He was described by one biographer as a "flamboyant personality who seems to have aroused in his contemporaries varying degrees of ridicule, hostility, and admiration".

[1] The eldest son of John Bennett, watchmaker, of Greenwich, he was educated at Colfe's Grammar School, Lewisham.

She was, in fact, his long term mistress and bore him seven children; Lillie, Lionel, Violet, Rose, Horace, Gerald Munro and Douglas Thurlow, all of whom took their mother's surname.

A second record of 1899 grants probate to Edward Jones Trustram, solicitor, the attorney of Aimée Guilbert, spinster.

[7] A notice in the London Gazette of 29 September 1899 asking all creditors of the estate to contact Trustram states that Aimée Guilbert was named executrix in the will.

He was reporting as appearing in the Lord Mayor's Show mounted on a white horse whilst dressed in a black velvet jacket and a broad-brimmed hat.

On his third return, the Court of Aldermen declared his opponent duly elected, despite his having fewer votes cast in his favour than Bennett.