Philip Bent

Lieutenant Colonel Philip Eric Bent (3 January 1891 – 1 October 1917) was a Canadian British Army officer recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Biography Bent was born on 3 January 1891 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh and Ashby Grammar School, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. He joined the training ship in 1907. He served two years as a cadet and then went to sea. He was taking his Merchant Navy officer's ticket when the war broke out in 1914.

He and a friend joined a Scottish regiment "for a bit of fun" as the war was anticipated to be over by Christmas. He was commissioned in the Leicestershire Regiment, British Army, in November 1914.

Bent was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in the 1917 Birthday Honours.

He was 26 years old, and a temporary lieutenant-colonel commanding the 9th (Service) Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, during the First World War when he performed the deed for which he was posthumously awarded the VC on 1 October 1917, east of Polygon Wood, Zonnebeke, Belgium. He was killed whilst leading a charge. His citation reads:

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the memorial wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium.

Legacy and medals

Bent's officer's sword is displayed in All Saints' Cathedral in his hometown of Halifax. His name is on the War Memorial outside St Alban's Church, Beacon Hill, Hindhead, Surrey. In 2015 a new road in Ashby-de-la-Zouch was named "Philip Bent Road"; this is located approximately 0.6 miles west of the town centre off Moira Road (B5006).

In 2016, Ashby School proposed to auction the medals won by Bent that had been donated to the school by his mother "to inspire future pupils". The medals had been on long-term loan to the Royal Leicestershire Regimental Museum (now part of Newarke Houses Museum in Leicester) since 1972, but had not been on display there for over forty years; In May 2016 the school was unable to prove ownership.

The school planned to use the proceeds of selling Bent's medals to fund the building of a sports pavilion.