DID YOU KNOW?

  Margaret Rutherford's Father.

• In 1883 William Benn, suffered a mental breakdown shortly after marrying Florence Nicholson. He became a patient at the Bethnal House Asylum and after six weeks his doctors recommended that he be taken home. Julius,Williams' Fathers who was the pastor of the Gravel Lane Congregational Meeting House in Wapping, decided to take his son for a holiday to Matlock Bridge in Derbyshire. On 26th February 1883, while Julius was sleeping, his son killed him with a single blow to the head with an earthenware chamber-pot. Afterwards, William tried to kill himself by cutting his throat. William was not charged with murder and instead was locked away in a lunatic asylum.
• In 1891, his brother, a politician, John Benn was told that his brother, William Benn, had fully recovered from his mental illness. Benn approached Henry Matthews, the Home Secretary, and promised to be personally responsible for his brother if he was released. Matthews agreed and after nine years in an asylum William joined his wife at home in Balham. It was decided to change his name to William Rutherford. The following year Florence Rutherford gave birth to a daughter, Margaret. Many years later Margaret Rutherford was to become one of Britain's leading stage and screen stars.