Benjamin Harrison

Benjamin Harrison (1771–1856) was an English hospital administrator, known as an influential treasurer of Guy's Hospital in London.

Life The fourth son of Benjamin Harrison (1734–1797), also treasurer of Guy's Hospital (himself second son of Sir Thomas Harrison (1700–1765), chamberlain of the city of London), he was born at West Ham on 29 July 1771. He lived for twelve years with his father at Guy's, and succeeded him in the treasurership in 1797. Caricature depicting Benjamin Harrison as a king on a throne, with his subjects prostrating themselves.

For fifty years Harrison governed the hospital and managed its estates, despotically and without salary. With Sir Astley Cooper he, in 1825, established Guy's as a complete medical school separate from St. Thomas's Hospital, with which it had always previously been allied.