Person    | Male  Born 9/6/1902  Died 7/12/1955

Eric Benfield, FRSA

Eric Benfield, FRSA

Eric Benfield was born on 9 June 1902 in Swanage, Dorset, the third of the four children of Charles Benfield (1866-1936) and Adelaide Benfield née Smith (1868-1943). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1902 in the Wareham registration district, Dorset.

He was shown as a school boy on the 1911 census return form completed by his father, living in five rooms at Mill Pond, Swanage, with his parents and three siblings: Lilian Benfield (b.1897), Arthur Benfield (1898-1918) and Vera May Benfield (1904-1994). His father described himself as a stonemason.

His younger brother, Arthur, was killed in action whilst serving as a Private in the 1st Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment, on 18 September 1918 in France.

His marriage to Maud Curtis (1903-1952) was registered in the 4th quarter of 1922 in the Wareham registration district and they had three children: Hazel Benfield (b.1923), Charles Arthur Benfield (1926-1996) and Mary Benfield (b.1927).

We learn from the Open Democracy website that he started work as a stone-worker in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset and that he left his invalid wife and three children to live with the author Kathleen Nesta Knight Wade (1903-1986). In the 1939 England and Wales Register he is described as a sculptor & author at 5 Alexandra Cottages, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, the home of Albert Morris, a bricklayer and his wife Annie C. Morris.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a writer of many books, some of which are listed on the Amazon website. From Wikipedia: "The former Park Prewett Mental Hospital was the setting for the novel Poison in the Shade (1953), by Eric Benfield, a local author and sculptor who worked as an art therapist at that hospital."

He suffered a paralysing stroke, and eventually committed suicide by shooting himself, aged 53 years, on 7 December 1955, his death being registered in the 4th quarter of 1955 in the Basingstoke registration district, Hampshire. He was buried on 13 December 1955 in the parish of Worth Matravers, Dorset.

Probate records show that he had lived 8 Newnham Road, Old Basing, Basingstoke, Hampshire, and that when administration with a will was granted on 30 May 1956 to his three children: Hazel Bugler, Charles Arthur Benfield (who was described as a chemist) and Mary Cave, his effects totalled £827-1s-11d. 

Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Eric Benfield, FRSA

Creations i

Stone Bomb Anti-war Monument

Airplanes were used in WW1 but there was strong opposition to aerial bombing....

Read More

Other Subjects

Moby Dick

Moby Dick

Written by Herman Melville. First published, in London, in 1851.

Animal, Literature, Seriously Famous

1 memorial
Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett

Born 92 (then 90) Hope Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. The "Five Towns" in his novels are based on this area, "the Potteries" as it was in his youth. Some would have called him a "champagne social...

Person, Literature

3 memorials
The Village in the Jungle

The Village in the Jungle

Novel written by Leonard Woolf, published 1913, based on his experiences as a colonial civil servant in British-controlled Ceylon, but unusually written from the native point of view.

Fiction, Literature, Ceylon

1 memorial
John Wyndham

John Wyndham

Author. Born John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, in Dorridge near Knowle, Warwickshire. Most of his novels are about terrestrial apocalypses (he disliked the term science-fiction). The best kn...

Person, Literature

1 memorial
Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton

Children's writer. Born Enid Mary Blyton at 354 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich. Best known for creating the character of Little Noddy and the 'Famous Five' stories. Her works have been translated into...

Person, Children, Literature, Race Issues, Seriously Famous

4 memorials