Caroline Benn
| Caroline Benn | |
|---|---|
Caroline Middleton DeCamp Benn (1926–2000)
|
|
| Born |
Caroline Middleton DeCamp 13 October 1926 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died |
22 November 2000 (aged 74) Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith, London, England |
| Cause of death | Metastatic breast cancer |
| Residence | United Kingdom |
| Nationality | American-British |
| Citizenship | American-British |
| Education | Master of Arts |
| Alma mater |
Vassar College Oxford University University College London |
| Known for | Author and educationalist |
| Title | Viscountess Stansgate |
| Board member of |
Inner London Education Authority Imperial College London Holland Park School Socialist Education Association |
| Spouse(s) | Tony Benn (m. 1949–2000) |
| Children | Stephen, Hilary, Melissa, Joshua |
| Parent(s) | James and Anne DeCamp |
| Relatives |
William Wedgwood Benn (father-in-law) Margaret Wedgwood Benn (mother-in-law) |
Caroline Middleton DeCamp Benn (13 October 1926 – 22 November 2000), formerly Viscountess Stansgate, was an educationalist and writer, and wife of the British Labour politician Tony Benn (formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate).
Benn was born Caroline Middleton DeCamp in Cincinnati, Ohio, the elder daughter of Anne Hetherington (Graydon) and James Milton DeCamp, a lawyer. She came from a privileged background. Educated at Vassar College (BA, 1946) and the University of Cincinnati (BA, 1948), she came to the United Kingdom in 1948 to study at Oxford University and voted for Henry Wallace, the Progressive Party candidate in that year's American Presidential election. She gained an English MA on Jacobean drama (specifically on the masques of Inigo Jones) at University College London in 1951.
She met Benn over tea at Worcester College, Oxford, in 1949, and nine days later he proposed to her on a park bench in the city. Later, he bought the bench from Oxford City Council and installed it in the garden of their house in Holland Park. In June 1999, on their golden wedding anniversary, she put on the red striped dress she had worn that night. She had four children – Stephen, Hilary, Melissa and Joshua – and ten grandchildren.
Benn devoted her life to comprehensive education and was co-founder of the Campaign for Comprehensive Education. She sent her own children to Holland Park School, one of the first comprehensive schools in the country. In 1970 she wrote, together with Professor Brian Simon, Halfway There – the definitive study of the progress of comprehensive reform in the UK. This was followed up in 1997 with Thirty Years On, which she co-authored with Professor Clyde Chitty. Her widely respected and authoritative biography of the Labour pioneer Keir Hardie was published in 1992.
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