Benson, Mary.

Benson was born on Dec. 9, 1919 in Pretoria, South Africa; attended schools in Australia; secretary with British High Commission, Pretoria, South Africa (1940-41), and with film director David Lean, London (1947-49); co-founder and secretary of Africa Bureau, London, 1950-57; lobbied in England and at the United Nations on South African issues; active in the African Development Trust and National Campaign for the Abolition of Capital Punishment; an activist against apartheid, Benson left South Africa and became a political exile in London in 1966; publications include Tshekedi Khama (1960), Chief Albert Lutuli of South Africa (1963), The African patriots : the story of the African National Congress of South Africa (1963), At the still point (1970), and Nelson Mandala (1980).