Samuel James "Sam" Benson, CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (12 July 1909 – 26 July 1995) was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician. Born in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, he was educated in that city at St Peter's College. He became a wool-classer, then a seaman and Port Phillip

Port Phillip

Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...

 pilot, earning the rank of ship's master in 1938.

Benson joined the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 during World War II, and commanded the .

Having served as Mayor and Councillor on Williamstown City Council

City of Williamstown

The City of Williamstown was a Local Government Area located about southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1919 until 1994.-History:...

, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 in 1962 as the Labor

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member for Batman

Division of Batman

The Division of Batman is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1906 , and is named after John Batman, one of the founders of the city of Melbourne. When it was created it covered the inner suburbs of Carlton and Fitzroy, but successive boundary changes have...

, filling the vacancy formed by the death of Alan Bird

Alan Bird

Alan Charles Bird was an Australian politician. Born in Launceston, Tasmania, he was educated at state primary schools in Melbourne and at Melbourne High School before becoming an engineer...

. Benson was re-elected in 1963, but three years later was expelled from the ALP,. The expulsion arose from Benson's support of continued Australian participation in the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, and, more specifically, his refusal to resign from an organisation called the Defend Australia Committee, after it had been proscribed by the Federal Executive. This organisation comprised a number of Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

, Democratic Labor Party

Democratic Labor Party (historical)

The Democratic Labor Party was an Australian political party that existed from 1955 until 1978.-History:The DLP was formed as a result of a split in the Australian Labor Party that began in 1954. The split was between the party's national leadership, under the then party leader Dr H.V...

 and right-wing activists, and was supported by B.A. Santamaria. Thereafter he served in parliament as an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

. He was re-elected as an independent in 1966, the first person to achieve this feat in the House of Representatives since Doris Blackburn

Doris Blackburn

Doris Amelia Blackburn was an Australian activist and Member of Parliament.She was born Doris Amelia Hordern in Melbourne, Victoria, and became involved in women's rights and peace issues from a young age and served as the campaign secretary of Vida Goldstein, the first woman to stand for election...

in 1946.

Benson retired in 1969, and served as the General Secretary of the Merchant Service Guild from 1970 to 1972. He died on 26 July 1995.