Edward Horton Bensley was born in Toronto and graduated in medicine from the University of Toronto in 1930, as a gold medallist. He then came to Montreal to take up an internship at the Montreal General Hospital. He eventually became director of the Montreal General Hospital's Department of Metabolism and Toxicology. He also taught biochemistry, medicine and experimental medicine in the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University. During World War II, Major Bensley served with No. 14 Canadian General Hospital. He was a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and a member of numerous societies relating to medical biology and chemistry, in whose journals he published widely. In the 1960s, he consecutively became Associate Dean, Acting Dean and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of McGill. In 1968, he joined the Department of History of Medicine. Dr. Bensley was appointed as Honorary Librarian of the Osler Library in 1979.