Brigadier Ernest Frank Benjamin ( he, לוי בנימין, ''Levi Binyamin'') (5 February 1900 – 14 March 1969) was a Canadian-born British Jewish officer who commanded the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Jewish Brigade The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, more commonly known as the Jewish Brigade Group or Jewish Brigade, was a military formation of the British Army in the World War II, Second World War. It was formed in late 1944 and was recruited among Yishuv, Y ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Biography

Benjamin was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Ontario, Canada, the son of Frank David Benjamin. In 1908 the family moved to England. Benjamin was a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 17 July 1919. He was promoted to lieutenant on 17 July 1921, and served as an adjutant from 3 October 1922 until 23 September 1923. On 24 May 1927 he was appointed adjutant to the Divisional Engineers of the

49th (West Riding) Division The 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army. The division fought in the First World War in the trenches of the Western Front, in the fields of France and Flanders. During the Second World War, the divis ...

, Territorial Army, with the temporary rank of captain (with pay and allowances of a lieutenant). He was promoted to captain on 17 July 1930, and left 49th Division on 23 November 1931. On 10 January 1936 Benjamin was appointed a General staff Officer, 3rd Grade in Malaya serving until 11 January 1939, by which time he has been promoted to major. On 8 July 1943 he received a

mention in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

in recognition of his "gallant and distinguished services" in the

Madagascar campaign The Battle of Madagascar (5 May – 6 November 1942) was a British campaign to capture the Vichy French-controlled island Madagascar during World War II. The seizure of the island by the British was to deny Madagascar's ports to the Imperial ...

of 1942. By then he was serving on the staff at Middle East Command, first as Assistant Quartermaster-General, then as Deputy Director of Military Training. In September 1944 Benjamin was appointed commanding officer of the

, a 5,000-man volunteer

brigade group Brigade Enterprises Limited is a real estate and property development company that is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The Brigade Group also has operations in Mangalore, Mysore, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, Chikmagalur, Ahmedabad and a r ...

, overseeing its training in Egypt, and eventual deployment to the Eighth Army in Italy, seeing action in the crossing of the

Senio The Senio is a river of Romagna in Italy, the final right-sided tributary of the river Reno. The source of the river is in the province of Florence in the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano mountains. The river flows northeast into the province of Ravenna ...

river in north-east Italy in March and April 1945. Following

V-E Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easte ...

, 8 May 1945, the Jewish Brigade was sent to

Tarvisio Tarvisio (German and fur, Tarvis, sl, Trbiž) is a comune in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy. Geography The town is in the Canal Valley (''Val Canale'') between the Carnic Alps and Karawanks rang ...

on the Italian-Austrian-Yugoslav border, where Benjamin was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 June 1945, backdated to 13 May. In July 1945 the brigade was sent to the Netherlands, and then to Belgium, as part of

VIII Corps 8th Corps, Eighth Corps, or VIII Corps may refer to: * VIII Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French army during the Napoleonic Wars * VIII Army Corps (German Confederation) * VIII Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Ar ...

. On 13 December 1945 Benjamin was made a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

. The Jewish Brigade was eventually disbanded in June 1946. On 13 May 1948, he completed his tenure as a regimental lieutenant colonel, but remained on full pay as a supernumery officer. He retired from the Army on 4 September 1950, having exceeded the age limit, and was granted the honorary rank of

brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...

References

External links

*
Generals of World War II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin, Ernest 1900 births 1969 deaths Military personnel from Toronto Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Royal Engineers officers Canadian Jews Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Jewish Brigade personnel British Army brigadiers of World War II