100 years ago King’s Lynn man was such a hero
Last week St George’s Day commemorative events on the English south coast marked the centenary of the famous Zeebrugge Raid.
During those events, focused on Dover Town Hall and the town’s main cemetery, the name of a popular past mayor of Lynn was given high profile.
Ted Benefer, in 1918 a young coxswain of the Motor Launch 252, was one of the heroes of that day who survived to tell the tale. He had been right in the thick of the action in the Belgium port..
In 2018 most of the motorists travelling along Edward Benefer Way, on the outskirts of Lynn town centre, will have no idea of the heroism at sea of the man after whom the road was named.
On the centenary of the famous naval conflict, Ted Benefer junior, joined by his wife, Gladys and daughter, Linda, laid a wreath bearing his father’s personal details.
It was a proud and poignant ceremony for 81-year-old Mr Benefer, of West Lynn, who has spent countless hours researching the epic conflict and also written his own book about the raid.
Back in Lynn, Mr Benefer said the events in Dover on St George’s Day were very emotional with uniformed personnel marching and bands playing.
“There were lots of Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel and dignitaries, including Royal British Legion representatives,” he said.
He said people involved in the proceedings travelled by a convoy of buses to the Dover cemetery and there they laid their own wreath, taken with them from Lynn, in memory of his father Ted Benefer, during a moving ceremony.
Writing his book, has been a labour of love for Mr Benefer, himself a former borough councillor and an honorary alderman of the borough.
His task has helped to ensure that the story of the raid, and his father’s part in it, are not just consigned to history and forgotten about.
Twenty-five years ago, Mr Benefer attended events staged in Dover and Belgium marking the 75th anniversary of the conflict.
“It is very important to me that I should attend the centenary of the raid and in carrying out research make more people aware of this dramatic episode in history,” he said.
Mr Benefer said his father didn’t really speak about his heroic exploits to his family.
But while serving as mayor of the old Lynn Borough in 1960 described it in an interview for the Lynn News as “the worst night of my life”.
Mr Benefer was coxswain on ML 252. its role was to provide cover from the guns on the Mole and mainland as the attack force went in, shield the block-ships as they sailed to their positions, pick-up survivors and create a further smokescreen for the retreat.
Mr Benefer jnr said in his book, entitled Raid at Zeebrugge, that his father’s boat came under heavy fire from the enemy while screening the searchlight on the Mole.
“Though hit several times, the boat seemed to have a charmed life, for she escaped without casualties, if not without signs of her rough handling.”
The book reveals that 82 officers and 1,698 men (all volunteers) took part in the raid. More than 200 were killed and more than 300 were wounded. Eleven Victoria Crosses (VCs) were awarded to men for their bravery on that night.
Ted Benefer was born in 1897, the youngest of five boys. He came from a fishing family in Lynn’s North End. This could have been why he was chosen to steer a motor launch when he joined the RNVR.
He was one of eight children but two of them died in infancy. Mr Benefer worked on Lynn docks and served for 16 years as a town councillor.
He was elected mayor of Lynn in 1960-61. His wife had died in 1957, aged 59, so his daughter, Eileen, was mayoress.
Mr Benefer jnr said: “It was a 20-minute walk into the town centre from our house but if you went with Dad it took two hours because he stopped and talked to everyone on his way,”
After his death in 1966 at the age of 70 ,the town council named the Edward Benefer Way (northern bypass) after him.
His son said : “Mum and Dad came through two world wars, the recession of the 30s and had eight children. At one time there were eight of us living in a three-bedroom council house.”
