Born at Chilmark, near Salisbury, on 20 March 1852, the eldest son of William Francis Bennett, a country gentleman, and Selina Solf, his wife. He was educated at Weymouth College and entered St George's Hospital on 16 September 1869, after living for a year with a general practitioner in the country. At St George's Hospital he gained the Henry Charles Johnson prize for anatomy in 1871, a prize which carried with it the paid post of demonstrator of anatomy in the medical school in the winner's third year. He was awarded the Treasurer's prize and the third year's proficiency prize in 1872, the Treasurer's prize for the second time in 1873, and the William Brown exhibition of £100 in 1875. He was a founder of the *Students' Journal and Hospital Gazette*, 1873. In 1877 he succeeded John Hammond Morgan as surgical registrar and, after travelling with Sir Watkin Wynn as his medical attendant, was elected assistant surgeon to St George's Hospital in July 1880. The vacancy was caused by the resignation of Edward Charles Stirling, who resigned on his return to Adelaide. Bennett became surgeon to the hospital in 1887 in succession to Timothy Holmes, and was nominated consulting surgeon, a governor, and a member of the house committee when he resigned in 1905. He lectured on surgery from 1877 to 1899. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was an examiner in anatomy from 1884 to 1893 and was a member of the Court of Examiners from 1897 to 1902. He was for many years inspector of anatomy for the metropolis, his senior colleague being Thomas Pickering Pick. Bennett interested himself throughout his professional life in helping the sick, quite apart from his hospital work, and was publicly thanked by Lord Roberts for the services which he rendered to the sick and wounded soldiers on their return from the Boer war. During the war of 1914-18 he resigned all other appointments to devote his energies to the service of the British Red Cross and the Order of St John, and for these services he was appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, having been decorated KCVO in 1901. He was also made a Commander of the Royal Order of the Redeemer of Greece. For many years he was chairman of the Invalid Children's Association. He was president of the Institute of Hygiene and of the Illuminating Engineers Society. He married: (1) Isobel Lloyd (d 1911), daughter of Dr Thomas Dickinson; and (2) in 1914 Gladys Florence, only daughter of the Rev Allen Stewart Hartigan of Monkstown, Co Dublin and St Leonards-on-Sea. There were no children by either marriage. He died at 3 Hyde Park Place, London, W, on 24 December 1931. Lady Bennett died on 30 May 1949. Sir William Bennett was a well-set-up and good-looking man, limping slightly, as he had suffered from an attack of infantile paralysis, always immaculately dressed and with pleasing manners. He was a capable surgeon who devoted himself more especially to the operative treatment of diseases of the veins. He was also a good and practical teacher of students. His exemplar in life was Sir Prescott Hewett, who helped him greatly in his early professional life and whose house he took after his master's retirement. Like Sir Prescott he had an engrossing interest in art, and was known for many years as one of the most fastidious of connoisseurs and collectors who was never satisfied with anything but the best. He formed a fine collection of blue and white china which he described in articles in *The Burlington Magazine*, 1904, and afterwards sold. He then began to develop his coloured and enamelled "oriental" porcelain and carvings in jade and other hard stones. It consisted only of ninety-nine pieces of china and twenty-five carvings, but they were all of the very highest order and included exquisite examples of Ming and Kang-Hei, a jasper vase and cover carved out of one stone and a group of nine pieces of blue agate. This collection was also sold during his life-time. The collection left at his death was sent to the American Art Association. It consisted of bronzes, pictures, and furniture of such outstanding merit as to be illustrated in *The Times* of 29 February 1932. Publications:- *On appendicitis; two clinical lectures delivered at St George's Hospital*. London, no date. *On varicocele, a practical treatise*. London, 1889. *Clinical lectures on abdominal hernia, chiefly in relation to treatment, including the radical cure*. London, 1893. Injuries and diseases of the spine, in Treves' *System of surgery*, 1896, 2, articles 38 and 40. *On varix, its causes and treatment with especial reference to thrombosis*. London, 1898. *The present position of the treatment of simple fracture of the limbs, to which is appended a summary of the opinions and practice of about 300 surgeons; an address*. London, 1900; and *Brit med J*. 1900, 2, 1005 and 1012. An address entitled some reflections, mainly ethical, on the present position of operation in the practice of surgery. Annual oration of the Medical Society of London, 18 May 1903. *Trans med Soc Lond*. 1903, 26, 304; *Lancet*, 1903, 1, 1423, and as a pamphlet. Recurrent effusion into the knee joint after injury, with especial reference to internal derangement commonly called slipped cartilage; an analysis of 750 cases (a clinical lecture delivered at St George's Hospital, 11 illustrations). *Lancet*, 1905, 1, 1, and as a pamphlet. *Injuries and diseases of the knee joint considered from the clinical aspect*. London, 1909. *On the use of massage and early passive movements in recent fractures and other common surgical injuries and the treatment of internal derangements of the knee-joint*. 12 illustrations. London, 1900; 1902; 5th ed 1910.