Brindley Horatio Benn, CCH (24 January 1923 – 11 December 2009) was a teacher, choirmaster, politician, and one of the key leaders of the Guyanese independence movement. He was put under restriction when the constitution was suspended in 1953. In 1957, Benn served as Minister of Community Development and Education in the first elected government of Guyana, and between 1961 and 1964 as Minister of Natural Resources. boys born to Rosa and Samuel Benn. He attended St. James-the-Less Primary School (now F. E. Pollard), Kitty, and also briefly attended a Roman Catholic School in Queenstown. Benn wrote his Junior and Senior Cambridge Examinations at the Central High School. He gained five subjects at Junior Cambridge – English Language, English History, Literature, Latin and French. He sat five subjects at Senior Cambridge but did not matriculate, since he did not pass Mathematics.
Early career
After finishing school, Benn travelled to Kwakwani to work as a clerk with the Bauxite Company. His parents were living in the mining community at the time and his father was a senior staff member at the Reynolds Mining and Metals Company. His mother was a caterer and a boarding house proprietor in the community, where she became popular for her activity in social and community life. Samuel Benn died in Kwakwani in 1948 and was buried there. Rosa remained in the community until the early 1960s, when she returned to Georgetown.
Benn returned to Georgetown in the early 1940s when the Bauxite Company started to scale down the workforce. He began teaching at a secondary school (currently the Richard Ishmael Secondary School) and given an office across the road from the Parliament Building. During that time that he organised the National History and Culture Week (1961–1964) under the theme 'One People, One Nation, One Destiny', which later became independent Guyana's motto.
After the 1961 general elections, which the PPP also won, Benn was appointed Minister of Natural Resources.
Personal life
Benn was a member of St. Paul's Anglican Church at Plaisance and of its Men's Guild.
He married his wife Patricia in 1951; they remained together throughout his life. The Benns had seven children – including fraternal twins – and eight grandchildren.
His son, Robeson Benn is a government minister.
See also
- Working People's Vanguard Party