Isa Benzie

{{Short description|British radio broadcaster}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Isa Benzie | image = Isa_Benzie_of_the_BBC.jpg | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1902|12|4|df=y}} | birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland | death_date = {{death date and age|1988|6|25|1902|12|4|df=y}} | death_place = Hastings, England | employer = BBC Radio | spouse = {{marriage|Royston Morley|1937}} | children = 1 }} '''Isa Donald Benzie''' (4 December 1902 – 25 June 1988) was a British radio broadcaster. She played a key role in the launch of ''Today'' on BBC Radio 4, and served as its first senior producer.<ref name=ODNB/>

== Early life and education == Benzie was born in 1902 in Glasgow, at 1 Douglas Terrace. Her parents married 1901. She was the eldest daughter of Lt.-Col Robert Marr Benzie,<ref>''Dundee Evening Post'' Saturday 6 December 1902, page 2</ref><ref>''Dundee Courier'' Tuesday 22 June 1937, page 7</ref> of the 5th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), the former 1st Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers<ref>''Times'' Saturday May 6, 1911, page 8</ref> of 19 Sutherland Avenue,<ref>''Dundee Evening Telegraph'' Thursday 15 December 1938, page 7</ref> in Pollokshields.<ref>''Daily Record'' Wednesday 5 January 1938, page 21</ref> Her mother was Anne Lamberton.

Her father was awarded the OBE in the 1919 Birthday Honours (OBE). He was a Freemason, and died on Wednesday 8 October 1941.<ref>''The Scotsman'' Thursday 9 October 1941, page 6</ref><ref>''Times'' Friday October 10, 1941, page 1</ref>

She took the equivalent of a degree in German at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford. She was not given a degree because she was a woman.

== Career == Benzie became a secretary at the BBC in 1927, just two years after it first had de facto national coverage in Britain. During the World War I, her father, Lt. Colonel Robert Marr Benzie, served in the same army division as John Reith who would become the managing director of the BBC, and had written to Reith asking for a position for his daughter. Isa Benzie was paid £150 per year as assistant to the head of the Foreign Liaison department, Major CF Atkinson.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Reith Diaries |chapter=22 January 1924}}</ref> Benzie gathered material for talks given by Vernon Bartlett on his programme ''The Way of the World''.

In 1932, Atkinson resigned and Benzie was given his role. Her salary increased to £500 a year but this was much less than her former boss had been paid. Benzie's career continued and her salary was increased by £100 every year with a ceiling set at £1,250 per year.<ref name="Murphy2016">{{cite book|author=Kate Murphy|title=Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gD4WDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA175|date=28 April 2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-49173-2|pages=175–}}</ref>

In the early 1930s, she adapted German plays into radio plays, with Barbara Burnham, by plays by Felix Gasbarra.<ref>''Grimsby Evening Telegraph'' Wednesday 6 July 1932, page 6</ref> In early October 1933 she represented the BBC at a meeting of the International Broadcasting Union in the Netherlands.

By 1933, Benzie was head of the foreign affairs department. She oversaw relationships with broadcasters worldwide, including for significant events such as the 1936 Summer Olympics and for the Coronation of George VI and Elizabeth.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Isa Benzie Portrait |url=https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/isabenzie/ |access-date=2022-07-12 |website=100 Objects that made the BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |url=https://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/conference/212913 |title='She is known in every European capital': Isa Benzie and the Foreign Department of the BBC, 1927-38 |last1=Murphy |first1=Kate |author-link1= |last2= |first2= |author-link2= |date=July 2016 |publisher= |book-title= |pages= |location= |conference=The Radio Conference |id=}}</ref>

In 1937 she married a BBC producer, Royston Morley. They had one child, a daughter.<ref name="ODNB" /> She had to leave the BBC because of a rule against women being married to another of their employees.<ref name="ODNB" /> Another source says that she opted to leave and her resignation meal was attended by Lord Reith.<ref name="Murphy2016" />

The marital rule was relaxed during the war and Benzie returned to the BBC into the Radio Talks department, where she often organised talks on aspects of health.<ref name=":0" />

In the 1940s, Benzie produced Donald Winnicott's series "The Ordinary Devoted Mother and Her Baby".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=From Donald Winnicott to the naughty step. |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dxpm998t |access-date=2022-07-12 |website=Wellcome Collection |language=en}}</ref> Benzie and Janet Quigley "worked with Winnicott to improve his broadcasting style" and shaped the content of the programmes.<ref name=":1" />

Benzie played a key role in October 1957 in the launch of ''Today'' on BBC Radio 4, which she named. She edited the programme and was its first senior producer. She took it from a programme for "people on the move"<ref name=":0" /> to the important step of having its own named presenter. Quigley and Benzie worked together on the programme and complemented each other's careers. They worked in the same BBC departments, had the same alma mater and witnessed each other's marriages.<ref name="ODNB" />

== Later life, death and legacy == Benzie retired in 1964 and died in St Leonards in 1988.<ref name=ODNB/>

The first and only portrait of a woman in Broadcasting House is a painting of Isa Benzie painted by Ronald Dunlop. The portrait was included in a digital project "100 Objects that made the BBC".<ref name=":0" />

==References== <references>

<ref name=ODNB>{{ODNB|id=65410|title=Benzie, Isa Donald}}</ref>

</references>

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20130901033932/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/people/49/75.shtml Isa Benzie on the BBC online archive]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benzie, Isa}} Category:1902 births Category:1988 deaths Category:20th-century British women Category:Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Category:British radio personalities