Auction Catalogue

23 September 2005

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part III)

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 1171

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23 September 2005

Hammer Price:
£460

A Great War pair of medals to the actress, Lady Gertrude Constance Benson, Directress of a Canteen with the French Red Cross

British War and Victory Medals (Lady G. C. Benson) extremely fine (2) £100-140

The actress Gertrude Constance Featherstonhaugh married Francis (Frank) Robert Benson (1858-1939) on 29 July 1886. Frank Benson was an actor, and founder of the Benson répertoire company and produced many of Shakespeare’s plays for the theatre. He was responsible for 26 of the annual Shakespeare Festivals at Stratford-upon-Avon and was Knighted by George V on the occasion of the Shakespeare Tercentenary performance of Julius Caesar at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1916. Constance Benson appeared in many of her husbands’ productions. In 1917 Sir Frank and Lady Benson ran canteens in France for the French Red Cross, based variously at Lure near Belfort, St. Juste and Orry-la-Ville near Chantilly. Lady Constance was placed in charge of two canteens, one a station canteen and the other in a convalescent camp, the latter involving some hospital work. In June 1917 they returned to England, working again with their touring company but returned to France in 1918, Sir Frank employed in driving an ambulance and Lady Constance serving in the British base at Etaples. For his services in the Great War, Sir Frank was awarded the French Croix de Guerre. Their only son, Lieutenant-Colonel Eric William Benson, K.R.R.C., was killed in action on 15 September 1916. Lady Constance had several books published, including: Mainly Players: Bensonian Memories, The Camera, Cuckoo Oats and A Hundred Hints to Amateurs. She died on 19 January 1946. The Memorial Theatre, Statford-upon-Avon, has a window commemorating the Benson Company.

Sold with a copy of Lady Benson’s memoirs and record of the Benson Company, Mainly Players: Bensonsian Memories, with introduction by Arthur Machen, 313pp., with black and white plates. Several pages are devoted to the pair’s wartime services and anecdotes. Also with some copied research. For further reading, see also Benson and the Bensonians by J. C. Trewin (this not included in lot).