Introduction

Biography

Edward was the fa­ther of hym­nist Ar­thur Ben­son.

He was edu­cat­ed at King Ed­ward’s School in Birm­ing­ham, and at Tri­ni­ty Col­lege, Cam­bridge. At Cam­bridge he earned his de­gree in 1852 as sen­ior op­ti­me and first class Clas­sic­al Tri­pos, also win­ning the dis­tinc­tion of Sen­ior Chan­cel­lor’s Clas­sic­al Med­al­ist. He sub­se­quent­ly be­came a fel­low of Tri­ni­ty Col­lege.

In 1852, he passed from Cam­bridge to Rug­by as as­sist­ant mas­ter, and in 1859 from Rug­by to Well­ing­ton Col­lege, where he was head­mas­ter for 14 years.

In 1872 he moved to Lin­coln, as chan­cel­lor of the ca­thed­ral; in 1877 from Lin­coln to Tru­ro, as first bi­shop of that dio­cese. He left Tru­ro in 1883 to be­come Arch­bi­shop of Can­ter­bu­ry. He al­so served as Pre­ben­da­ry of Lin­coln and Chap­lain to the Queen.

Benson con­trib­ut­ed to the Dic­tion­ary of Chris­tian Bi­og­ra­phy; co-ed­it­ed the 1856 edi­tion of the Rug­by School Hymn-book; ed­it­ed the Well­ing­ton Col­lege Cha­pel Hymn Book, 1860, 1863 & 1873; and trans­lat­ed va­ri­ous La­tin and Greek hymns.

Other Works

• Work, Friend­ship, Wor­ship (Uni­ver­si­ty Ser­mons at Cam­bridge: 1871)
• Boy Life
• Sundays in Well­ing­ton Col­lege, 1874
• Singleheart, 1877