Here's another story RD-B shared with me:

Richard Dyer-Bennet's father's name was originally Dyer. (A 1941 Time magazine article says that RD-B's father was related to a British baronet named Sir John Dyer.) RD-B's father had a very close friend whose family name was Bennet. This close friend was an only child and he had no children. He was concerned that the Bennet name would end when he died. For the sake of his close friend, RD-B's father went to court and had his name changed to Dyer-Bennet.

RD-B's father was a professional soldier, an officer. His unit took part in World War I. His unit was decimated. Only seven or eight men survived. Because of his war experience, RD-B's father gave up soldiering to become a farmer in Canada in 1919.

RD-B's father separated from his mother a few years later. (His mother took RD-B and his brother and moved to California in 1925.) Knowing what we know now about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—it was known as "shell shock" then—it is likely that the trauma of war experienced by RD-B's father made it difficult for him to maintain his relationship with his wife and kids.