This biography has been re-published in full with permission. Licensed by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence. This biography, written by J. D. Campbell, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 1998.
Born: 25 January 1886, United Kingdom
Died: 20 February 1964
Country most active: New Zealand
Also known as: Gertrude Helen Rawson
On 8 December 1923, at his parents’ home in Killara, New South Wales, Noel Benson married Gertrude Helen Rawson, professor of home science at the University of Otago. She was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, on 25 January 1886 (and registered as Gertrude Ellen), the daughter of Agnes Annie Cragg and her husband, Joseph Cordingley Rawson, a cotton-spinner. Helen attended high school in Bradford and Newnham College, University of Cambridge; she completed the natural science tripos, but as women were not then allowed to graduate, received her BSc only in 1919. After gaining a postgraduate diploma in household and social science from King’s College, London, she was appointed in 1911 to the newly opened School of Home Science in the University of Otago as a lecturer in chemistry and household and social economics. She and Professor Winifred Boys-Smith had to overcome prejudice against the new department and cater for increased student numbers by providing improved facilities and a hostel for accommodation.
After the retirement of Boys-Smith in 1920, Helen Rawson became professor of home science and dean of the Faculty of Home Science. She made better provision for the teaching of practical subjects, including the building of laboratories, and reorganised the school’s courses. In 1919 she studied in Canada and the United States. On her return to New Zealand in 1920 she founded the New Zealand branch of the Federation of University Women, becoming its first president. Following her marriage, Helen Benson resigned from her university position and became increasingly involved in community activities.
Helen Benson lectured on international affairs to the WEA for many years, and took a practical interest in the plight of refugees who came to New Zealand in the 1930s. She was a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand from 1939 to 1948. She was also closely involved with the National Council of Women of New Zealand. In 1933 she strongly supported the adoption of a motion that criticised the lack of financial relief for unemployed women and in 1937 was partly responsible for the council’s taking a sympathetic attitude towards abortion in some circumstances. She represented the NCW at an International Council of Women meeting in Paris in 1934. Elected president in 1940, she resigned shortly afterwards, possibly because her pacifism made it difficult for her to hold the position.
Helen and Noel Benson’s was ‘an ideal partnership’, with the couple sharing ideas and religious beliefs. Both were active members of the Society of Friends and both served as clerk of the Dunedin meeting. They represented New Zealand at the Pan-Pacific Science Congress in Japan in 1925 and then travelled extensively there and in Asia. An interest in international affairs led to Noel Benson’s becoming secretary of the New Zealand branch of the Institute of Pacific Relations, which he represented at a conference in Paris in 1934.
The post-war years saw Noel Benson, now venerable, inspiring students as he had always done. True, there were occasions when he appeared before his students wearing an overcoat instead of a gown, but it was a genuinely admiring, grateful, crowded class which made a presentation to him at his last lecture in 1949. He had received many honours for his excellence in research. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of New Zealand, of geological societies in many countries and of other professional bodies. He received numerous medals for his work and was awarded an honorary DSc by the University of New Zealand. Before his election as emeritus professor in 1951, the University of Otago Council appointed him William Evans research professor for 1950. During what was to be a short retirement, he and Helen travelled to England.
Helen Benson was ‘tactful, sensitive and gracious’; Noel was noted for his keen sense of humour. Their house, Dunottar, was a place of genteel hospitality visited and enjoyed by generations of geology students. They had no children. Following a period of indifferent health, Noel died in Dunedin on 20 August 1957; Helen died at Dunedin on 20 February 1964.