Benson 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; in 1859 from Rug­by to Well­ing­ton Coll­ege, where he was head­mas­ter for 14 years; in 1872 from Wel­ling­ton Coll­ege 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; trans­lat­ed var­i­ous La­tin and Greek hymns; and wrote:

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

Sources

Hymns

1. O Throned, O Crowned with All Renown
   • O Jesus, Crowned with All Renown

Translations

1. Angulare Fun­da­men­tum
2. Tristes er­ant Apos­to­li
3. Dies Irae
4. O Luce Qui mor­tal­i­bus
5. Te lu­cis ante ter­mi­num