Benson was born in 1918 in the village of Great Ouseburn, Yorkshire. His father was a local doctor. Noel Benson went to Sedbergh School and entered RAF College, Cranwell on 28 April 1938, as a Flight Cadet. After the outbreak of war, Cranwell cadets who had not completed their courses were enlisted in the RAF as Airmen u/t Pilots.
Benson graduated at Cranwell on 23 October with a Permanent Commission. He immediately went to No 11 Group Fighter Pool, St Athan, converted to Blenheims and joined No 145 Squadron at Croydon on 30 October.
He joined ‘A’ Flight of No 603 Squadron at Prestwick on 16 December 1939. In his biography of Squadron Leader Gerald Stapleton (Stapme, published in 2002), David Ross quotes his subject, who also served with 603, as saying that “Broody” Benson gained his nickname because “he used to sit for ages in the dispersal hut and stare ahead into space ignoring all that went on around him”. Stapleton continued: “He was a very good pilot, always well turned-out and very keen to do well as a fighter pilot when the opportunity came.”
Benson was still with 603 in July 1940. On the 23rd he shared in the destruction of a Do 17. His Spitfire was hit by return fire and his starboard undercarriage leg collapsed on landing, with the aircraft tipping up.
On 27 August, 603 went south to Hornchurch. The next day Benson was shot down, during the evening, in combat with Bf 109s, and killed, his aircraft crashing in flames on Great Hay Farm, Leigh Green, Tenterden, Kent.
He was 21 and is buried in the extension to St Mary’s churchyard, Great Ouseburn. Benson’s brother, Captain Brian Joseph Nodder Benson, Royal Corps of Signals, was killed on 15 April 1945 and is buried in Becklingen War Cemetery, Germany, but is also commemorated on the grave at Great Ouseburn.
