SCH M ACB

Reference code

SCH M ACB

Title

Papers of Arthur Christopher Benson

Level

Series

Administrative / Biographical history

Arthur Christopher Benson, son of the future Archbishop Frederick Benson, came to Eton as a King's Scholar in 1874 and went on to King's College, Cambridge in 1881. In 1885 he returned to Eton as a master, and in 1892 took on a boys' house, although his duties did not prevent him from also having a successful career as a writer. He resigned in 1903 to edit the Letters of Queen Victoria, and in 1904 was appointed a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, of which he became Master in 1915.

Date

1885 - 1912

Content description

The papers include a mark book, two house entry books (one with entries to 1907, showing he did not originally intend to leave in 1903) and a pupil room book. Most valuable, however, is the series of 34 scrapbooks, containing the numerous circulars and memoranda issued by the Head Master and by masters themselves, examples of work set and done, tickets, letters to do with house administration, school magazines and a great deal of other ephemeral material. They are roughly chronological and give a valuable picture of the sort of work that crossed a house master's desk and of the issues of the day. The last five are rather more structured and may have been compiled by someone else.