Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - George Frederick Bennett, charity worker and former soldier, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London, while watching the rehearsal of a variety programme in an adjacent studio.

George, who was known as Benny, fought in the Matabele Uprising in Southern Rhodesia in 1896 and later in the Boer War in South Africa. He then ran lumber camps in Canada and America before enlisting with the British Army during the First World War, winning the Distinguished Conduct Medal at the Battle of Bapaume in France.

On his return to Britain, he found himself homeless and, after living as a tramp for 16 months, he became involved with the Wayfarer's Benevolent Association, initially as a fundraiser and then as Warden at Chilton Hall in Ferryhill, co Durham, where he looked after hundreds of homeless boys during the 1940s and 1950s.

programme details...

• Edition No: 131
• Subject No: 131
• Broadcast live: Mon 26 Sep 1960
• Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
• Venue: BBC Riverside Studios
• Series: 6
• Edition: 2

on the guest list...

• Sidney Ingleton
• Jack Harkness
• Mrs J T Gibbons
• Sir William Chaytor
• Bobbie Brown
• William Chambers
• John Chambers
• Fred Ainsworth
• Lilian Ainsworth
• Jack Harris
Filmed tribute:
• Vera - wife

production team...

• Writer: T Leslie Jackson
• Researcher: T Leslie Jackson
• Director: Michael Goodwin
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

A Charitable Life

the unsung heroes

The Audience

the applause, laughter and tears

Photographs of George Bennett This Is Your Life