Congratulations to Budleighs FB

Congratulations to Budleighs FB - Fairlynch Museum

By: Michael Downes
Added: 18 January 2012

Friend of Fairlynch and Budleigh resident Francis Bennion deserves double congratulations.

Not only has he reached the grand age of 89 recently, but his birthday on 2 January was celebrated with a feature in The Times.   

FB is of course one of the most assiduous writers of letters to The Times: he has around 150 to his credit. A barrister who has specialised in constitutional law, in 1956 and 1960 respectively he drafted the constitutions by which Pakistan and Ghana became republics.

In 1971-72 he brought a private prosecution against Peter Hain. After a 21-day Old Bailey trial Hain was convicted of criminal conspiracy to organise illegal direct action protests. His appeal was rejected.

His main work, Bennion on Statutory Interpretation (1984) is now in its fifth edition totalling over 1700 pages. Apart from law books, his publications range from Victorian railways to sexual ethics. In his work The Sex Code (1991) he writes about our duty to "train ourselves and our children to accept and welcome to the full the wholesome sexual nature of humanity." His collection of poems Poemotions  - Bennion Undraped (2003) carries on in that rather liberal vein.  

He maintains a lively and regularly updated website from his home on Fore Street with thoughts for the day on all kinds of subjects - definitely worth a look. Click on http://www.francisbennion.com to find out why. He is in fact Budleigh's biggest blogger.

His comment on his birthday to The Times: "I am just so very grateful to have had such a long life and to still have all my mental faculties."



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