English man of letters, born on the 24th of April 1862. He was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. He became fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was a master at Eton College from 1885 to 1903. He was in 1915 elected master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. His literary capacity was early shown in the remarkable fiction of his Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton (1886) under the pseudonym of “Christopher Carr,” and his Poems (1893) and Lyrics (1895) established his reputation as a writer of verse. Among his works are Fasti Etonenses (1899); his father, Edward White Benson’s Life (1899); The Schoolmaster (1902), a commentary on the aims and methods of an assistant schoolmaster in a public school; a study of Archbishop Laud (1887); monographs on D. G. Rossetti (1904), Edward Fitzgerald (1905) and Walter Pater (1906), in the “English Men of Letters” series; Lord Vyet and other Poems (1897), Peace and other Poems (1905); The Upton Letters (1905), From a College Window (1906), Beside Still Waters (1907); Ruskin: a Study in Personality (1911) and biographies of his brother Hugh: Memoirs of a Brother (1915) and of his sister Life and Letters of Maggie Benson (1917), besides various volumes of essays and prose sketches. He also collaborated with Lord Esher in editing the Correspondence of Queen Victoria (1907). See also “Prelude,” etc. (See authored article: Richard William Church.)
