11 Facts About Benjamin Benjamin

Sir Benjamin Benjamin was an Australian businessman and politician.

Benjamin Benjamin was mayor of Melbourne between 1887 and 1889, before serving as a member of the Victorian Legislative Council from 1889 to 1892.

Benjamin Benjamin's family left for the Colony of New South Wales in 1843 on a boat named London.

Benjamin Benjamin was educated in a school run by the Reverend William Jarrett, a Congregational Church minister.

Benjamin Benjamin retired from active involvement in business in 1878.

Benjamin Benjamin became the first Melbourne mayor and first Jewish Australian to receive a knighthood when he was made a Knight Bachelor in 1889.

In 1888, as mayor of Melbourne, Benjamin welcomed the Russian ship Rynda and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia who was visiting the Australian colonies in a goodwill mission in light of tensions between Britain and Russia.

Benjamin Benjamin had offered personal guarantees on the bank's finances.

Benjamin Benjamin was survived by his wife Fanny and 13 of his 16 children.

Lady Benjamin was a sister of Justice Cohen of Sydney.

In 2009 a masonic apron believed to have been originally owned by Robert Burns and subsequently purchased by Benjamin was auctioned by Michael Bennett-Levy, a descendant of Benjamin.