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Gladstone , William Ewart , 1809-1898 , statesman

William Ewart Gladstone was born in Liverpool in 1809, the youngest son of Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet (1764-1851). He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1831 with a double first. He was elected to parliament in 1832 and served successively as MP for Newark, Oxford University, South Lancashire, Greenwich and Midlothian; intially he was a Conservative, but he joined the Liberal party in 1859. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer 4 times before serving as Prime Minister, also 4 times (1868-1874, 1880-1885, 1886 and 1892-1894). He tried twice unsuccessfully to introduce Home Rule in Ireland (1886 and 1893). His working relationship with Queen Victoria was famously difficult. Gladstone was much involved in efforts to 'rescue' and rehabilitate London prostitutes, and he read and wrote widely on religion, literature, economics and politics. In later life he was nicknamed 'Grand Old Man'.

Morley , Henry , 1822-1894 , author

Henry Morley was born in London and educated at schools in England and Germany before studying medicine at King's College London. He worked as a doctor for some years before deciding to become a school teacher in the late 1840s. At the same time, he began a parallel career in journalism, initially writing on health issues. Between 1851 and 1865 he worked for Charles Dickens on the staff of Household Words and All the Year Round, and he was editor of The Examiner from 1861 to 1867. From 1857 Morley became involved in higher education, lecturing in English literature as part of the university extension movement and in 1865 he became a professor at University College London. He retired to the Isle of Wight in 1889, where he lived in Carisbrooke until his death in 1894.

George Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, Scotland, in 1742. He received his education from the parish school at Fochabers and from King's College Aberdeen. He went on to study law in Edinburgh and then in 1773 put these skills into practice as a lawyer in Baltimore, USA in 1773. He returned in 1775 to settle in London, where he devoted his life to writing books about Ireland, affairs of America and the British monarchy. In 1786 he was appointed chief clerk of the committee of the Privy Council for trade and foreign plantations. Chalmers wrote numerous biographies and in 1807 his first volume of Caledonia, a work intended to record the history and antiquities of Scotland was published. Volumes 2 and 3 of Caledonia were published in 1820 and 1824 but Chalmers died, on 31 May 1825, before he could finish the series although he left a manuscript collection intended for its completion.

Chalmers was a prolific writer on history throughout his life as well as a collector of books and manuscripts. His library was sold in three parts between September 1841 and November 1842, yielding £6189 in total. Publications: An Answer from the Electors of Bristol to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. on the affairs of America (T. Cadell, London, 1777); An Appeal to the Generosity of the British Nation, in a statement of facts on behalf of the afflicted widow and unoffending offspring of the unfortunate Mr. Bellingham (M. Jones, London, 1812); An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Britain during the Present and Four Preceding Reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution (C. Dilly & J. Bowen, London, 1782); An Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the Colonies (Baker & Galabin, London, 1782); Another Account of the Incidents, from which the title, and a part of the story of Shakspeare's Tempest, were derived; and the true era of it ascertained (R. & A. Taylor, London, 1815); Caledonia: or, an Account, historical and topographic, of North Britain; from the most ancient to the present times: with a dictionary of places, chorographical and philological (T. Cadell, London, 1807-24); Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain and Ireland; as it was, before the war; as it is, since the peace (T. Egerton, London, 1817); Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, Circulation and Exchanges; with a view to our present circumstances (J. J. Stockdale, London, 1811); Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, Fisheries, and Commerce, of Great Britain (Reed and Hunter, London, 1814); Opinions on Interesting Subjects of Public Law and Commercial Policy; arising from American independence (J. Debrett, London, 1784); Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, from their Settlement to the Peace of 1763 (J. Bowen, London, 1780); Proofs and Demonstrations, how much the projected Registry of Colonial Negroes is unfounded and uncalled for (Thomas Egerton: London, 1816); The Life of Daniel De Foe (John Stockdale, London, 1790); The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots; drawn from the State Papers(John Murray, London, 1818); The Life of Thomas Ruddiman (John Stockdale, London, 1794); Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland: being a collection of his pieces relative to that country, with historical notices, and a life of the author (Longman & Co, London, 1817); A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers (John Stockdale, London, 1790); Parliamentary Portraits (T. Bellamy, London, 1795); Facts and Observations relative to the coinage and circulation of counterfeit or base money; with suggestions for remedying the evil (London, 1795);The Arrangements with Ireland considered (John Stockdale, London, 1785); editor of The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay (Longman, London, 1806); An Apology for the believers in the Shakspeare Papers [forged by W. H. Ireland], which were exhibited in Norfolk Street (T. Egerton, London, 1797); A short view of the proposals lately made for the final adjustment of the commercial system between Great-Britain and Ireland (John Stockdale, London, 1785); A Vindication of the privilege of the people, in respect to the constitutional right of free discussion, with a retrospect to various proceedings relative to the violations of that right (London, 1796); Thoughts on the present Crisis of our Domestic Affairs (London, 1807).

Heywood , Samuel , 1753-1828 , judge and author

Samuel Heywood was born in Liverpool in 1753. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where his Unitarian religious views prevented him from graduating. He subsequently studied law at the Inner Temple; he was called to the bar in 1778, was made a serjeant-at-law in 1794, and became a judge on the Carmarthen circuit in 1807. One of very few religious dissenters to hold a national public office at this time, he was a strong Whig supporter and a fierce opponent of the Anglican hegemony, particularly its more high church elements.

Chevalier , Michel , 1806-1879 , French economist

Michel Chevalier was born in Limoges in 1806. He was educated at the École Polytechnique in Paris. From 1830 to 1832 he was editor of the Saint-Simonian newspaper Le Globe, and was imprisoned for 6 months after the group and newspaper were banned. In the late 1830s his career in industry became successful. He became Professor of Political Economy at the Collège de France aged 35. Later in life, Chevalier became a politician: he was elected a député for Aveyron in 1845 and appointed a senator in 1860. He was also one of the architects of the Cobden-Chevalier free-trade treaty between France and the United Kingdom. He died in Montpellier in 1879.

Claude-Henri, comte de Saint-Simon, was born into a French aristocratic family and received a scientific education. After the age of 40 he began to write extensively on political, industrial and religious topics. His Christian-influenced socialist views were not very influential during his lifetime, but but gained many adherents (known as Saint-Simonians) during the period 1828-1832 before the movement was banned by the French government as a dangerous sect. Today, Saint-Simon is considered the father of French socialism.

Mary Anne Evans was born and educated in Warwickshire. She left school aged 16 when her mother died and became her father's housekeeper for several years. In her early 20s she met Charles and Cara Bray and their freethinking, progressive and radical friends; her reading and social contacts led her to reject the evangelical Christian faith of her upbringing and schooling and adversely affected her relationships with her father and her brother Isaac. Following her father's death Marian (as she began to spell her name) moved to London to become a journalist, where she became close friends with the publisher John Chapman and the sociologist Herbert Spencer. Her most important relationship, however, was with the critic George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived as his partner between 1853 and his death in 1878; their love affair was controversial not only because Lewes was married to (but separated from) another woman, but because they were living 'in sin' openly. Marian began writing fiction in the late 1850s; over the next 20 years she became recognized as one of Britain's greatest novelists and is still considered as such today. Her works included Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch.

Marian used several different names during the course of her life: she was born Mary Anne Evans, but adopted the spelling Mary Ann in early adulthood, before deciding to call herself Marian Evans (the most commonly cited form of her name) in 1850; despite not being married to Lewes, she often used his surname whilst they they lived together. To her readers, however, she is George Eliot, a pseudonym she chose so that her writing would not be prejudged as that of a woman (particularly not that of the notoriously 'immoral' Marian Evans Lewes). Her final name change came late in life when a few months before her death she became Mary Ann Cross on her marriage to John Walter Cross. Although a great writer, her personal history and lack of Christian faith made a burial in Westminster Abbey unsuitable, and she was buried beside Lewes in Highgate cemetery.

Richard Thomas Gallienne (later Le Gallienne) was born in West Derby, Lancashire in 1866. He was educated at Liverpool College. Interested in literature from an early age, he began collecting books as a young man. His first book of poetry was published in 1887. In 1888, after failing the exams necessary to qualify as an accountant, he moved to London and earned a living as a book reviewer and continued to write poetry and prose. Le Gallienne emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s and from 1930 onwards lived in France and Monte Carlo with his third wife, where he continued to work as a journalist.

Seebohm , Frederic , 1833-1912 , barrister and historian

Frederic Seebohm was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, and educated in York. In 1855 he moved to Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where he lived for the rest of his life. He had begun to read for the bar at the Middle Temple whilst still living in Yorkshire and was called to the bar in 1856. In 1859 he became a partner in Sharples and Co bank, which his father-in-law had co-founded. He later became president of the Institute of Bankers. Besides being a committed Quaker and political liberal, Seebohm was strongly interested in history, particularly the medieval period and agricultural history; he wrote and published several books on historical and religious topics and his writings are still influential today.

Farr , Florence , 1860-1916 , actress and author

Florence Farr was born in 1860. She was the youngest daughter of Mary Elizabeth Whittal and Dr William Farr, a sanitary reformer and advocator of equal education and professional rights for women. She was educated at Queen's College London (1877-1880), received good reports but had no inclination to prepare for higher education. After an unsuccessful attempt at teaching (1880-1882), Farr gravitated to the theatre, appearing in minor parts and adopting the stage name, Mary Lester. In 1883 her father died, leaving her a sufficient amount to live on modestly. Her first novel The Dancing Fawn was published in 1894. That same year she became theatre producer at the Avenue Theatre, producing modern plays. Farr preached about parity for women in employment, wages etc. amongst her intellectual circle of acquaintances. George Bernard Shaw wrote that she reacted vehemently against Victorian sexual and domestic morality and was dauntless in publicly championing unpopular causes such as campaigning for the welfare of prostitutes.

Farr had a fascination for the occult, Egyptology and theosophy. She conducted hermetic studies and belonged to an order of like-minded folk, The Hermetic Order of Isis-Urania Temple of The Golden Dawn of London. She published her first philosophical tracts, A Short Inquiry concerning the Hermetic Art by a Lover of Philatethes in 1894. In 1901, Florence, with a friend of Yeat's, collaborated in the writing and production of two one act plays, both recounting Egyptian magical tales. Farr later quit The Golden Dawn and joined the Theosophical Society of London. Farr cultivated friendships with 'clever men'. Among her friends and correspondents were William and May Morris, George Bernard Shaw, John Quinn, Henry Paget, Dr John Todhunter and W B Yeats. In 1884 she married an actor, Mr Edward Emery (b 1863). They separated in 1888 when Mr Emery immigrated to America, according to Shaw, on account of 'some trouble (not domestic)'. Shaw wrote that Florence (who used her own surname more often than her husband's) was quite content with this situation and considered it of little importance. In 1895 she finally divorced Edward Emery on Shaw's advice. In the 1890s, Yeats used Farr's 'golden voice' as part of his quest to encourage the rebirth of spoken poetry. In 1898 made her the stage manager for his Irish Literary Theatre and she became a regular contributor to the performance of his metrical plays. She was also involved in the performance and musical composition of a number of plays at the Lyceum and Court Theatre and New Century Theatres in London, 1902-1906. In 1912, Farr sailed from England for a life in Ceylon. She had been invited by Sri Ponnambalam Ramanthan, a fellow theosophist, to teach at his newly founded College for Girls in Ceylon. As Lady Principal she supervised the teachers, care of sick children, servants and general administration. In 1917, Florence Farr died in Colombo General Hospital at the age of 56. Her body was cremated at the home of Ramanathan. In 1912 she left some of her correspondence with Clifford Bax in a locked black box only to be opened after her death. They were later published in Florence Farr, Bernard Shaw and W B Yeats by C Bax (ed.), The Cuala Press (1941). In preface to these letters Bax wrote that they 'show that she had too much personality to become a good actress' and were testament to her good humour. He described her as 'a woman who could inspire remarkable men' and predicted that she would be remembered primarily on account of her private friendships with eminent intellectuals of the time.

Howell , George , 1833-1910 , politician and writer

George Howell was born in Somerset and educated at Bristol before working as a bricklayer and shoemaker. He also became a Methodist lay preacher and was active in the temperance movement. After moving to London in 1854 Howell joined the Operative Bricklayers' Society and became involved in strike action for improved working conditions. He became Secretary of the London Trades Council in 1861 and Secretary of the Trades Union Congress in 1871. Howell tried several times to enter parliament before eventually serving as MP for Bethnal Green North East (1885-1895). After losing his seat he retired from public life and suffered from poor health in his last years. Howell's library of works on social and economic issues was purchased by public subscription in 1906 and given to the Bishopsgate Institute, London.

Spencer , Sir , Stanley , 1891-1959 , Knight , artist

Stanley Spencer was born in Cookham, Berkshire, and remained strongly attached to the village throughout his life. He was educated locally before studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1908-1912). After serving in the First World War, mainly in the medical corps, he started to become well known as an artist. Besides Cookham, Stanley's Christian faith and his two marriages, to the artists Hilda Carline and Patricia Preece, were among the greatest influences on his work. His best known paintings include The Resurrection, Cookham (1924-1927) and Double Nude Portrait: the Artist and his Second Wife (1937). During the Second World War, Stanley served as an official war artist in Glasgow. He was knighted in Jul 1959, five months before his death.

Josiah Child was baptised in London in 1631. He was a Portsmouth (and later London) businessman who first became involved with the East India Company in c 1659. He became a shareholder in 1671 and was the largest stockholder by the late 1670s. He published several works on economics and served several times as a Whig MP.

George Warde Norman was born in Bromley, Kent, and educated locally and at Eton College. Instead of going to university he joined the family firm, which traded mainly in timber but also handled insurance and banking. He played cricket and studied history and literature in his spare time. He was elected a director of the Bank of England in 1821. Retiring from the family business in 1830, with an ample fortune, Norman settled to writing on political economy, particularly on monetary principles and taxation. He also wrote a remarkably candid autobiography (1857-1858).

Ker , William Paton , 1855-1923 , literary scholar

William Paton Ker was born in Glasgow in 1855. He studied at Glasgow Academy, Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford University. He became Professor of English Literature at the University College of South Wales, Cardiff in 1883 and in 1889 was appointed Professor of English Language and Literature at University College, London, where he set up an Honours School of English and organised the Department of Scandinavian Studies. He was appointed a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford in 1879, and Chair of Poetry at Oxford in 1920.

John Ramsay McCulloch was born Whithorn, Wigtownshire, in 1789. He was a prolific Scottish journalist, and one of the most ardent expositors of the Classical Ricardian School of Economics. He was economics editor for the Whiggish Edinburgh Review, and used this platform to popularise Classical theories and promote the repeal of the Corn Laws. McCulloch was also the editor of the 1828 edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and the 1846 edition of David Ricardo's Works, and composed some of the earliest accounts of the history of economic thought. His main work was Principles (1825), perhaps the first successful 'serious' textbook in economics. McCulloch served as a Professor in Political Economy at University College London from 1828 to 1832. In the later part of his life, he became the Comptroller of HM Stationery Office. He died in 1864.

Scott , William , d 1841 , phrenologist

William Scott joined the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1822 and became its president in 1825. The renowned phrenologist George Combe was a relation of his.

William Cobbett was born in Farnham, Surrey, in 1863. He enlisted as a soldier, and was also a tutor before turning to political writing. He published pamphlets in both Britain and America, usually under the pan name of Peter Porcupine. He owned farms on both sides of the Atlantic. He espoused a mixture of radical and conservative views and was much concerned with rural distress and the state of English farming. He was briefly MP for Oldham, Lancashire, in the 1830s.

Jones , John Gale , 1769-1838 , politician

John Gale Jones was born in Middlesex in 1769. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School before practising as an apothecary and surgeon. During the 1790s he became known as an active political radical, which brought him to the notice of prominent radicals but probably had a negative effect on his medical career. He continued to campagin politically until about 1819, with little success, and served two prison terms for libel.

John Sinclair was born in Thurso, Caithness in 1754. He was educated at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford. He qualified as a lawyer in both Scotland and England but never practised law. In 1780 he entered the House of Commons as MP for Caithness, subsequently serving as MP for several English and Scottish constituencies between 1784 and 1811. Sir John wrote several works on economics and agriculture and became the first president of the Board of Agriculture in 1793. His Statistical Account of Scotland popularized the use of the word 'statistics' in English.

Bloomfield , Robert , 1766-1823 , poet

Robert Bloomfield was born in Honington, Suffolk, in 1766. As a boy he worked on his uncle's farm. He then trained as a cobbler under his older brother, spending much of his spare time reading and later also writing poetry. His first major (and most famous) poem, The Farmer's Boy, was begun in 1796 and eventually published in 1800, becoming both a popular and a critical success. Despite being granted a pension by the Duke of Grafton, Bloomfield continued to make shoes and Aeolian harps alongside his literary work for some years and he and his family were never financially secure.

Smiles , Samuel , 1812-1904 , biographer and didact

Samuel Smiles was born in Haddington, East Lothian in 1812. He studied medicine in Edinburgh. He also became a journalist, lecturer and campaigner for political reform, writing radical articles for regional newsapers, most often in Leeds. In later years he worked for railway companies and the National Provident Institution, and also became a noted biographer. Smiles's radical views mellowed into liberalism and his writings turned towards advocating self-improvement. His book Self Help, with illustrations of character and conduct. (1859) became a bestseller and was translated into more than ten languages.

Montague Rhodes James was born in Kent in 1862. He was educated at Temple Grove School and Eton College before gaining a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge. He graduated with a BA in 1886 and became a fellow of King's in 1887, becoming Dean of King's shortly after; he remained Dean until he was elected Provost (head of the college) in 1905. He was also Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum from 1893 until 1908 and Vice-Chancellor of the university during 1913-1915; after the First World War he served as Provost of Eton until his death in 1936. James was an accomplished biblical scholar and an authority on medieval manuscripts, but is now better known as the author (under the name M R James) of short stories on supernatural topics, which have strongly influenced subsequent writers of horror fiction.

Silvanus Phillips Thompson was born into a Quaker family in York in 1851. He became a science teacher at the Bootham School in York, in 1873. He later taught physics at University College Bristol (now the University of Bristol) before becoming professor of physics at the new City and Guilds of London Institute in Finsbury in 1878, aged 27. Thompson's research was mainly in the field of electromagnetism and optics, but he had wide interests outside science and was much concerned with technical education. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1891. He is now best remembered for the textbooks Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism (1890) and Calculus Made Easy (1910). His first name is sometimes spelt 'Sylvanus'.

John Taylor entered the East India Company as a cadet in 1776; he became a lieutenant in 1780, a captain in 1789, a major in 1797 and a lieutenant-colonel in 1800. He is now best known for making the journey from London to India overland in 1789, which he described in a journal published 10 years later, and was a firm advocate of advantages of the land route over the more usual journey by sea. Taylor wrote three further works on India before his death at Poona (Pune) in 1808.

Edward Backhouse Eastwick was born in Warfield, Berkshire, and educated at Charterhouse School and at Balliol and Merton Colleges, Oxford. He worked in the Indian civil service for several years before returning to Europe due to ill health. From 1845 until 1857 he was Professor of Urdu at East India College, Haileybury, Hertfordshire. From 1859 Eastwick worked in the civil service in Britain, spending substantial periods in Persia and Venezuela on government business, He became a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1866 and served as Conservative MP for Penryn and Falmouth between 1868 and 1874. In later life he wrote extensively about his experiences and translated several classic texts from Asian languages into English.

James Henry Leigh Hunt was born in Southgate, Middlesex to American parents and was educated at Christ's Hospital before becoming a clerk at the War Office. His first volume of poetry was published in 1801. In 1808 he co-founded The Examiner, a weekly newspaper, with his brother John Hunt and served as its editor for several years. During 1813-1815 the brothers were imprisoned for libel after publishing an article about the Prince Regent (later George IV) and Leigh Hunt was generally in poor health for the rest of his life. Additionally, his domestic life was unhappy and his income irregular. Hunt's poems and other works (including an autobiography) were widely read during his lifetime but now remembered more for their influence on other writers.

Farr , Florence , 1860-1916 , actress and author

Florence Farr was born in 1860. She was the youngest daughter of Mary Elizabeth Whittal and Dr William Farr, a sanitary reformer and advocator of equal education and professional rights for women. She was educated at Queen's College London (1877-1880), received good reports but had no inclination to prepare for higher education. After an unsuccessful attempt at teaching (1880-1882), Farr gravitated to the theatre, appearing in minor parts and adopting the stage name, Mary Lester. In 1883 her father died, leaving her a sufficient amount to live on modestly. Her first novel The Dancing Fawn was published in 1894. That same year she became theatre producer at the Avenue Theatre, producing modern plays. Farr preached about parity for women in employment, wages etc. amongst her intellectual circle of acquaintances. George Bernard Shaw wrote that she reacted vehemently against Victorian sexual and domestic morality and was dauntless in publicly championing unpopular causes such as campaigning for the welfare of prostitutes. Farr had a fascination for the occult, Egyptology and theosophy. She conducted hermetic studies and belonged to an order of like-minded folk, The Hermetic Order of Isis-Urania Temple of The Golden Dawn of London. She published her first philosophical tracts, A Short Inquiry concerning the Hermetic Art by a Lover of Philatethes in 1894. In 1901, Florence, with a friend of Yeats', collaborated in the writing and production of two one act plays, both recounting Egyptian magical tales. Farr later quit The Golden Dawn and joined the Theosophical Society of London. Farr cultivated friendships with 'clever men'. Among her friends and correspondents were William and May Morris, George Bernard Shaw, John Quinn, Henry Paget, Dr John Todhunter and W B Yeats. In 1884 she married an actor, Mr Edward Emery (b 1863). They separated in 1888 when Mr Emery immigrated to America, according to Shaw, on account of 'some trouble (not domestic)'. Shaw wrote that Florence (who used her own surname more often than her husband's) was quite content with this situation and considered it of little importance. In 1895 she finally divorced Edward Emery on Shaw's advice. In the 1890s, Yeats used Farr's 'golden voice' as part of his quest to encourage the rebirth of spoken poetry. In 1898 made her the stage manager for his Irish Literary Theatre and she became a regular contributor to the performance of his metrical plays. She was also involved in the performance and musical composition of a number of plays at the Lyceum and Court Theatre and New Century Theatres in London, 1902-1906. In 1912, Farr sailed from England for a life in Ceylon. She had been invited by Sri Ponnambalam Ramanthan, a fellow theosophist, to teach at his newly founded College for Girls in Ceylon. As Lady Principal she supervised the teachers, care of sick children, servants and general administration. In 1917, Florence Farr died in Colombo General Hospital at the age of 56. Her body was cremated at the home of Ramanathan. In 1912 she left some of her correspondence with Clifford Bax in a locked black box only to be opened after her death. They were later published in Florence Farr, Bernard Shaw and W B Yeats by C Bax (ed.), The Cuala Press (1941). In preface to these letters Bax wrote that they 'show that she had too much personality to become a good actress' and were testament to her good humour. He described her as 'a woman who could inspire remarkable men' and predicted that she would be remembered primarily on account of her private friendships with eminent intellectuals of the time.

Frederic Herbert Trench was born in Avoncore, County Cork, Ireland, and educated at Hailebury College and at Keble College, Oxford, where he studied modern history. After graduating he was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford during 1889-1891 before spending 11 years working for the Board of Education. Trench became known as a poet in the early 1900s. Between 1909 and 1911 he was also artistic director of the Haymarket Theatre, London. From 1911 he lived mainly in Settignano, Italy, where the life and land inspired many of his later poems.

Elinor Glyn was born in Jersey and brought up in Canada and in Jersey. She married Henry Clayton Glyn in 1892. Her first novel, based on her experiences as a child and young woman, was published in 1900 and became a bestseller. Glyn travelled widely in Europe and the United States and her later writings continued to be influenced by her unconventional experiences and opinions. Her most famous work, the explicit Three Weeks (1907) was made into a film in 1923 and Glyn herself worked for several years as a writer for the Hollywood film industry.

Alfred Charles William Harmsworth was born in County Dublin, Ireland, brought up in London and educated at schools in Lincolnshire and London before becoming a journalist. In his early 20s he founded his own publishing business with backing from his brother Harold; as well as several successful magazines, he purchased the Evening News in 1894 and launched the new Daily Mail (1896) and Daily Mirror (1903) newspapers. He also owned The Observer between 1905 and 1912 and purchased The Times in 1908. Harmsworth was made a baronet in 1904, Baron Northcliffe of the Isle of Thanet in 1905 and a viscount in 1917. Lord Northcliffe was proud of his independence from politicians and, through his newspapers, was very influential. After the First World War, his physical and mental health deteriorated rapidly until his death in 1922. Both during his lifetime and subsequently, he was regarded as one of the greatest figures in modern journalism.

James Cornwallis was the son of James Cornwallis (afterwards Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and 4th Earl Cornwallis) and his wife Catharine, daughter of Galfridus Mann. The younger James Cornwallis, who adopted the surname Mann by royal licence in 1814, in conformance with the terms of his maternal grandfather's will, succeeded his father as 5th Earl in 1824. He had no heirs and the title became extinct on his death.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was born in Reims in 1665. He started working for the French war office aged 21 and rose to greater influence during the unsettled Fronde period (1648-1653). After Cardinal Mazarin's death in 1661 he became a high-ranking government minister, concerned with economic reform and naval affairs. His son, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay (1651-1690) succeded him as Secretary of State of the Navy.