Constantine Walter Benson

On arrival in Malawi, he began the systematic study of Malawian birds, training and making use of his servant and collector Jali Makawa.

He met his wife Florence Mary Lanham (Molly[2]), while visiting the Transvaal Museum where she worked as a botanist and they co-authored several publications.

[4][5] He was a recognised expert on East African birds, and made a number of scientific discoveries including: In 1952 he was transferred from Nyasaland to the then Northern Rhodesia, (now Zambia) Game and Fisheries Department.

In 1958, whilst at the Game and Fisheries Department, he led the centenary expedition of the British Ornithological Union to the Comoro Islands.

[3] After officially retiring in 1965, Benson continued to work on the collection of birds catalogue in the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology, which had been untouched since 1907 and the death of Alfred Newton, one of the founders of the British Ornithologists Union.