Benson, Arthur Christopher (1862–1925)

English poet and essayist. He published studies of Archbishop William Laud (1887), the Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1904), and the critic Walter Pater (1906), among others, as well as several works of fiction and some poetry. He also wrote the words of the patriotic song ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, for which Edward Elgar composed the music.

He was the eldest son of Edward White Benson.

Educated at Eton public school and Cambridge, he was a teacher at Eton 1885–1903, when he was elected a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, becoming master of the college in 1914.