Sir Benjamin Cohen, 1st Baronet

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Sir Benjamin Louis Cohen, 1st Baronet (18 November 1844 – 8 November 1909) was a British businessman and Conservative politician.

He was the son of Louis Cohen, a stockbroker, and Rebecca Keyser. After private schooling he joined his father’s firm. Besides business, he worked for public and political causes and supported Jewish charities. He served on the committees of the Stepney Jewish Schools, the Jews’ Orphan Asylum, and the Home for Aged Jews, and he was President of the London Orphan Asylum.

In 1887 his brother Lionel Louis Cohen, who led the Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor, died. Benjamin succeeded him as president and held the post until 1900, raising large sums for the charity and changing the board’s rules to allow women to be members. In the 1880s he helped resettle Russian Jews and supported proto-Zionist groups seeking to settle in Palestine.

In 1889 he was elected to the London County Council for the City of London as part of the Conservative-backed Moderate Party, and he served until 1904. His brothers Alfred and Nathaniel also sat on the council.

At the 1892 general election he was elected as Unionist Member of Parliament for Islington East and held the seat until 1906, when he was defeated in the Liberal landslide. In 1905 he was created a baronet, of Highfield in the Parish of Shoreham and County of Kent.

Cohen died after a long illness at his home in Hyde Park Gardens, London, in November 1909 aged 64.