William H. Bennett

Who was William H. Bennett?

Sir William Henry Bennett, KCVO, FRCS was a British surgeon.

Bennett was a Wiltshireman, the son of William Francis Bennett, of Chilmark.

He held several administrative posts in medical establishments, including at St George's Hospital, where he was a senior surgeon.

Bennett introduced London doctors to massage as a treatment modality for new fractures in 1898 and he established a department of massage at St. George´s. However, his most important contribution to medical science was a paper in which he introduced the surgical procedure of posterior rhizotomy for the relief of spasmodic pain in a lower extremity.

He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in July 1901, for services rendered to sick and wounded returning from the Boer War, South Africa, 1900–02, for which he was publicly thanked by Lord Roberts.

During the War 1914–1919 he relinquished all private affairs to take up work with British Red Cross and the Order of St John

Bennett married first, in 1882, Isabel Dickinson, daughter of Thomas Dickinson. After his first wife´s death, he married second, in 1914, Gladys Florence Stewart Hartigan, daughter of Rev. Allen S. Hartigan