William Noel Benson

c. 1930

Department of Geology, University of Otago

Photograph

William Noel Benson (1885-1957), geologist and polymath, was born in London to Quaker parents. Benson moved to Dunedin from Sydney in 1916 to take up his role as Chair of Geology at the University of Otago. For the next forty years he dedicated himself to the Geology department and associated studies and made extensive geological surveys of Dunedin and its surrounds. Benson ‘made significant contributions to the advancement of the geological sciences in Australasia’ (Mayer, 2013).