Sir Edward Charles Benthall, KCSI (26 November 1893 – 5 March 1961), also known as Tom Benthall was a British businessman and public servant who spent the majority of his career in British India. He was described in an obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' as "perhaps the foremost figure in his day of the British mercantile community in India." The son of the Rev. Charles Francis Benthall and Annie Theodosia Benthall, Edward Benthall was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, where he was a

King's Scholar A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College; The King's School, Canterbury; The King's School ...

, and

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

. He joined the

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between t ...

at its

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

office in 1913, then went to India at the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, enlisting and serving in India in 1914–15 and in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

in 1916–18, where he was wounded. He was then transferred to the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

staff, where he served in 1918–19. In 1918, he married the Hon. Ruth McCarthy Cable, daughter of

Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable (1 December 1859 – 28 March 1927) was a British merchant and financier. Background Born in Calcutta, he was the eldest son of George Hebberd Cable, a superintendent with the Indian Customs and Excise Service.Wal ...

, with whom he had a son, the theatre director

Michael Benthall Michael Pickersgill Benthall CBE (8 February 1919 – 6 September 1974) was an English theatre director. Michael Benthall was the son of the British businessman and public servant Sir Edward Charles Benthall and of the Hon. Lady Benthall, ''née ...

. He followed in the footsteps of his father-in-law, the chairman of the Calcutta trading firm Bird and Co., and joined the firm in India. He was a director of the

Imperial Bank of India The Imperial Bank of India (IBI) was one of the oldest and the largest commercial bank of the Indian subcontinent, and was subsequently transformed into the State Bank of India in 1955. Initially, as per its royal charter, it acted as the cen ...

from 1926 to 1934, and was its governor from 1928 to 1930.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benthall, Edward 1893 births 1961 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India People educated at Eton College Alumni of King's College, Cambridge White Star Line British Army personnel of World War I BBC Governors High Sheriffs of Devon Members of the Council of the Governor General of India British people in colonial India 20th-century British businesspeople