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Concept
Peter Benenson
Summary
Peter Benenson (born Peter James Henry Solomon; 31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005) was a British barrister, son of British army colonel, Harold Solomon, human rights activist and the founder of the human rights group Amnesty International (AI); a global movement of more than 10 million people, currently, and in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses on human rights and to secure the release of political prisoners.
He refused all honours for most of his life, but in his 80s, largely to please his family, he accepted the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001. In the 1980's, he became the Chairman of Association of Christians Against Torture. Also, in the 1990's Peter Benenson organized aid for Romanian orphans. He also founded a group to aid victims of celiac disease which he had.
Benenson was born in London to a large Jewish family, the only son of British-born Harold Solomon and Russian-born Flora Benenson; Peter Benenson adopted his mother's maiden name later in life. His father, an army officer, died from a long-term injury when Benenson was nine, and he was privately tutored by W. H. Auden before attending Eton College. At the age of sixteen, he helped to establish a relief fund with other schoolboys for children orphaned by the Spanish Civil War. He took his mother's maiden name of Benenson acceding to his dying grandfather’s wishes, the Russian financier Grigori Benenson (1860–1939).
He enrolled for study at Balliol College, Oxford, but World War II interrupted his education. He served in the Intelligence Corps at the Ministry of Information, where he met his first wife, Margaret Anderson. He worked at Bletchley Park during World War II in the Testery. He is listed as RSM Benenson in Room 41 as a cryptographer.
After demobilisation in 1946, Benenson began practising as a barrister before joining the Labour Party and standing unsuccessfully for election at Streatham in 1950 and for Hitchin in 1951, 1955, and 1959.
Official source
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