William Gurney Benham

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William Gurney Benham

Gurney Benham c. 1916
Born (1859-02-16)February 16, 1859
Colchester, Essex, England
Died May 13, 1944(1944-05-13) (aged 85)
Colchester, Essex, England
Children Hervey Benham

Sir William Gurney Benham Kt, JP, FSA, FRHistS, (pronounced Ben'am; 16 February 1859[1] in Colchester, England - 13 May 1944,[2] also in Colchester[3]) was a newspaper editor, published author and three times Mayor of Colchester.

Gurney Benham was born on 16 February 1859 and educated at the Merchant Taylors' School until 1873,[4] and thereafter 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] Gurney Benham was the son of Edward Benham, a printer, and father to Hervey Benham, himself an author. His first job was as a journalist in Wiltshire from 1881 to 1884.[4]

He took over the family printing business and edited the Essex County Standard from 1884.[4] A "conscientious as well as an excellent scholar",[5][6] 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".[7] For ten years he was also editor of the Essex Review.[8]

In addition, Gurney Benham was mayor of Colchester three times, for the years 1892/93, 1908/09 and 1933/34,[9] 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,[6] 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 on 13 May 1944.[2] Gurney Benham Close, a street in Colchester is 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. 1907, revised 1948.  [10]
  • Prose quotations: classified under prose-headings, and fully indexed. London: Cassell. 1926. 
  • A Short History of Playing Cards
  • Benham's New Book of Quotations
  • The oath book; or, Red parchment book of Colchester

References

  1. ↑ "Birthdays". The Independent. 16 February 1996. Retrieved 2 January 2010. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Obituary". Gas journal. 243/4. 1944. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Obituary list: The Late Sir Gurney Benham". The Colcestrian (Colchester Royal Grammar School). July 1944. pp. 30–1. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Merchant Taylors' School register, 1851-1920. 1923. p. 70. 
  5. ↑ Partridge, Eric (1986). Dictionary of Catch Phrases. London: Routledge. p. 251. ISBN 0-415-05916-X. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 A P Baggs, Beryl Board, Philip Crummy, Claude Dove, Shirley Durgan, N R Goose, R B Pugh, Pamela Studd, C C Thornton (1994). "Social and cultural institutions". In Janet Cooper, C R Elrington. A History of the County of Essex (The Borough of Colchester) 9. pp. 298–303. Retrieved 2009-04-08. 
  7. ↑ "Benham's Book of Quotations: Proverbs and Household Words [review]". The Journal of Education 81: 56. 1949. 
  8. ↑ The Antiquaries Journal (Society of Antiquaries of London) 24/5. 1944 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8bA8AAAAIAAJ |url= missing title (help). 
  9. ↑ "Colchester Borough Mayors since 1836". Colchester Borough Council. 9 July 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2010. 
  10. ↑ Partridge, Eric (1986). Dictionary of Catch Phrases. London: Routledge. Abbreviations. ISBN 0-415-05916-X. 

External links

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