Painter, printmaker, sculptor and relief artist and teacher, born in Boarhunt, Hampshire. From 1946–9 Benjamin did a part-time engineering course at Southall Technical College, followed by four years at Regent Street Polytechnic, partly funded by earnings as a professional flyweight boxer, then several months studying drawing in Fernand Léger’s Paris studio in 1951. Late in 1955 he moved to St Ives, Cornwall, where he divided his time between flower-growing and the painting of landscape-based abstracts. A French government award enabled him to study with S W Hayter the printmaker at Atelier 17 in Paris, 1958–9; this was followed by another year in Cornwall, 1959–60, then an Italian government award in 1960–1. After six years in London Benjamin taught in Canada and America until 1973, when he returned to London.