Cartoon by Collingsby of George Bennett exhibited in 1879

George Bennett, a postman, born o 18th November 1851. Besides being a postman George kept the Little Wonder stationery, tobacco and confectionery shop at Fair Green. He also caned chairs, did a bit of photography, and repaired bicycles. In his leisure time George ‘did a bit of running in local sports’, and was a sergeant in the Volunteers. On his retirement from the postal service, which he had joined ‘at 5.30 a.m. November 18th 1869 and left after 48 years service ‘at 7.30 p.m. November 17th 1917′.

George Bennett became a beekeeper, partly because he had been informed that bee stings were a cure for rheumatism. According to George, the cure worked. At 95 years of age he was still active, exhibiting honey, wax and bee material at local shows. Tom Francis observed that it either said much for the cartoonist’s ability that people who knew George Bennett in the 1940s could still recognise him in a drawing made some sixty years before, or else ‘said more’ for the virility and vigour of the veteran himself.

From Tom Francis’s notes on slide 61.