John Edmund Bentley (17 January 1847 – 12 December 1913) was an English sportsman who played in the first international rugby football match in 1871, representing England as a halfback.

John Edmund Bentley was born in Calver, Derbyshire, the second son of Alfred Crompton,[4] an industrialist and Charlotte Selina Wilson.

Arthur Guillemard of the Chislehurst-based West Kent Football Club, who also played in those first two international games, said of Bentley that he was very fast and much helped by his weight and strength, "which on one occasion at Chislehurst enabled him to run-in carrying two of his opponents on his back as if they were rag dolls".

"[10] John Edmund Bentley married Margaret Richardson, eldest daughter of George Clerihew, MD Inspector-General of Hospitals, on 23 April 1874 at St Barnabas, Kensington.

[13] John's eldest son, Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956) became a famous writer, journalist, and was also renowned as the inventor of the 'clerihew', a form of poetry.