William Henry Benson was a civil servant in British India and an amateur malacologist. He made large collections of molluscs and described numerous species. He was a malacologist occurring in the U.K., India and South Africa.

He joined Haileybury College in 1819 and joined the East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 at Bengal. He reached Calcutta on 30 October 1821 and worked in a number of positions including a District Collector and Officiating Judge in Meerut, Bareilly

Bareilly

Bareilly is a prominent city in Bareilly district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Standing on the Ramganga river, it is the capital of the Bareilly division and the geographical region Rohilkhand...

 and other parts of northern India. During his stay in India he collected specimens of numerous land snails some of which he sent to Hugh Cuming

Hugh Cuming

Hugh Cuming was an English collector who was interested in natural history, particularly in conchology and botany. He has been described as the "Prince of Collectors"....

 in England. On the return from a trip to Mauritius he brought a couple of living Achatina fulica which he gave to a friend in Calcutta in April 1847 who subsequently released them in a garden at Chowringhee. The species is today a pest in many parts of India.

His son-in-law Major Richard Sankey

Richard Hieram Sankey

Lieutenant General Sir Richard Hieram Sankey KCB was an officer in the Royal Engineers in the East India Company's army in British India, later transferring to the British Army after the Indian Mutiny and the assumption of Crown rule in India.See also The Sankey Tank in Bangalore which he...

 was executor of his estate and the collections that he bequeathed went to Sylvanus Hanley

Sylvanus Charles Thorp Hanley

Sylvanus Charles Thorp Hanley was a British conchologist and malacologist who published the first book on shells using the then new technique of photographs. He authored Conchologia indica with William Theobald which was a treatise on the shells of British India...

, who removed the locality labels of all the specimens thus decreasing their value.

Taxa described by him

genera:

• Pterocyclus Benson, 1832
• Oxygyrus Benson, 1835
• Batillaria
  Batillaria
  Batillaria is a genus of small salt marsh or mudflat snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Batillariidae, the horn snails.-Species:Species within the genus Batillaria include:* Batillaria attramentaria Batillaria is a genus of small salt marsh or mudflat snails, marine gastropod mollusks...
  
  Benson, 1842
• Diplommatina
  Diplommatina
  Diplommatina is a genus of land snails with an operculum, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the family Diplommatinidae. This genus includes hundreds of described species and several subgenera...
  
  Benson, 1849
• Streptaulus Benson, 1857
• Dioryx Benson, 1859
• Clostophis Benson, 1860
• Rhiostoma Benson, 1860

species:

• Carinaria cithara Benson, 1835
• Carinaria galea Benson, 1835
• Musculista senhousia (Benson, 1842)
• Musculus senhousei (Benson, 1842)

External links

• Auffenberg K. (2000). "Historical malacology: William Benson (1803-1870)". American Conchologist 28(1): 24.
• Budha P. B. & Naggs F. (2008). "The Giant African Land Snail Lissachatina fulica (Bowdich) in Nepal". The Malacologist: 50: HTM.
• Crosse H. & Fischer P. (1872). "Nécrologie". Journal de Conchyliologie 20(1): 122.