James B Bennett was listed as resident from about 1897 at No. 7 Malta Terrrace, the former home of his business partner John Buchanan. About 1903 he moved to 2 Thorburn Road, Colinton.
James Bower Bennett was born in Falkirk in 1859, the son of George Bennett, and was educated at Alloa Parish School and Dollar Academy. He was articled to Thomas Frame of Alloa as architect and civil engineer and came to Edinburgh in 1883 as assistant to John Buchanan, CE: it was probably at that time he studied civil engineering at Heriot Watt. In or about 1888 John Buchanan took him into partnership with the practice title of Buchanan & Bennett, the office then being at 24 George Street, Edinburgh. Bennett was then living at 12 Antigua Street, moving first to 37 South Clerk Street in about 1890 and then to 26 Nelson Street in about 1892.
He appears to have been Roman Catholic, two of his four works in architecture as opposed to engineering being an addition to St Mary’s RC Cathedral Edinburgh and St Cuthbert’s Church at Slateford. Bennett’s business principally consisted of water and sewage schemes. He was a man of wide interests, politics (although he does not seem to have sought election), antiquarian pursuits, particularly 17th and 18th century literature, and angling. For a time at least he must have achieved a considerable standing as he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
He married Florence Smyth of Temeside, Ludlow, Shropshire in 1893. She was born at Duddingston in 1857 and was listed at 7 Malta Terrace in the 1901 census.