Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Bennett, Edward Hallaran
BENNETT, EDWARD HALLARAN (1837–1907), surgeon, born at Charlotte Quay, Cork, on 9 April 1837, was youngest child in the family of five sons of Robert Bennett, recorder of Cork, by his wife Jane, daughter of William Saunders Hallaran, M.D., of Cork, who made some reputation as a writer on insanity (Cork, 1810 and 1818). His grandfather, James Bennett, was also a physician in Cork. A kinsman, James Richard Bennett, was a distinguished teacher of anatomy in Paris about 1825. An elder brother, Robert Bennett, served all through the Crimean war, and retired in 1886 with the rank of major-general. After education at Hamblin's school in Cork, and at the Academical Institute, Harcourt Street, Dublin, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1854, and in 1859 graduated B.A. and M.B., also receiving the new degree of M.Ch., which was then conferred for the first time. He pursued his professional studies in the school of physic, Trinity College, and in Dr. Steevens', the Meath, the Richmond, and Sir Patrick Dun's Hospitals. In 1863 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, without having become a licentiate. In 1864 he proceeded M.D., and was appointed university anatomist in Dublin University, the post carrying with it the office of surgeon to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital. In 1873 he became professor of surgery in Trinity College, and curator of the pathological museum. These posts, with the surgeoncy to Sir Patrick Dun's, he held till 1906. In 1880 he was president of the Pathological Society of Dublin. From 1884 to 1886 he was president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; from 1894 to 1897 he was president of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland; and from 1897 to 1906 he represented the University of Dublin on the General Medical Council. During the viceroyalty of the Earl of Dudley (1902–5) he was surgeon to the lord-lieutenant, and in 1900 he was made honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Bennett was an authority on fractures of bones. His best work is the collection of fractures and dislocations in the pathological museum of Trinity College. This was begun by R. W. Smith, whom he succeeded as curator in 1873, and was formed by Bennett into one of the most important collections of the kind in the kingdom. He spent years in compiling a catalogue furnished with notes and clinical histories, but it remained unfinished. He frequently published communications and reports dealing with the surgery and pathology of bones. In 1881 he described before the Dublin Pathological Society a form of fracture of the base of the metacarpal bone of the thumb previously unrecognised (Dublin Journal of Medical Science, lxxiii.). It closely simulates dislocation and is now universally known as 'Bennett's fracture' ( Miles and Struthers, Edin. Medical Journal, April 1904). As an operating surgeon he was one of the earliest in Ireland to apply Listerian methods. As a teacher, he was forcible and practical, and he enlightened the driest subject with touches of humour.
Bennett died on 21 June 1907 at his residence, 26 Lower FitzWilliam Street, Dublin, and was buried at Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin. On 20 Dec. 1870 he married Frances, daughter of Conolly Norman of Fahan, co. Donegal, and first cousin of Conolly Norman [q. v. Suppl. II]. He had two daughters, of whom one, Norah Mary, survived him. Two bronze portrait medallions by Mr. Oliver Sheppard, R.H.A., were placed respectively in the school of physic, Trinity College, and in Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital by subscription of his pupils. A bronze medal, to be awarded biennially to the winner of the surgical travelling prize in the school of physic, also bears on one side Mr. Sheppard's portrait of Bennett, and on the other a metacarpal bone showing 'Bennett's fracture.'
Obituary notice in Dublin Journal of Medical Science (by Sir J. W. Moore), July 1907; Cameron's History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; Todd's Catalogue of Graduates in Dublin University; Dublin University Calendars; MS. Entrance Book, Trinity College, Dublin; private sources and personal knowledge.]