigadier general , becoming at 29 the youngest general in the Australian Army . He led the brigade for the remainder of the war on the Western Front , leading the brigade through several notable actions , including at Bullecourt , Menin Road , and Passchendaele during 1917 , and several actions against the Hindenburg Line in 1918 . While Bennett was serving at the front , his wife remained in England ; he returned to her briefly in November 1917 and again in July 1918 . Just after the war ended , Bess returned to Australia with the couple ' s 10 - month old daughter , while Bennett remained in Europe until June 1919 , briefly touring the Rhine and then viewing the London victory parade , where he escorted Lady Birdwood while her husband , Lord Birdwood , the former commander of the Australian Corps , marched . For his service on the Western Front , Bennett received many awards . He was received the Order of Danilo from Montenegro in 1917 , was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1918 , received a Distinguished Service Order in 1919 and mentioned in despatches a further six times . His attitude towards regular officers and temperament , as well as his tendency to act without clearing his actions with superiors , though , resulted in criticism from senior officers . Between the wars . Upon his return to Australia , Bennett lived at Canterbury with his wife and daughter , while he sought to return to civilian life after his appointment to the AIF was terminated . He was offered his old position back , having been on full - time leave with pay while serving overseas , but was unhappy with this . He was eventually offered a position in the Commonwealth Bank in Sydney and he moved there with his family . Later , he purchased a textile factory and worked as a clothing manufacturer and public accountant before being appointed chairman of the New South Wales Repatriation Board in 1922 , in which role he was able to help returned soldiers . In 1928 , he was appointed as an administrator of the City of Sydney , along with two other commissioners . He was president of the Chamber of Manufactures of New South Wales between 1931 and 1933 and the Associated Chambers of Manufactures of Australia between 1933 and 1934 , and was involved in several conservative political groups such as the All for Australia League and the Defence of Australia League . Bennett remained active in the military , continuing to serve as part of the Militia , which was reorganised in 1921 following the conclusion of the demobilisation process . From then until 1926 , he served as commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade , before being appointed to command the 2nd Division . In 1930 , he was promoted to the rank of major general and over the ensuing years became increasingly parochial against the small permanent Staff Corps . He was transferred to the unattached list in 1932 . In 1937 , amidst increasing tensions in Europe , he came into conflict with the Military Board after he wrote a number of newspaper articles expressing his concerns about complacent defence policy and the efficiency of regular officers . World War II . When World War II broke out in 1939 , although only 52 , Bennett was passed over for command of the Second Australian Imperial Force , the position going to General Thomas Blamey . The Chief of the General Staff , General Sir Brudenell White , seems to have been opposed to Bennett being given an active command . A . B . Lodge , Bennett ' s biographer in the " Australian Dictionary of Biography " ( ADB ) comments : " Because of his temperament , he was considered unsuitable for a semi - diplomatic command , and one that involved subordination to British generals . Bennett was as scathing of British officers as he was of Australian regulars . " Bennett was instead given a command in the Volunteer Defence Corps , the Australian version of the Home Guard . In July 1940 , he took over command of the Eastern Command Training Depot . After White ' s death in the Canberra air disaster in August 1940 , Bennett was appointed commander of the newly formed 8th Division , replacing Vernon Sturdee , who was promoted to White ' s former role . In February 1941 , the 8th Division ' s headquarters , along with one of its brigades – the 22nd – was posted to Malaya in February 1941 . The 27th Brigade was also dispatched in August , but the division ' s third brigade , the 23rd Brigade remained in Australia . Relations between Bennett and his superiors , and also his subordinate brigade commander , Brigadier Harold Taylor , were not good . Lodge comments : " Bennett ' s dealings with British senior officers , especially with the general officer commanding , Malaya , Lieutenant General A . E . Percival , were devoid of harmony . " In December 1941 , the Japanese invasion of Malaya began . Bennett found himself in command of an ad hoc force of Australian and Indian troops , known as " Westforce " . After fighting in Johore in mid - January , along with the rest of the Allied forces , Bennett ' s division was soon forced to withdraw to Singapore . On 8 February 1942 , the Japanese landed in Singapore , and after a brief , but intense campaign , on 15 February Percival began surrender negotiations with the Japanese . That night , Bennett decided that it was his duty to escape from Singapore rather than surrender . He handed over command of the 8th Division to Brigadier Cecil Callaghan . With a few junior officers and some local Europeans , Bennett commandeered a sampan and crossed the Strait of Malacca to the east coast of Sumatra , where they transferred to a launch in which they sailed up the Jambi River . They then proceeded by car to Padang , on the west coast of Sumatra . From there Bennett flew to Java and then to Australia , arriving in Melbourne on 2 March 1942 . Bennett ' s escape was initially regarded as praiseworthy . Prime Minister John Curtin issued a statement that read : In April 1942 , he was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of III Corps in Perth . In 1942 this was an important post , but by 1943 , as the possibility of a Japanese invasion of Australia faded , it became a backwater . Bennett was told by Blamey that he would not be given another active command , and he transferred to the Reserve of Officers in May 1944 . He soon published his account of the Malayan campaign , " Why Singapore Fell " , which was critical of Percival and other British officers . Blamey unsuccessfully tried to prevent the book ' s publication . Upon retirement from active service , Bennett began writing for a Sydney newspaper and as a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . He remained concerned about this soldiers , though , and met the first group of recently freed 8th Division prisoners of war when they arrived in Sydney on the transport " Manunda " . For their part , the majority of his former soldiers welcomed him , some even hung a sign over the side of the ship , which read : " We want Bennett " . They later put it in his car as a gesture of their support . Postwar inquiries . The controversy over Bennett ' s actions became public in mid - 1945 , when the war ended and Percival and Callaghan were released from Japanese captivity . Percival , who had never got on with Bennett , wrote a letter accusing him of relinquishing his command without permission . Callaghan delivered the letter to Blamey upon his release and Blamey convened a court of enquiry under Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead , and Major Generals Victor Stanke and George Wootten , which found that Bennett was not justified in handing over his command , or in leaving Singapore . Veterans of the 8th Division , who were generally loyal to Bennett , protested against this finding . In November 1945 , Prime Minister Ben Chifley appointed a Royal Commission under Justice George Ligertwood . The Commission concluded that Bennett had disobeyed Percival ' s order to surrender . Lodge wrote : In 1948 , Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Fry , a military lawyer , published the opinion : " The Royal Commissioner based his report on an interpretation of international law , and did not discuss General Bennett ' s action from the standpoint of Australian military law , which placed him under no inflexible obligation to remain on Singapore Island . " Post military and retirement . Bennett later became an orchardist , purchasing a property and living at Glenorie in the Blue Mountains , until 1955 when , due to deteriorating health following a coronary occlusion , he sold his orchard and moved to Sydney . He travelled to Singapore in 1957 with his wife to attend the opening of the Kranji War Memorial and then in 1960 , travelled to Japan to meet with officers who had fought in Malaya . He wrote a number of articles on military topics and served on the board of a number of companies . From 1960 to 1962 , he was Chairman of Directors of MMI Insurance . He died on 1 August 1962 at Dural . After a state funeral at St Andrew ' s Cathedral , he was cremated ; his wife and daughter survived him . The diary that Bennett kept while serving in Malaya is held at the State Library of New South Wales .