1938–2026

Ian Benington was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, on 24 February 1938 and the family lived in Moira where his father taught at Brookfield Quaker School. At an early age the family moved to Ballymoney where Ian attended Dalriada School. He then studied at the School of Dentistry, Queen's University Belfast, graduating in1961, going on to serve as House Surgeon, Senior House Officer and Tutor Registrar in the Dental Department, Royal Victoria Hospital, from 1961 to 1965. He then transferred to the Department of Dental Prosthetics at the Eastman Dental Hospital in London serving as Registrar, full-time Clinical Assistant and Senior Registrar from 1965 to 1972.

Ian was then appointed Full Time Consultant/Honorary Clinical Lecturer in the Department of Dental Prosthetics, Glasgow Dental Hospital and School, and held this post until 1978. Ian then returned to Belfast where he was appointed Senior Lecturer/Consultant and head of Dental Prosthetics and Material Science, a position he held until 1981 when he was appointed Professor. Ian held this post until retirement in 2003 and was subsequently awarded Emeritus Professor status in 2004.

Ian was an excellent clinician and teacher pioneering the use of light cured hollow bulb obturators for acquired and congenital defects.

He held senior management positions in the Dental School, at Queen's, including Director of School, Head of Restorative Dentistry and Chairman of both Board of Dental Studies and Dental Management Committee.

Ian had been an active member of the British Dental Association from 1965 including membership of the Metropolitan, West of Scotland and Northern Ireland Branches. He was elected as president of the NI branch in 1986 and as National BDA President in 2002. He helped to organise the combined BDA/IDA conference which was held in Belfast during his Presidential year.

He was programme secretary for the local NI branch during ‘the troubles' and was able to boast that he never had a speaker refuse to come. During this time Ian and his wife Eileen put up many of the speakers from ‘across the water' in their own home; perhaps Ian's legendary hospitality was the main draw. He was an ideal programme secretary because Professor Benington knew everyone in dentistry and everyone, in dentistry, knew Professor Benington.

Ian was on several committees of the General Dental Council and was nominated by Queen's to serve as a member of council 1989–1999.

When he first arrived in Belfast Ian was a big hit with the dental students who fondly christened him Duke Benington after the band leader Duke Ellington. He quickly redefined relations between staff and students putting all to shame with his resilience, sometimes into the early hours listening to Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill on the juke box in Lenaghan Crescent.

He was a generous host and was often found inviting people back ‘to number 10 for a small silver'.

Away from dentistry Ian was a devoted family man. He was a keen gardener and DIY'er and even after retirement, into his seventies, could be found on the roof of the outhouse making some repairs. He loved the outdoors and walking in the Mourne Mountains where he shared a cottage and would bring a cohort of junior staff for a weekend hiking and other activities. He once sailed to Stornoway to deliver a lecture programme, he walked the Camino De Santiago, and navigated the Canal du Midi. Ian enjoyed music and was a member of the choir at his local church, St. John's Newtownbreda, also helping to organise the Royal Victoria Hospital choir to entertain patients at Christmas time.

Ian was also an enthusiastic rugby supporter and eagerly anticipated the Six Nations tournament attending home matches in Dublin and travelling to away matches in Edinburgh and Cardiff, but never Twickenham!! He especially liked trips to Paris and Rome. In Paris, sitting at the Café Madelaine, watching the promenading Parisiennes, a glass of Bordeaux in hand, or in Rome, in the Piazza della Rotonda, this time chianti classico, enjoying the buskers, Ian was in his element.

Sadly, illness curtailed his last few years necessitating specialist care in a nursing home. Ian lost his beloved wife Eileen in 2014 and he passed away peacefully in the Ulster Hospital Dundonald on 7 April 2026. He is survived by his daughter Fiona, son David and grandchildren.

Ian was awarded the OBE for services to dentistry in 1997, but for many in Northern Ireland he was the face of dentistry. He will be sadly missed.

Tom Clifford, Lisburn, UK