William Benham

Born on January 15, 1831, at West Meon in Hampshire, William Benham was educated first at the village school and later at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was ordained in the Church of England and went on to a long clerical career, eventually becoming an honorary canon of Canterbury.

Alongside his church work, he wrote extensively. Benham produced books on religious subjects, biography, and English history, and he is especially remembered for works connected with old London and St Paul's Cathedral. His writing had the steady, informative tone of a Victorian man of letters who wanted serious subjects to remain approachable.

He died on August 3, 1910. For listeners interested in older nonfiction and historical writing, Benham offers a window into how late 19th-century readers understood the English church, public life, and the city's past.