Mary Sidgwick Benson

Mary Sidgwick Benson (1841, Skipton, Yorkshire - 1918, East Sussex) was a Victorian hostess, notable as the wife of Edward Benson, who later became archbishop of Canterbury, and for her later relationship with Lucy Tait, daughter of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Campbell Tait. Born Mary Sidgwick and nicknamed Minnie,^[1] she was the sister of the philosopher Henry Sidgwick. She was described by Gladstone as the 'cleverest woman in Europe'.

Life

She and Benson were married on 23 June 1859 at Rugby by Frederick Temple. They had six children. Their fifth child was the novelist E. F. Benson. Another son was A. C. Benson, the author of the lyrics to Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory" and master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Their sixth and youngest child, Robert Hugh Benson, became a minister of the Church of England before converting to Catholicism and writing many popular novels. Their daughter Margaret Benson was an artist, author, and amateur Egyptologist. None of the children married; and some of them appeared to suffer from mental illnesses, probably bipolar disorder. After Benson's death in 1896, Mary set up household with Lucy Tait, daughter of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Campbell Tait, who had first moved in with the Bensons in 1889.^[2]

References

1. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/09/good-god-mary-benson-review
2. ^ Vicinus, Martha (2004). Intimate Friends: women who loved women (1778–1928). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-85563-5.

External links

• http://auden.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/auden/individual.php?pid=I10766&ged=auden-bicknell.ged
• http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/3683031/The_lesbians_of_Lambeth_Palace/

Persondata
Name	Benson
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1841
Place of birth
Date of death	1918
Place of death