Benzion Shalom Eliezer Freshwater is the son of Osias Freshwater (1897–1976), born in the village of Sassov, Galicia, Poland, who emigrated to England in 1939. In 1947 he married Nechama Golda Stempel née Halberstam, widowed daughter of Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam, the second Bobover Rebbe, and they had two sons, Benzion and Solomon.
He has 279 directorships but operates mainly through Daejan Holdings plc, a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange, in which his family has a 79% stake. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 ranking of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom he was placed 110th with an estimated fortune of £1000 million. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2013 ranking of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom, he had an estimated fortune of £980 million, up £117 million from 2012.
In the Sunday Times Rich List 2014 ranking of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom, he was placed 79th with an estimated fortune of £1.258 billion, up £278 million from the previous year.
In the Sunday Times Rich List 2015 ranking of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom, he was had a wealth of £1.4 billion, up £142 million from 2014. This put him in 65th place.
