{{Short description|Greek merchant and politician}} [[File:EMMANOUILBENAKIS.PNG|thumb|]] '''Emmanouil Benakis''' ({{langx|el|Εμμανουήλ Μπενάκης}}; 1843 in [[Ermoupoli]], [[Syros]] – June 20, 1929 in [[Kifisia]]) was a Greek merchant and politician, considered a national [[Benefactor (law)|benefactor]] of Greece.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Georgiadou |first=Maria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lpprCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |title=Constantin Carathéodory: Mathematics and Politics in Turbulent Times |date=2013-12-01 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-642-18562-5 |pages=17 |language=en}}</ref>
== Biography == After studying in [[England]], Benakis emigrated to Alexandria, Egypt, where he worked for the Greek cotton industrialist Horemi, and into whose family he married. He had six children, among whom were the writer [[Penelope Delta]], the art collector [[Antonis Benakis]] and Argini Salvago whose daughter married into the Melas family.<ref name="BenakiMuseum">{{cite web |title=Antonis Benakis, The Founder |url=http://www.benaki.gr/index.asp?id=40102&lang=en |publisher=Benaki Museum |accessdate=2009-05-25 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427060732/http://www.benaki.gr/index.asp?id=40102&lang=en |archivedate=2011-04-27 }}. The Benakis museum hosts exhibits linked to his father</ref> Benakis became the president of the Greek community in [[Alexandria]] and ran the largest enterprise of Greek [[cotton brokers]] in Egypt. He accumulated a considerable fortune.<ref name=":0" />
As a close friend of [[Eleftherios Venizelos]], he was elected to the [[Hellenic Parliament]] and served as Minister of Agriculture and Industry. He was elected [[mayor]] of the city of [[Athens]] in 1914.
Among other benefactions he contributed to the settlement of refugees in the aftermath of the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Greco-Turkish war in Asia Minor]]. He donated to the [[Red Cross]] Nurses' School and the [[Athens College]]. He provided for his fortune to be posthumously placed at the disposal of several charitable foundations, and his funeral was carried out at Greek public expense.
The [[Benaki Phytopathological Institute]] was one such institution founded through his legacy.<ref name="Benaki">{{cite web | title=Benaki Phytopathological Institute | url=http://en.bpi.gr/ | access-date=2021-12-05}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Mayors of Athens}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benakis, Emmanouil}} [[Category:1843 births]] [[Category:1929 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century Greek businesspeople]] [[Category:People from Ermoupoli]] [[Category:Liberal Party (Greece) politicians]] [[Category:19th-century Greek philanthropists]] [[Category:20th-century Greek philanthropists]] [[Category:Mayors of Athens]] [[Category:20th-century Greek businesspeople]] [[Category:Greek expatriates in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Expatriate businesspeople in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Greek emigrants to Egypt]] [[Category:Greek Freemasons]] [[Category:Cotton factors]] [[Category:Egyptian merchants]]
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