Cyril Benoni Holman Hunt

Cyril Benoni Holman Hunt (27 October 1866 – 25 July 1934) was a tea planter, agriculturalist and entomologist, and the eldest son of William Holman Hunt, an English painter, and one of the three founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Early life and education Holman Hunt was born in Florence, Italy on 27 October 1866. Within a few weeks his mother Fanny died from complications relating to the birth, and his father decided to give him the middle name "Benoni" meaning "son of sorrow" in Hebrew.

He spent much of his childhood living with his grandparents in Paddington, London whilst his father frequently travelled in connection with his work. When his father wedded Fanny's sister in 1875, Holman-Hunt suffered from resentment from his step-mother who was jealous of his relationship with his father.

Career In 1890, much to the disappointment of his father, he resigned his position at the hospital and sought work abroad, finding employment in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on a tea plantation with Eastern Produce and Estate Company. After a few years, he left and joined another tea plantation, the Meddecombra Estate in Dimbula, where he worked for 11 years as assistant manager before he accepted employment with Labukella and Rothschild.

For the next 13 years, until his retirement in 1921, he worked as an entomologist in the Government's Agricultural Department, researching diseases affecting rubber trees.

Retirement Before returning to England he wrote a book, Indo-Malayan Musings in Verse, which was published in Kuala Lumpur in 1921, and included descriptions of the struggles experienced by young, foreign planters working in the East. Back in England he went to live in Dorset, and died in Bridport in 1934 following an operation, aged 67, and was cremated at Golders Green, London. He never married.