Henry Benson, Baron Benson

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Henry Alexander Benson, Baron Benson GBE FCA (born August 2, 1909 in South Africa ; † March 5, 1995 ) was a British accountant and auditor who was managing director of the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand for several decades and who was a life peer under the Life Peerages Act in 1981 1958 became a member of the House of Lords . He had a major influence on the development of the accountant and auditor professions for more than thirty years at a time when the number of people employed in these branches was more than doubling and their role in supporting the economy and government grew significantly. He created modern research, advisory and reporting structures and was one of the first to recognize the need and demand for business and management consulting , and laid the foundations for the development of international accounting standards.

Life

Family origins, start of professional activity and World War II

Benson completed his school education in South Africa , where his father worked as a solicitor . His mother, Florence Mary Cooper, was the daughter of Francis Cooper, one of four brothers who founded the accounting company Coopers Brothers in 1861 , and a niece of William Cooper, who laid the foundations for this in 1854 with his company W. Cooper . After completing his schooling, he trained as an accountant and auditor at Cooper Brothers , which he graduated with honors in 1932. In 1934 he became a partner in the company with an annual salary of £ 1,000 and worked for this company, later renamed Coopers & Lybrand , until 1975. He worked closely with his uncle D'Arcy Cooper, who later left the company to become Chairman of the Board of Unilever .

During the Second World War , Benson did his first military service with the Grenadier Guards as a guard at Windsor Castle and wrote a report on improving communication between the soldiers. After his promotion to major , he moved to Special Operations in 1942 . In 1943 he was entrusted with the audit of the Royal Ordnance Factories , as the bookkeeping and controlling of this company, which supplied weapons, ammunition and explosives to the three branches of the armed forces and employed 400,000 people, was chaotic. Within ten months he created a reorganization of cash, inventory, wages and cost calculations. Most recently had the brevet rank of brigadier . For his services he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1946.

Postwar and Senior Partner of Cooper Brothers

After the war he returned to Cooper Brothers and became a senior partner with John Pears. Based on the war experience he and Pears, the Chief Inspector in the Ministry of Supply , had gained, they introduced new services such as planning, organization, administration and systematics, formalized techniques to ensure quality in all aspects of their work, and published it in manuals ( manual ). In addition, Benson and Pears also drove the growth of Cooper Brothers : While there were 173 employees in Great Britain and 66 abroad in 1945, the number of employees grew to 2,207 in the United Kingdom and 16,179 abroad by his departure in 1975, so that the company was one of the leading accounting firms in the world.

In addition to his professional activities, Benson received numerous public commissions, such as in the study of the control means in Tanganyika supported, loss-making peanut planting project ( Tanganyika groundnut scheme ) before the Committee on Public Accounts ( Public Accounts Committee ) in 1951. In the 1950s, he carried significant Contribute to the Fleck Report, named after Alexander Fleck , on the reorganization of the National Coal Board (NCB ) and conducted similar investigations for the iron and steel industry and the Ministry of Defense .

In addition, Benson was heavily involved in the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and was a member of the advisory board between 1956 and 1975 and its president from 1966 to 1967. On January 1, 1964, he was beaten to the Knight Bachelor and from then on carried the suffix "Sir". He was also an advisor to the National Trust , an organization that promotes cultural and environmental issues, and horse racing organizations. In 1965 he played a leading role in founding the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Britain's largest business organization.

Adviser to the Bank of England

When the development of the Rolls-Royce RB211 jet engine ran into financial difficulties in the early 1970s and finally Rolls-Royce went bankrupt on February 4, 1971 , Benson was an adviser to Prime Minister Edward Heath's government and was appointed by the Department of Commerce ( Board of Trade ) also tasked with investigating the bankruptcy of razor maker Rolls Razor .

On January 1, 1971, he was finally awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE). During his work for the ICAEW, he contributed in a leading position in cooperation with the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and the US Institute of Chartered Accountants to the establishment of the International Accounting Standards Committee and was its first chairman between 1973 and 1975 important committee.

After retiring from Coopers & Lybrand , Benson served as advisor to the Governor of the Bank of England , Gordon Richardson , from 1975 to 1983 . Work at that time was marked by the economic pressures and adjustment measures in the UK economy due to the aftermath of the First Oil Crisis in 1973 and the sterling situation during the recession in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The main challenge was that the Bank of England should protect shareholders of companies without further public funding, while these companies should primarily repay loans to banks and other financiers. The promotion of rationalization measures was just as important as the support of increasing the efficiency of the bank's board of directors.

Chairman of the Royal Commission on Legal Services

In addition, he became chairman of the Royal Commission on Legal Services on July 30, 1976 and held this position until 1979. This commission included Sydney Templeman, Baron Templeman , and Ralf Dahrendorf as other members.

The final report of the commission led to calls for the unification of the two legal professions, barristers and solicitors, as well as an improvement in the organization of legal professions, such as the establishment of a Council of Legal Services , to bring legal practices under the supervision and advice of the Lord Chancellor . It was also requested that legal centers and citizens' advisory offices be taken into account in providing legal services. Furthermore, in the final report, Benson advocated the establishment of a single, strong organization for the legal profession instead of the institutions of the Bar Council and the Bar Associations ( Inns of Court ) in order to improve equal opportunities and the transmission of cases.

After several years of reviewing the proposals, the government largely rejected them. The Law Society, representing the interests of solicitors, opposed the introduction of licensed notaries ( Licensed Conveyancers ), while the barristers' interest group, the Inns of Court, in turn opposed a strengthening of the Bar Council. When the Senate of the Inns of Court and the Bar , the umbrella organization of the Inns of Court and Bar Council introduced in 1974, was dissolved in 1987 , the chairman of the Bar Council thanked him because it was based on the demands in the report of the Royal Commission on Legal Services experienced a strengthening of its position.

Benson also worked to improve the quality of supervisory boards and was instrumental in founding Proned , an agency for the promotion of non-executive directors , in 1981 .

Member of the House of Lords

By a letters patent dated February 2, 1981, Benson was raised to the nobility under the Life Peerages Act 1958 as a life peer with the title Baron Benson , of Drovers in the County of West Sussex , and belonged to the House of Lords as a until his death Member at.

Its official launch ( House of Lords ) took place on 11 February 1981 with the support of Roger Chorley, 2nd Baron Chorley , and Denis Greenhill, Baron Greenhill of Harrow .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 43270, HMSO, London, March 13, 1964, p. 2261 ( PDF , accessed February 22, 2014, English).
  2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 45262, HMSO, London, December 31, 1970, p. 7 ( PDF , accessed February 5, 2014, English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46976, HMSO, London, July 30, 1976, p. 10461 ( PDF , accessed February 22, 2014, English).
  4. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 48467, HMSO, London, December 30, 1980, p. 1 ( PDF , accessed February 5, 2014, English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 48515, HMSO, London, February 5, 1981, p. 1671 ( PDF , accessed February 22, 2014, English).
  6. ↑ Entry in Hansard (February 11, 1981)
personal data
SURNAME Benson, Henry, Baron Benson
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Benson, Henry Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British accountant and peer
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd August 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH South Africa
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1995