John Benger | |
---|---|
![]() Benger in 2019 | |
40th Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge | |
Assumed office 1 October 2023 | |
Preceded by | Sir Mark Welland |
51st Clerk of the House of Commons | |
In office 1 March 2019 –1 October 2023 | |
Preceded by | Sir David Natzler |
Succeeded by | Tom Goldsmith |
Personal details | |
Born | John Stuart Benger 18 November 1959 Stockport,England |
Spouse | Susan Irvine (m. 1986) |
Children | 2 |
Education | Stockport Grammar School |
Alma mater | |
Sir John Stuart Benger KCB (born 18 November 1959) is a British civil servant. He has served as Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, since October 2023. He previously served as Clerk of the House of Commons, the principal constitutional adviser to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, and adviser on all its procedure and business, from 2019 to 2023.
John Stuart Benger was born on 18 November 1959 in Stockport to Kurt Benger and Marian Benger ( née Hollis). [1] He studied at Stockport Grammar School and attended St Catharine's College, Cambridge, [1] [2] where he read English and graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Benger later studied at Worcester College, Oxford, where he earned a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1983, and a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1989, [1] with a doctoral thesis on "the authority of writer and text in radical Protestant literature, 1540 to 1593, with particular reference to the Marprelate tracts". [3]
Benger joined the staff of the House of Commons in 1986, working in procedural and committee posts, and became a clerk in 1990. He was appointed the 51st clerk of the House of Commons and succeeded Sir David Natzler on 1 March 2019 upon his retirement. [4] [5]
In February 2023, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, announced Benger's resignation in the autumn to become the 40th master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, his alma mater. He succeeded Sir Mark Welland in the role on 1 October 2023. [6] [7]
Benger married Susan Elizabeth Irvine in 1986 and has two sons. He is a supporter of the association football club Manchester United. [1]
Benger was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to Parliament. [8]
St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Cambridge, and lies just south of King's College and across the street from Corpus Christi College. The college is notable for its open court that faces towards Trumpington Street.
Sir Roger Williams was a Welsh soldier of fortune and military theorist, who served the Protestant cause, fighting against the Spanish in several theatres of war. Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester said that as a soldier he was "worth his weight in gold". He was later a close associate of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and became a national hero because of his exploits fighting the Catholic League. He has been described as "an obstreperous, opinionated Welsh soldier" who was "Essex's devoted confederate and agent".
The Marprelate Controversy was a war of pamphlets waged in England and Wales in 1588 and 1589, between a puritan writer who employed the pseudonym Martin Marprelate, and defenders of the Church of England which remained an established church.
John Penry, who was executed for high treason during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, is Wales' most famous Protestant Separatist martyr.
John Still was Master of two Cambridge colleges and then, from 1593, Bishop of Bath and Wells. He enjoyed considerable fame as an English preacher and disputant. He was formerly reputed to be the author of an early English comedy drama, Gammer Gurton's Needle.
Andrew Perne, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and Dean of Ely, was the son of John Perne of East Bilney, Norfolk.
The Clerk of the House of Commons is the chief executive of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and before 1707 of the House of Commons of England.
Sir Kenneth Anthony Bradshaw was Clerk of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1987.
Job Throckmorton (Throkmorton) (1545–1601) was a puritan English religious pamphleteer and Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Possibly with John Penry and John Udall, he authored the Martin Marprelate anonymous anti-clerical satires; scholarly consensus now makes him the main author.
Sir Kenneth Berrill was an English economist and public servant.
Sir Thomas Stuart Legg was a British senior civil servant, who was Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Department and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, United Kingdom (1989–98).
The reign of Elizabeth I of England, from 1558 to 1603, saw the start of the Puritan movement in England, its clash with the authorities of the Church of England, and its temporarily effective suppression as a political movement in the 1590s by judicial means. This led to the further alienation of Anglicans and Puritans from one another in the 17th century during the reign of King James (1603–1625) and the reign of King Charles I (1625–1649), that eventually brought about the English Civil War (1642–1651), the brief rule of the Puritan Lord Protector of England Oliver Cromwell (1653–1658), the English Commonwealth (1649–1660), and as a result the political, religious, and civil liberty that is celebrated today in all English speaking countries.
Sir John Wolley was Queen Elizabeth I's Latin Secretary, a member of her Privy Council, and a member of Parliament from 1571 until his death in 1596.
Robert Waldegrave or Walgrave, the son of Richard Waldegrave of Blockley, Worcestershire, was a 16th-century printer and publisher in England and Scotland. From 1578 to 1588 he printed numerous, mainly religious works in London, and from 1590 to 1603, more than 100 books in Scotland. In 1603, following King James I of England's accession to the English throne, he returned to England, but died later the same year.
John Hales was the owner of the Whitefriars in Coventry at which two of the Marprelate tracts were printed on a secret press. He was the nephew and heir of John Hales, Clerk of the Hanaper, and the nephew of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote.
George Carleton was a lawyer, landowner and Member of Parliament with strong Puritan sympathies. It has been suggested that he was the secret author of the Marprelate tracts, and both he and his third wife were prosecuted for their involvement in the Marprelate controversy. Ordered to appear daily before the Privy Council in April 1589, he died in early 1590 before a decision in the proceedings against him had been reached.
Sir David Lionel Natzler is a former Clerk of the House of Commons, the principal constitutional adviser to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, and adviser on all its procedure and business. He was the 50th person to hold the role. Appointed by letters patent in March 2015, he was designated acting Clerk upon the retirement of Sir Robert Rogers in August 2014. He announced his retirement in a letter to the Speaker on 14 November 2018.
John Prime was an English Church of England clergyman and Protestant preacher during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Sir William Rose was a British barrister and civil servant who served as Clerk of the Parliaments from 1875 to 1885, succeeding his father.
Thomas Goldsmith is a British parliamentary official. Since 2023, he has served as Clerk of the House of Commons, the principal constitutional adviser to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.