William Blaxland Benham, 1860 - 1950

Abstract

William Blaxland Benham was born on 29 March 1860 at Tsleworth, Middlesex, England, the sixth child of Edward (originally Ebenezer) Benham, a London solicitor, who during the year of his death (1871) was President of the Law Society. Elis mother had been Mary A. Shoppee of Uxbridge, Middlesex, daughter of a London merchant. There is no record of special interest in science or of noteworthy public activities in any member of the Benham family prior to those of Wm B. Benham, though his paternal grandfather, as a publisher, had produced a number of books on natural history. His surroundings and immediate ancestry were those of a fairly prosperous professional family. His boyhood was very healthy and happy, spent in a large house with spacious grounds adjacent to the home of the Duke of Northumberland.