Peter Benenson

Peter Benenson
Benenson lighting a candle in 1991
Born	Peter James Henry Solomon (1921-07-31)31 July 1921 London, England
Died	25 February 2005(2005-02-25) (aged 83) Oxford, England
Resting place	Nuneham Courtenay graveyard
Nationality	British
Known for	Founding the global human rights organization Amnesty International
Spouse(s)	Margaret Anderson (?-1972; divorced; 2 children) Susan Booth (1973-2005; his death; 2 children)
Parent(s)	Flora Benenson Harold Solomon

Peter Benenson /ˈbɛnᵻn.sən/ (31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005) was a British lawyer and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International (AI). In 2001, Benenson refused all honours but in his 80s, largely to please his family, he accepted the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement.

He was born in London as Peter James Henry Solomon, 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 army officer father died from a long-term injury when Benenson was aged nine, and he was tutored privately by W. H. Auden before going to Eton. 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 as a tribute to his grandfather, the Russian gold tycoon Grigori Benenson, following his grandfather's death.

He enrolled for study at Balliol College, Oxford but World War II interrupted his education. He worked in Army Intelligence at the MoI where he met his first wife, Margaret Anderson. Benenson then worked at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre, in the "Testery", a section tasked with breaking German teleprinter ciphers. After demobilization in 1946, Benenson began practicing as a barrister before joining the Labour Party and standing unsuccessfully for election at Streatham in 1950 and for North Herts constituency till 1959.