Queer Places:
Eton College, Windsor SL4 6DW, UK
University Of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2, UK
Hare Street, Buntingford SG9 0DZ, UK
Robert
Hugh Benson AFSC KC*SG KGCHS (18 November 1871 – 19 October 1914) was an
English Anglican priest who in 1903 was received into the Roman Catholic
Church in which he was ordained priest in 1904. He was a prolific writer of
fiction and wrote the notable dystopian novel Lord of the World (1907).
His output encompassed historical, horror and science fiction, contemporary
fiction, children's stories, plays, apologetics, devotional works and
articles. He continued his writing career at the same time as he progressed
through the hierarchy to become a Chamberlain to the Pope in 1911 and
subsequently titled Monsignor.
Benson was the youngest son of Edward White Benson (Archbishop of
Canterbury) and his wife,
Mary, and the younger brother of
Edward Frederic Benson and
A. C. Benson.[1]
BBenson was educated at Eton College and then studied classics and theology
at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1890 to 1893.[2]
IIn 1895, Benson was ordained a priest in the Church of England by his
father, who was the then Archbishop of Canterbury.
After his father died suddenly in 1896, Benson was sent on a trip to the
Middle East to recover his own health. While there he began to question the
status of the Church of England and to consider the claims of the Roman
Catholic Church. His own piety began to tend toward the High Church tradition,
and he started exploring religious life in various Anglican communities,
eventually obtaining permission to join the Community of the Resurrection.
Benson made his profession as a member of the community in 1901, at which
time he had no thoughts of leaving the Church of England. As he continued his
studies and began writing, however, he became more and more uneasy with his
own doctrinal position and, on 11 September 1903, he was received into the
Catholic Church. He was awarded the Dignitary of Honour of the Order of the
Holy Sepulchre.
Benson was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1904 and sent to
Cambridge. He continued his writing career along with his ministry as a
priest.
Like both his brothers, Edward Frederic Benson ("Fred") and Arthur
Christopher Benson, Robert wrote many ghost and horror stories, as well as
children's stories and historical fiction. His horror and ghost fiction are
collected in The Light Invisible (1903)
and A Mirror of Shallott (1907).[1]
His novel, Lord of the World (1907), is generally regarded as one of
the first modern dystopian novels.[1]
The bibliography below reveals a prodigious output.
BBenson was appointed a supernumerary private chamberlain to the Pope (Pius
X) in 1911 and consequently styled as Monsignor.
As a young man, Benson recalled, he had rejected the idea of marriage as
"quite inconceivable".[3]
He had a close friendship with "Baron Corvo", alias the notorious
novelist Frederick
Rolfe, with whom he had hoped to write a book on Thomas Becket, until
Benson decided that he should not be associated (according to writer Brian
Masters)[4]
"with a Venetian pimp and procurer of boys". Nevertheless he maintained his
friendship with
Lord Alfred Douglas, the friend and lover of
Oscar Wilde, and when an
acquaintance who protested that the connection with Douglas was inappropriate
for him, he replied: "Lord Alfred Douglas is my friend, and he'll come down
when he likes!"[4]
BBenson died in 1914 in Salford, where he had been preaching a mission. He
was 42. At his request, he was buried in the orchard of Hare Street House, his
house in the Hertfordshire village of Hare Street.[5]
A chapel, dedicated to St Hugh, was built over the site. Benson bequeathed the
house to the Catholic Church as a county retreat for the Archbishop of
Westminster. The Roman Catholic church in the nearby town of Buntingford,
which he helped finance, is dedicated to St Richard of Chichester, but also
known as the Benson Memorial Church.[6]
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hugh_Benson
- Homosexuals in History, A Study of Ambivalence in Society, Literature
and the Arts, by A.L. Rowse, 1977