Brindley Benn

Brindley Horatio Benn, CCH (24 January 1923 – 11 December 2009) was a teacher, choirmaster, politician, and one of the key leaders of the Guyanese independence movement. He was put under restriction when the constitution was suspended in 1953. In 1957, Benn served as Minister of Community Development and Education in the first elected government of Guyana, and between 1961 and 1964 as Minister of Natural Resources. From 1993 to 1998, he served as High Commissioner of Guyana to Canada.

Early life

Born in Kitty, Georgetown, Brindley Horatio Benn, named for the Methodist minister J.B. Brindley, was the second of two boys born to Rosa and Samuel Benn. He attended St. James-the-Less Primary School (now F. E. Pollard), Kitty, and also briefly attended a Roman Catholic School in Queenstown. Benn wrote his Junior and Senior Cambridge Examinations at the Central High School. He gained five subjects at Junior Cambridge – English Language, English History, Literature, Latin and French. He sat five subjects at Senior Cambridge but did not matriculate, since he did not pass Mathematics.

Early career

After finishing school, Benn travelled to Kwakwani to work as a clerk with the Bauxite Company. His parents were living in the mining community at the time and his father was a senior staff member at the Reynolds Mining and Metals Company. His mother was a caterer and a boarding house proprietor in the community, where she became popular for her activity in social and community life. Samuel Benn died in Kwakwani in 1948 and was buried there. Rosa remained in the community until the early 1960s, when she returned to Georgetown.

Benn returned to Georgetown in the early 1940s when the Bauxite Company started to scale down the workforce. He began teaching at a secondary school (currently the Richard Ishmael Secondary School) and briefly had his own school, Georgetown Secondary, which was located in Evans Street. He operated the school for about three years.

Choir involvement

Benn was a chorister at St. James the Less Anglican Church with Choirmasters who included the late Claude Merriman. He later became Choir Master at the St. Sidwell's Anglican Church around 1945 and served for about five years, until the Choir was disbanded. The Choir competed successfully at several choir festivals and became very popular with the public, especially its Friday practice sessions. St. Sidwell's Choir was the smallest at the time when it performed Stainer's ''The Crucifixion'' and was noted for performing some of the most difficult choral pieces then in existence. The organist was the legendary Carl Welshman. Some members of Benn's chorister group included the late broadcaster Matthew Allen, Senior Counsel Lloyd Joseph and Wittington Braithwaite.

After the Choir disbanded, Benn went to teach Latin and French at Richard Ishmael's Secondary School, where he organized a school choir which put on a concert at the Georgetown City Hall. He spent three years there.

Political activity

One evening, during his teaching career, Benn attended a public meeting at Norton and John Streets, where he listened to Dr. Cheddi Jagan criticise the state of the bauxite industry and the colony of Guyana. Impressed by Dr. Jagan's speech, Benn joined the People's Progressive Party the same night. He immediately became very involved in politics, an avocation that led to conflict with his superior at the Secondary School. The principal, Richard Ishmael, was also President of the Manpower Citizens' Association

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