William Noel Benson

William Noel Benson FRS FRGS (26 December 1885 – 20 August 1957) was an English-born research geologist and academic active first in Australia and then New Zealand. After studying geology at the University of Sydney, Benson worked temporarily at the University of Adelaide before returning to Sydney as a demonstrator. After winning an 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship in 1910 he left Sydney to study at the University of Cambridge, where he worked until 1913. He returned to Sydney in 1914 as the Macleay Fellow in Geology, leaving in 1917 to become Chair of the Geology Department at the University of Otago, where for many years he was the only lecturer. During his lifetime he published over 100 papers and won several awards, including the Clarke Medal and the Lyell Medal. He died on 20 August 1957 following his retirement from academia in 1951.

Early life and education Benson was born on 26 December 1885 in Anerley, London, England, to William Benson, a Quaker shipping manager, and his wife Emma Elizabeth Benson, who was also descended from another branch of the Benson family. Soon after his birth the family moved to Tasmania, where he studied at the Friends' School, Hobart between 1897 and 1902. After scientific training at the University of Tasmania he started studying Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Sydney in 1905, where he was taught by Sir Edgeworth David. His first paper, on the contact aureola of a granitic body, was published before he even finished his degree, and after graduating in 1907 with First Class Honours he temporarily worked as a lecturer at the University of Adelaide.

Despite spending the first nine years at Otago as the only lecturer in the Department of Geology, In 1949 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1951 an honorary member of the Mineralogical Society of London.