Peter Benenson (July 31, 1921 – February 25, 2005) was an English lawyer and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International (AI). is the 212th day of the year (213th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amnesty international Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization which defines its mission as to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience...

Biography

Born in London as Peter James Henry Solomon to a Jewish family (Biography), the only son of Harold Solomon and Flora Benenson, Peter Benenson adopted his mother's maiden name later in life. His army officer father died when Benenson was aged nine from a long-term injury, 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. For other places with the same name, see London (disambiguation). ... Flora Solomon OBE (1895–1984) was born Flora Benenson in Pinsk, Imperial Russia, in 1895. ... Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) IPA: ;[1], who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet, regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a public school (privately funded and independent) for boys, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, north of Windsor Castle, and... Not to be confused with the Spanish Civil War of 1820-1823. ...

He enrolled for study at Balliol College, Oxford but World War II interrupted his education. From 1941 to 1945, Benenson worked at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre, in the "Testery", a section tasked with breaking German teleprinter ciphers.^[1] It was at this time when he met his first wife, Margaret Anderson. After demobilisation in 1946, Benenson began practising as a barrister before joining the Labour Party and standing unsuccessfully for election. He was one of a group of British lawyers who founded JUSTICE in 1957, the UK-based human rights and law reform organisation. In 1958 he converted to Roman Catholicism^{[citation needed]}. The following year he fell ill and moved to Italy in order to convalesce. Full name Balliol College Motto - Named after John de Balliol Previous names - Established 1263 Sister College St Johns College, Cambridge Master Andrew Graham (academic) Location Broad Street Undergraduates 403 Graduates 228 Homepage Boatclub Balliol College, founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford... The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University), located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... During World War II, codebreakers at Bletchley Park decrypted and interpreted messages from a large number of Axis code and cipher systems, including the German Enigma machine. ... Cryptanalysis (from the Greek kryptós, hidden, and analýein, to loosen or to untie) is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so. ... Teletype machines in World War II A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY for TeleTYpe/TeleTYpewriter) is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point through a simple electrical communications channel, often just a pair of wires. ... This article is about algorithms for encryption and decryption. ... For the musician, see Sikiru Ayinde Barrister. ... The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the concept of justice. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...

In 1961 Benenson was shocked and angered by a newspaper report of two Portuguese students from Coimbra sentenced to seven years in prison for raising their glasses in a toast to freedom^{[citation needed]} during the autocratic regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. He wrote to David Astor, editor of The Observer. On May 28, Benenson's article, entitled "The Forgotten Prisoners," was published. The letter asked readers to write letters showing support for the students. To co-ordinate such letter-writing campaigns, Amnesty International was founded in Luxembourg in July at a meeting of Benenson and six other men. The response was so overwhelming that within a year groups of letter-writers had formed in more than a dozen countries. Location    - Country Portugal  - Region Centro  - Subregion Baixo Mondego  - District or A.R. Coimbra Mayor Carlos Encarnação  - Party PSD Area 319. ... For other uses, see Freedom. ... António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE, pron. ... The Honourable Francis David Langhorne Astor (March 5, 1912, London – December 7, 2001, London) was a newspaper publisher and member of the prominent Astor family. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amnesty international Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization which defines its mission as to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience...

Initially appointed general secretary of AI, Benenson stood down in 1964 owing to ill health. By 1966, the Amnesty International faced an internal crisis and Benenson alleged that the organization he founded was being infiltrated by British intelligence. The advisory position of president of the International Executive was then created for him. In 1966, he began to make allegations of improper conduct against other members of the executive. An inquiry was set up which reported at Elsinore in Denmark in 1967. The allegations were rejected and Benenson resigned from AI. Kronborg Castle Helsingør , also known by its English anglo name Elsinore, is a city in Helsingør municipality on the northeast coast of the island of Zealand (Sjælland) in eastern Denmark. ...

While never again active in the organization, Benenson was later personally reconciled with other executives, including Seán MacBride. He died of pneumonia on February 25, 2005 at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, aged 83. Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was a prominent international politician. ... The John Radcliffe Hospital is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, UK. It is the main teaching hospital for Oxford University, and as such is a well developed centre of medical research. ... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ...

In Pop Culture

Benenson is featured/honored in the song If Everyone Cared by Nickelback If Everyone Cared is the fourth single worldwide released from Nickelbacks All the Right Reasons, and the fifth and sixth single released in Australia and the U.S. respectively (Animals was only released in Australia and the U.S., and Rockstar only in the U.S.). It was released... This article is about the Canadian rock band. ...

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amnesty international Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization which defines its mission as to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience... Eric Baker was one of the founders and early secretaries general of the human rights group Amnesty International. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Peter Benenson

• Obituary, Amnesty International
• Obituary, BBC News
• MoreorLess.au.com Biography

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References

• Pincock,S: Peter James Henry Solomon Benenson (obituary). Lancet, April 2, 2005; 365: 1224.