News:20070710 Benson Death

Former Chief of the Defence Staff Field Marshal Sir William Benson has died after a heart attack, according to a press release issued by his family.

Benson was born in Exeter in 1930. He attended Exeter School and Cambridge, and entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst from 1954 to 1955, and was commissioned into the Royal Ibaglian Regiment shortly after the independence of Ibagli. He received the Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross while on active service in Palterma.

In 1970 he was appointed Chief of the General Staff, and became Chief of the Defence Staff in 1979, retiring from the Army in 1985. Upon his promotion to General in 1970, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, and was promoted to Knight Grand Cross in 1979 upon his promotion to Field Marshal. He was one of the first appointees to the Order of Ibaglian Merit on its creation in 1986.