William Henry Benson

Who was William Henry Benson?

William Henry Benson was a civil servant in British India and an amateur malacologist. He made large collections of molluscs and described numerous species from the U.K., India and South Africa.

He joined Haileybury College in 1819 and joined the East India Company at Bengal. He reached Calcutta on 30 October 1821 and worked in a number of positions including a District Collector and Officiating Judge in Meerut, Bareilly and other parts of northern India. During his stay in India he collected specimens of numerous land snails some of which he sent to Hugh Cuming in England. On the return from a trip to Mauritius he brought a couple of living Achatina fulica which he gave to a friend in Calcutta in April 1847 who subsequently released them in a garden at Chowringhee. The species is today a pest in many parts of India.

His son-in-law Major Richard Sankey was executor of his estate and the collections that he bequeathed went to Sylvanus Hanley, who removed the locality labels of all the specimens thus decreasing their value.