Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/162

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Bendall
142
Benham

sity library. Next year, on the death of his old teacher, Prof. Cowell, he was elected professor of Sanskrit in the university, delivering on 24 Oct. his inaugural address on 'Some of the aims and methods of recent Indian research.' He was made honorary fellow of his college in 1905. Bendall, who combined a lifelong devotion to music with many other social gifts, died on 14 March 1906 at Liverpool after a long illness, and was buried at the Huntingdon Road cemetery, Cambridge. He married at Esher on 19 July 1898 a French lady, Georgette, daughter of Georges Joseph Ignace Jung, and widow of G. Mosse of Cowley Hall, Middlesex, but had no issue. She became a member of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1901, was author of 'Practical Lessons in Cookery for Small Households' (1905), and died on 24 Dec. 1910 at her sister's residence in Paris.

Bendall was a sound textual critic, an expert in Indian palaeography and epigraphy, and an inspiring teacher. The Tibetan language was within his range of knowledge. His most important published works dealt with the Sanskrit Buddhist literature of the Mahayana, which he made his special study. They were: 1. 'Qiksasamuccaya' (an important compendium of Buddhist doctrine), Sanskrit text with critical notes published in 'Bibliotheca Buddhica' by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, 1897-1902. Bendall, who had discovered the work in Nepal, was engaged with Dr. W. H. D. Rouse on its translation at his death. 2. 'Subhasita-samgraha,' text with notes, Louvain, 1903'. 3. (with Louis de la Vallee Poussin) 'Bodhisattvabhumi,' Louvain, 1905.

By his will he left his Oriental palm-leaf MSS. and printed books to Cambridge University (for description see Journal Royal Asiatic Soc. 1900, p. 345, and April 1907). His residuary estate after Mrs. Bendall's death was assigned to the foundation of a prize for Sanskrit at Caius College, a small sum being allotted to the formation there of an Oriental library for junior students (The Times, 18 June 1906). Part of his valuable musical collection was acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum.

[The Times, 15 March 1906; will, 18 June 1906; Who's Who, 1906; Journal, Roy. Asiat. Soc. n.s. 1906, xx. 527 seq. (notice by Prof. E. J. Rapson); In Memoriam Cecil Bendall, by H. T. Francis (privately printed), 1906; Cambridge Review, 26 April 1906; private information.]

W. B. O.


BENHAM, WILLIAM (1831–1910), hon. canon of Canterbury and author, was born on 15 Jan. 1831 at West Meon near Petersfield, Hampshire, where his grandfather and his father, James Benham, successively held the position of village postmaster. He was educated at the village school, built by the rector, Henry Vincent Bayley [q. v.], who made him his secretary, and taught him Greek and Latin. At his death Bayley left instructions that the boy's education should be continued, and he was sent in 1844 to St. Mark's College, Chelsea, recently established under the headmastership of Derwent Coleridge [q. v.], to be trained as a schoolmaster. On completing his course he taught in a rural school, and was tutor to Sir John Sebright between 1849 and 1852. Then by his own exertions and the help of Archdeacon Bayley's family he was enabled to attend the theological department of King's College, London, where the influence of F. D. Maurice permanently affected his religious position. In 1857 he was ordained deacon and priest in 1858. Appointed divinity tutor and lecturer in English literature at St. Mark's, Chelsea, still under Derwent Coleridge, he then first exhibited his gift as a teacher and his power of stimulating character. He remained at Chelsea until in 1865 he became editorial secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. At the same time he engaged in Sunday ministerial work as curate of St. Lawrence Jewry, under Benjamin Morgan Cowie [q. v. Suppl. I]. From 1866 to 1871 he was also professor of modern history at Queen's College, Harley Street, in succession to F. D. Maurice.

Meanwhile his preaching attracted the attention of Archbishop Longley, who made him in 1867 first vicar of the newly formed parish of Addington, where the archbishop resided. The health of the primate was giving way. Benham assisted him as his private secretary during the anxious period of the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, and was with him at his death in 1868. Comparative leisure at Addington enabled Benham to increase his literary work. He produced an edition of Cowper's poetry in 1870, worked on a commentary on the New Testament, and published in 1873 his well-known 'Companion to the Lectionary' (new edit. 1884). With Tait, Longley's successor in the Archbishopric, Benham 's relations at Addington grew very intimate. Tait gave him the Lambeth degree of B.D., made him one of the six preachers of Canterbury,