William Gurney Benham

William Gurney Benham
William Gurney Benham
	Gurney Benham c. 1916
Born	16 February 1859; Colchester, Essex, England
Died	13 May 1944 (aged 85); Colchester, Essex, England
Nationality	British
Children	Hervey Benham

Sir William Gurney Benham, FSA, FRHS (/ˈbɛnəm/; 16 February 1859 – 13 May 1944) was a British newspaper editor, published author and three times Mayor of Colchester.

Early life and family

William Benham was born on 16 February 1859 to Edward Benham, a printer, and Mary Carr. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School until 1873^[4] and then at Colchester Royal Grammar School, a school about which he has written, of whose old boys' society he was later President and which still has a building named after him.^[3] In 1880 he married Maria Louisa Quilter and had four children: Cecil Edward Gurney Benham (1881–1929), Violet Inez Benham (1882–1968), Gerald Carr Benham (1883–1962) and Charles Benham (1884–1945). ^[5] In 1904 he married Ethel Hervey Elwes and had three children: Edith Tayspill Benham (1905-1955), Hervey William Gurney Benham (1910-1987) and Maura Elwes Mary Benham (1912-1995).

Career

His first job was as a journalist in Wiltshire in 1881.^[4] In 1884 he took over the family printing business and began his 59-year editorship of the Essex County Standard.^[4] From 1892 to 1929 he edited the newspaper jointly with his brother, Charles Edwin Benham. A "conscientious as well as an excellent scholar",^[6]^[7] he is now mainly known through his many publications, many of which are transcriptions of official documents from mediaeval times, particularly those related to his home town of Colchester. He also compiled a number of books of quotations, leading a reviewer in the Journal of Education to comment after his death, "it is remarkable that one man — Sir William Gurney Benham — was able to collect and arrange some fifty thousand quotations and proverbs".^[8] For ten years he was also editor of the Essex Review.^[9]

In addition, Gurney Benham was mayor of Colchester three times, for the years 1892/93, 1908/09 and 1933/34,^[10] in 1933 was appointed to the honour of High Steward of Colchester and was knighted in 1935 in recognition of his public service.^[3] He remained editor of the Standard until 1943,^[7] and was a director of the Colchester Gas Company for over forty years, being chairman until his resignation on grounds of ill health the day before his death.^[2]

Death and legacy

Benham died on 13 May 1944.^[2]

Gurney Benham Close, a street in Colchester, and Gurney Benham House, a building on the Colchester Royal Grammar School campus, are named after him.

Publications

Playing Cards: The History and Secrets of the Pack
Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words (1924, reprinted 1929)
Dictionary of Quotations. 1948 [1907].^[11]
Prose quotations: classified under prose-headings, and fully indexed. London: Cassell. 1926.
A Short History of Playing Cards
The Benham Book of Palmistry 1988
Benham's New Book of Quotations. 1988
The oath book; or, Red parchment book of Colchester

^ "Birthdays". The Independent. 16 February 1996. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Obituary". Gas Journal. 243/4. 1944.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Obituary list: The Late Sir Gurney Benham". The Colcestrian. Colchester Royal Grammar School. July 1944. pp. 30–1.
^ ^a ^b ^c School, Merchant Taylors'; Merchant Taylors' School (London, England) (1923). Merchant Taylors' School register, 1851-1920. p. 70.
^ Obit in Newsman-Herald, Chelmsford, Essex, England, 16 May 1944
^ Partridge, Eric (1986). Dictionary of Catch Phrases. London: Routledge. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-415-05916-9.
^ ^a ^b A P Baggs; Beryl Board; Philip Crummy; Claude Dove; Shirley Durgan; N R Goose; R B Pugh; Pamela Studd; C C Thornton (1994). Janet Cooper; C R Elrington (eds.). Social and cultural institutions. Vol. 9. pp. 298–303. Retrieved 8 April 2009. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ "Benham's Book of Quotations: Proverbs and Household Words [review]". The Journal of Education. 81: 56. 1949.
^ "The Antiquaries Journal". The Antiquaries Journal. 24/5. 1944.
^ "Colchester Borough Mayors since 1836". Colchester Borough Council. 9 July 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
^ Partridge, Eric (1986). Dictionary of Catch Phrases. London: Routledge. Abbreviations. ISBN 978-0-415-05916-9.