Caroline Benn

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Caroline Benn
Socialist Education Association
Spouse
​
(m. 1949)​
Children
RelativesEmily Benn (granddaughter)
Brown plaque, Holland Park Avenue, London

Caroline Middleton Benn (née DeCamp; 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).

Biography

Benn was born Caroline Middleton DeCamp in

Cincinnati, Ohio, the eldest daughter of Anne Hetherington (née Graydon) and James Milton DeCamp, a Cincinnati lawyer.[1]

Educated at

masques of Inigo Jones) at University College London
in 1951.

She met Tony Benn over tea at

Stephen, Hilary, Melissa
and Joshua – and ten grandchildren.

She devoted her life to

comprehensive schools in the country. In 1970, she wrote alongside 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-wrote with Prof. Clyde Chitty.

As well as writing extensively about education, Benn held a number of other positions: she was a member of the

Socialist Education Association
.

Benn played an important role in her husband's political career. She was popular with his colleagues and her views were respected. She is personally credited with having suggested the title of the Labour Party manifesto for the 1964 general election. She proposed The New Britain, and it eventually became Let's Go With Labour for the New Britain.

Death

Benn was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 1996, having been unwell for about a year, but fought the illness for several further years. She became increasingly frail during 2000, having developed

metastases, and died at Charing Cross
Hospital, London, on 22 November 2000, aged 74.

Tribute

A Tribute to Caroline Benn: Education and Democracy, edited by her daughter and Clyde Chitty, was published in 2004, featuring essays on her life and on educational reform and her life's work.

She was my socialist soulmate. When people went through our rubbish every day, it was harder for her. I could respond in the House, she just had to take it.

— Tony Benn, BBC

Publications

  • Comprehensive School Reform and the 1945 Labour Government (1980), History Workshop Journal
  • Lion in a Den of Daniels (1962), a novel
  • Halfway There: Report on the British Comprehensive School Reform (1970), with Professor Brian Simon
  • Higher Education For Everyone (1982)
  • Keir Hardie: A Biography (1992)
  • Thirty Years On (1997), with Professor Clyde Chitty

References

  1. ^ "Caroline Benn. Obituary", The Telegraph, 24 November 2000. Retrieved 10 January 2021.

External links

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