Peter Benenson – defender of the forgotten prisoners
We have completed cataloguing the archive of Peter Benenson (1921–2005), the founder of the human rights organisation Amnesty International.
7 September 2026Blog series Untold lives
Author George Brierley, Manuscripts Cataloguer
Peter was born on 31 July 1921 to Harold Solomon (1886–1930), Lieutenant-Colonel, and Flora Solomon, née Benenson (ca. 1895–1984), the founder of the Welfare Department at Marks and Spencer. Peter’s interest in human rights started early. In 1941, he and two school friends raised £4,000 to bring two young German Jews to Britain. It was around this time that Peter started using his mother’s maiden name. Flora was the daughter of Russian-Jewish financier Grigori Benenson (ca. 1860–1939). Her papers (Add MS 89648/10) are catalogued with Peter’s archive.
Peter met his first wife, Margaret, at the Ministry of Information in 1940. They had two daughters, Susan (Natasha) and Jill. Peter trained as a barrister and became a member of the Labour Party, standing unsuccessfully during the general elections of 1950, 1951, 1955 and 1959.
Election photograph of Peter and his family, 1959, Weizmann Studios. Left to right: Susan (Natasha), Margaret, Peter and Jill. Shelfmark: Add MS 89648/9/5 (78). Copyright: Benenson estate.
In 1960, Peter was outraged when he read a news item about two Portuguese students who had been arrested and imprisoned for raising a toast to liberty. This led him to write an article titled ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’, published in the Observer on 28 May 1961. The ‘forgotten prisoners’ or ‘prisoners of conscience’ were individuals who had been imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs. The article received worldwide attention and Amnesty International was born in July 1961.
Peter launched ‘Appeal for Amnesty 1961’ with Eric Baker (1920-1976), who also helped Peter to develop the book Persecution 1961, featuring the stories of nine prisoners of conscience. On 9 August 1961, Peter wrote a four-page letter to Eric describing Amnesty’s purpose: ‘It is to give to him who feels cut off from God, a sense of belonging to something much greater than himself…’. He also wrote about his and Eric’s roles within Amnesty and how he envisioned the organisation developing.
Excerpt from page two of a letter from Peter Benenson, Edinburgh, to Eric Baker, 9 Aug 1961. Shelfmark: Add MS 89648/1/39. Copyright: Benenson estate.
By 1966, Amnesty International was in crisis. Peter believed British Intelligence had infiltrated the organisation and wanted to move headquarters to a country he considered more neutral. He resigned from Amnesty in 1967 and led a quiet and reclusive life from then on. He was modest about his achievements, reluctantly accepting the Pride of Britain Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
Peter died on 25 February 2005, but his influence remains: Amnesty International is still active and continues the work that he set in motion. The inscription on his grave at All Saints Church, Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire, describes him as a ‘defender of justice’. This archive, too, preserves the memory of his lifetime’s work in advocating for history’s forgotten prisoners.
Further reading
Peter Benenson Archive. An Excel spreadsheet of the catalogue is now available. Shelfmark: Add MS 89648
Buchanan, T., ‘Benenson, Peter James Henry’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2008
Benenson, P., ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’, the Observer, 28 May 1961. Shelfmark: Add MS 89648/4/28
Benenson, P., Persecution 1961 (Penguin, 1961)
For more information on Peter’s mother, Flora, see: Solomon, F. and Litvinoff, B., Baku to Baker Street: The Memoirs of Flora Solomon (Collins, 1984)
The British Library will be holding an event on Monday 21 September 2026 to celebrate Peter and his life’s work: A Life in Human Rights – the story of Amnesty International.
Transcript
The following is a transcript of the text shown in the image.
Excerpt from letter by Peter Benenson to Eric Baker, 9 Aug 1961
To me the whole purpose of AMNESTY (using the movement in its broadest sense) is to re-kindle a fire in the minds of men. It is to give to him who feels cut off from God, a sense of belonging to something much greater than himself, of being a small part of the entire human race. If, God willing, this fire stays alight, then each one with the spark burning inside of him will use it in his own way. Those ways I cannot even foresee, much less pre-determine. Only God can see. If it His wish that someone should gather these manifold sparks together into one flaming torch, the He will send someone to do it. What I cannot do - harping back to the Chinese proverb, that I rather think you want me to try - is to do this myself. I cannot do it, because I "will" not do it. I "will" not do it because, in the twilight in which I roam, I cannot see that it is God's Will that it should be done. Just as He has revealed himself in many ways, and we are all His children whatever the colour of our skins, so I believe it more likely to be His will for the salvation to come from many quarters. We in the West, in one corner of Europe, in one island off that corner, have no monopoly of Truth. If once we try to claim that monopoly, we may postpone the ultimate salvation. And if that is true of one country, how much more of one person.
Untold lives series
This blog is part of our Untold Lives series, sharing stories of people’s lives from our collections. Stories from around the world, from the dawn of history to the present day, are told through the written word, images, audio-visual and digital materials.
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