Born in Notting Hill, London in 1904, Benny Lee was born into a sporting background.
His father, Harry Lee, was a boxing promoter at the Royal Albert Hall, his older brother also named Harry was a speed skater while younger brother Sidney was to become a billiards and snooker champion.
As a young man in the 1920s and 1930s, Benny Lee was a champion speed skater, firstly on roller skates and then on ice. In 1939, he became manager of Streatham Ice Rink and after wartime service in the Royal Air force, he returned to the south London rink until 1951. He left Streatham when Tom Arnold lured him to the south coast to manage the famous Brighton Sports Stadium.
As well as overseeing ice hockey in Brighton, Benny Lee put on many events at the Sports Stadium including ice shows, basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters, boxing, wrestling, snooker and five-a-side football. During this period, the Brighton facility was justifiably heralded as the “Sports and Entertainment Centre of the South Coast.”
After the British League collapsed in 1960, Benny Lee showed great faith in his Brighton Tigers, a hockey team largely composed of British players as against the Canadian dominated teams of earlier years, by continuing to stage games for a further five seasons. While other arenas like the Empress Hall Earls Court and Harringay had already fallen prey to developers, and other rinks like Streatham, Nottingham and for a while Wembley refused to stage hockey, the “Standing Room Only” signs were commonplace on Sunday evenings in Brighton as more than three thousand fans regularly packed into the Sports Stadium.
The Brighton facility finally closed down in 1965, however from that point until he died in May 1990, Benny Lee held on to the hope that, one day, his Brighton Tigers would take to the ice again.
For putting his faith in ice hockey – and being proven correct when many thought he was mad to do so, Benny Lee was elected into the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame, alongside Sir Arthur Elvin MBE as one of the great builders of the sport in Great Britain.
Compiled with research, provided by Martin C.Harris – April 1995.
Read More
