Tom St. Amand & Tom Slater
When most Sarnians enlisted in the Great War they were in their teens or early twenties, but a few defied the trend.
Dr. David Bentley was 49 when he volunteered in September of 1914, more than double the age of most soldiers he would care for in Europe.
Born in Warwick Township in 1864, Bentley graduated in medicine from the University of Toronto before living in Oil Springs and Forest. He moved to Sarnia in 1894 and established a medical practice in the town.
When Bentley joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps, 2nd Field Ambulance, with the rank of Major, he left behind his wife, Alice, and four children.
Thirty-one months later Dr. Bentley was dead, but not before he had treated thousands of wounded soldiers, saved many lives and gained a sterling reputation. And he never stopped dreaming of returning to Sarnia.
The No. 2 Canadian Stationary Hospital was initially located in England and treated a revolving complement of 300 sick or wounded men. The work was strenuous, but the doctors who performed the surgeries had a high rate of success and were recognized as “a credit to the Dominion.”
When the unit was assigned to France, the task, already demanding, became even more hectic.
In a letter to his wife Alice, dated April 30, 1915, Dr. Bentley briefly described the effect of Ypres:
“I was at the main dressing station and during the four days there passed an average of 600 wounded daily. I worked through it all . . . I had two tables going and had one patient being prepared while attending to another. We went on for hours and hours with no let up.”
Pte. John Carolan of Sarnia was one of those who owed his life to Dr. Bentley.
Carolan was shot through the head and was carried to the rear of the battlefield. Nearly unconscious from blood loss and exposure, he was lying in a crowded tent when he spotted a familiar face through his hazy vision. He remembers Major Bentley saying, “Why, that’s one of my boys.”
Bentley went to work on his fellow Sarnian. One account described how “the wounds in his skull, where the bullet entered and plowed its way out, are [stable],” adding the private was “well on the road to recovery.”
His was one of many saved by the good doctor.
After serving on the front lines between Armentieres and Ypres for three months, Major Bentley’s return to England was long overdue. He assumed command of the Canadian Convalescent Hospital in Kent, and three months later was appointed to command the Canadian Medical Stores, Base Depot in Southampton.
Major Bentley was never entirely well after his time in France, exposure to mustard gas having apparently taken its toll. Nevertheless, he always completed his duties.
Bentley was eventually diagnosed with pneumonia, from which he never recovered. Confined to a hospital bed in his last few months, he said he wanted nothing more than to return to his beloved home on Wellington Street.
On April 5, 1917, Major Bentley died in England with members of his immediate family at his bedside. For his unselfish care of others, he was awarded the British War Medal, the Silver Memorial Cross, and the 1914-1915 Star.
Major David Bentley, 52, was laid to rest with full military honours in Ramsgate and St. Lawrence Cemetery, in Kent.
The name of Sarnia’s oldest fallen soldier in the Great War is also inscribed on our cenotaph.