James Mather Bennet was born to grocer, John Bennett, and Margaretta Bennett of Marine Approach, South Shields.

James was initially at Westoe Elementary School, and in 1905 moved to the Boys High School on a Corporation Scholarship.

At the age of 15 he left school to be a "boy clerk in Civil Service", and soon moved down to London as a junior clerk.

He enlisted with the territorial Tyneside Commercial Corps as a Lieutenant, and was wounded in the knee, probably on 30-Jun-1916, just before the Battle of Albert in the Somme.

He survived the war, and died in Tynemouth around May of 1970.