Brian Lapping Associates was formed by Brian Lapping and Norma Percy in 1988, and is a London based television production company specialising in documentaries. Watergate was a joint production with the BBC and the Discovery Channel, produced by Norma Percy and broadcast in the UK and the USA in June and August 1994.
Hilda Hulme was born in Staffordshire in 1914 and read English at University College London (UCL) in 1932. She received a BA in 1935, and a MA in 1937. After graduation she studied for a University of London teacher's diploma and then taught at schools in Yorkshire before becoming the Temporary Assistant Lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at UCL in 1944. In 1947, she received a Ph.D. and stayed on as a lecturer at UCL until 1966 when she took up a Research Fellowship at the Folgar Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, USA. She returned to England and continued to work at UCL until her retirement through ill-health in 1976. Her most renowned work was Explorations in Shakespeare's English, published in 1962.
Basil Williams was born in 1867, and educated at Marlborough and New College, Oxford University, where he studied classics. He became a clerk in the House of Commons, but then signed up for service in the Second Boer War, 1899-1901. He remained in South Africa for a year, then resigned from the Army and returned as a civilian, where he worked as an administrator in the Education Department. Following his return to England, Williams began to write articles and books as a scholar of eighteenth century history. With no need to work, due to a private income, he concentrated on building a reputation as a historian, and stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Liberal in 1910. He acted as editor for Home Rule Problems (P. S. King & Son, London, 1911) and Makers of the Nineteenth Century (Constable & Co, London, 1915-28).
On the outbreak of World War One, 1914-1918, Williams served as an education officer in the Royal Field Artillery. He was awarded the OBE in 1919. Williams was appointed Kingsford Professor of History at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, from 1921 to 1925, and Professor of History at Edinburgh University from 1925 to 1937, the year of his retirement. He died in 1950.
Among his publications were Botha, Smuts and South Africa (Hodder & Stoughton for the English Universities Press, London, 1946), Carteret & Newcastle: a contrast in contemporaries (University Press, Cambridge, 1943), Cecil Rhodes (London, 1921), Erskine Childers, 1870-1922. A sketch (Privately printed, London, 1926), Stanhope. A study in eighteenth-century war and diplomacy (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1932), The British Empire (Thornton Butterworth, London, 1928), and The Life of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (Longmans & Co.: London, 1913).
King Charles III (1716-1788) was the ruler of Spain (1759-1788) and Naples and Sicily (1735-1759).
Born in 1880, Leonard Woolf worked for the Ceylon Civil Service from 1904-1911. He was the editor of the International Review, 1919, the literary editor of The Nation, 1923-1930, and joint editor of the Political Quarterly, 1931-1959. He was a member of the National Whitley Council for Administrative and Legal Departments of the Civil Service, 1938-1955. He was married to Virginia Stephen in 1912, and they founded the Hogarth Press in 1917. The Press published many of the works of the Bloomsbury group, including those of Virginia herself. To the Lighthouse, which was written in 1927, examined the life of an upper middle class British family, portraying the fragility of human relationships and the collapse of social values.
Born in Birmingham in 1811, Thomas Creswick studied under J V Barber and is best known for his landscapes of the north of England and Wales. He was London-based, and from 1828 exhibited 266 works at the Royal Academy, the British Institute and elsewhere. He died in 1869.
Henry was the son of John Urpeth Rastrick, civil engineer; no further information was available at the time of compilation.
Arthur Cayley, English mathematician, was born at Richmond, in Surrey, on the 16 August 1821, the second son of Henry Cayley, a Russian merchant, and Maria Antonia Doughty. His father, Henry Cayley, retired from business in 1829 and settled in Blackileath, where Arthur was sent to a private school kept by the Rev. G. B. F. Potticary; at the age of fourteen he was transferred to Kings College School, London. He soon showed that he was a boy of great capacity, and in particular that he was possessed of remarkable mathematical ability. On the advice of the school authorities he was entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, as a pensioner. He was there coached by William Hopkins of Peterhouse, was admitted a scholar of the college in May 1840, and graduated as senior wrangler in 1842, and obtained the first Smiths Prize at the next examination. In 1842, also, he was elected a fellow of Trinity, and became a major fellow in 1845, the year in which he proceeded to the M.A. degree. He was assistant tutor of Trinity for three years. In 1846, having decided to adopt the law as a profession, he left Cambridge, entered at Lincoln's Inn, and became a pupil of the conveyancer Mr Christie. He was called to the bar in 1849, and remained at the bar fourteen years, till 1863, when he was elected to the new Sadlerian professorship of pure mathematics at Cambridge University. He settled at Cambridge in the same year, and married Susan, daughter of Robert Moline of Greenwich. He continued to reside in Cambridge and to hold the professorship till his death on the 26 January 1895.
Harold Frost, psychic researcher and verger, was born in Colchester, Essex, in 1895; during the First World War, he served with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps, before being gazetted to the 7th Suffolk Regiment and serving at the Somme, France and in Belgium; during the 1920s and 1930s, Frost became interested in psychic research and investigated and worked with various medium circles in Essex and other areas; medical clerk to the Chairman of Colchester Medical Board of the Ministry of Labour, 1939, later being transferred to Ministry of Food Headquarters Office, Colwyn Bay for licensing of firms in animal feeding stuffs; transferred to Chelmsford Essex Divisional Food Office as Salvage Officer for Essex and Hertfordshire areas, 1942, and once again to the Ministry of Supply, carrying out testing at Springfield Uranium Factory, Lancashire; moved to Dacca, East Pakistan and worked as a General Manager of Zeenat Printing Works and in public relations, 1955-1961; returned to England in 1962, joining the Sue Ryder organisation and carried out general duties and nursing; served as a verger in Banbury from the 1960s to his death in 1975.
John Burns was born in Lambeth in 1858; trained as an engineer and became active in the labour movement and local politics; leader of the London dock strike of 1889; elected to London County Council on its inception in 1889, remaining in office until 1907; also served as MP for Battersea (1892-1918) and was president of the Local Government Board (1905-1913) and the Board of Trade (1914); resigned from the Cabinet in protest at the British decision to declare war in August 1914; died 1943.
Born Dunedin, New Zealand, June 1926; poet and playright, his radio play, Jack Winter's Dream (1959), made him internationally famous. Among his poetry collections was Pig Island Letters, published in 1966. In that year, he accepted the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. He resigned to live in Jerusalem, a Maori settlement on the Wanganui river and travelled to nearby cities to work with the poor. His poems of this period often railed against society for tolerating poverty. The ascetic life he led from this period resulted in his health suffering. He moved to a commune near Auckland and died there in October 1972.
Biographical information on James Butcher was unavailable when this finding aid was produced.
Sir Herbert Maxwell was Conservative member of Parliament for Wigtownshire from 1880-1906; during the latter years of his parliamentary career he was a supporter of Joseph Chamberlain's campign for tariff reform; Maxwell was a prolific author: his numerous books included a biography of the Duke of Wellington, written in 1899. He was the President of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland, 1900-1913.
Thomas James Bean wrote a number of articles on the art connoisseur and writer, Richard Ford (1796-1858). Bean also amassed significant collections of Ford's letters and books, which were alluded to in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry on Ford of 2004. Among the papers on Ford given by Bean were those to the Richard Ford bi-centenary conference and the 1991 George Borrow Conference. Thomas Bean was also a farmer and in 2006 was a Liberal Democrat representative on Worcestershire County Council.
Edward Hay (1722-1779) was Governor of Barbados , 1773-1779; James Dotin was Acting Governor of Barbados three times, 1733, 1735-1737, 1740-2
Ted Crawford, a leading member of Socialist Platform Limited, has been a scholar and Trotskyist activist as well as a member of the Revolutionary History editorial board.
The Incorporated Society of Authors, Playwrights and Composers is a non-profit making organisation, which was established in 1884 "to protect the rights and further the interests of authors". Its first president was Lord Tennyson, and a great many famous authors, including Shaw, Galsworthy, Hardy, Wells, Barrie, Masefield, Forster, have been active in the society. In 2007 the Society had over 8,000 members.
St Peter's was a Church of England Sunday School in the East End of London.
W North lived in Fulham Road, London. He collected a variety of pamphlets, posters and drawings.
Matthew Manning was born in 1955. He became famous with the publication of his first book, The Link" in 1974 which sold over a million copies. "The Link and In the Minds of Millions (1977) were autobiographical works which described psychic phenomena. Matthew Manning was also notable for his skill in automatic drawing (ie producing artwork in the style of other other artists).
Richard Doddridge Blackmore was born in Berkshire in 1825. He was educated at schools in Devon and Somerset and at Exeter College, Oxford. After graduating, he studied law and was called to the bar in 1852; he practised law for some years but also worked as a teacher and journalist during that time. After inheriting money in 1857, he became a fruit farmer in Teddington, Middlesex, where he lived for the rest of his life. He served on the fruit and vegetable committee of the Royal Horticultural Society from 1883 until 1892. Blackmore also wrote poetry and several novels, including the bestselling Lorna Doone.
George Rose was born in Scotland and brought up by his uncle in Middlesex. After serving in the navy for several years, he entered the civil service, eventually rising to Secretary of the Treasury. He entered parliament in 1788 as MP for Lymington, Hampshire, and subsequently served as MP for Christchurch, Hampshire, from 1790 until his death. In the Commons, he was a strong supporter of Pitt the Younger and continued to advocate many of the latter's policies after his death.
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.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Sir (Henry) David St Leger Brooke Selwyn Cunynghame studied at St John's College Cambridge, where his tutors included Alfred Marshall, before pursuing a varied career in both law and the civil service. He was secretary and chair of many committees and Royal Commissions. Among his numerous outside interests, he was a keen amateur economist and his published work in that area was praised by John Maynard Keynes.
Henry Austin Dobson, civil servant and poet, was born on 18 January 1840. After leaving school at the age of 16, he joined the Board of Trade where he remained until his retirement as Principal in 1901. He had an enduring enthusiasm for the eighteenth century and for poetry. He composed a large quantity of his own poetry and was well known for his adaptation of old French verses. His earliest volume of poetry was Vignettes in Rhyme, (1873). Later in his life, Dobson turned his attention increasingly to prose, resulting in several volumes of essays including Eighteenth Century Prose (in 3 series; 1892, 1894 and 1896). He died in 1921.
Frances Mary Beardmore was the daughter of the civil engineer Nathaniel Beardmore (1816-1872) and his wife Mary. She married Henry Austin Dobson in 1868 and they had 10 children.
Sara Fricker was brought up in Bristol and married the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge there in 1794. Their marriage was not happy and they spent long periods living apart, Sara bringing up their children in the household of her sister and brother-in-law, Edith and Robert Southey, in Keswick, Cumberland. Her youngest child, also called Sara, became a well-known writer.
Sara Coleridge was born in Keswick, Cumberland, and brought up by her mother (also Sara) in the household of her aunt and uncle, Edith and Robert Southey. As a child she met many of her family's literary friends and acquaintances, including William Wordsworth. Her first book, a translation from Latin of a work of anthropology, was published when she was 19. In subsequent years, Sara became reacquainted with her estranged father, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and later edited posthumous editions of his work. She married her cousin, Henry Nelson Coleridge (1798-1843), in 1829 but continued her literary work alongside her domestic responsibilities as a wife, mother, and later widow. She remained a prominent figure on the London literary scene until her death from cancer in 1852.
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.
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.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
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.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Ethel Edith Mannin was born and educated in London. Trained as a typist, she worked as a copywriter and editor before publishing her first novel in 1923. She subsequently wrote nearly a hundred books, both fiction and non-fiction, generally producing two each year, and her left-wing political views influenced much of her work. Mannin was married twice (to the writers John Alexander Porteus and Reginald Reynolds) but wrote under her own surname.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Émile Zola was born in Paris and brought up in the south of France. He returned to Paris aged 18 as a student and subsequently worked in clerical jobs before becoming a journalist and author. His best known writings are novel Germinal (1885), which was part of the 'Les Rougon-Macquart' cycle of 20 novels, and the newspaper article 'J'accuse' (13 January 1898), which accused the French government of anti-Semitism over the Dreyfuss affair. Zola died in 1902 and his body was reburied in the Panthéon in 1908.
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.
Alban Tabor Austin Dobson, the son of the poet and critic Henry Austin Dobson, was born in Ealing, Middlesex, and died in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. He worked as a civil servant and served as Secretary to the International Whaling Commission. However, he is best known for collecting editions of his father's works; he donated this collection to the University of London in 1946 and it is now held in Senate House Library.
J A Symington (known as Alex Symington) was born in Yorkshire into a family of book dealers and printers. He became librarian to the manufacturer and philanthropist Lord Brotherton and built up a significant collection of books; he remained in charge of the collection when it was given to the University of Leeds following Lord Brotherton's death in 1930, but left in 1938 following disagreements with the university authorities. Symington was also a noted bibiliographer and a founding member (and, for a time, curator) of the Bronte Museum, Haworth.
Michael Edward Hicks Beach was born in London in 1837. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford. He succeeded his father as 9th baronet in 1854. Sir Michael entered parliament as Conservative MP for East Gloucestershire (1864-1885) and subsequently served as MP for Bristol West (1885-1904). He held several cabinet posts, including Chancellor of the Exchequer (1885-1886, 1895-1904). Hicks Beach was made a viscount in 1906 and Earl St Aldwyn in 1915, the year before his death.
Herbet George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, and educated locally. From the age of 13 he worked unsuccesfully as a draper's assistant and chemist's assistant, before beoming a pupil teacher Midhurst Grammar School. In 1884 he began studying under Thomas Huxley at the Normal School (later the Royal College) of Science in South Kensington, but left without a degree; he finally gained a University of London BSc in 1890. Wells became a teacher and freelance journalist before branching out into novels and short stories. He was married twice and had several other ongoing liaisons with women, including the writer Rebecca West (afterwards Dame Cicily Andrews). Today he is best known for his science fiction works, including The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898); during his lifetime he was also known as a non-fiction writer and a committed socialist.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Hugh Hamilton was born in Ireland to Scottish parents. Like many younger sons at that time, he enlisted in the Swedish army in 1624, serving as an officer in Sweden and the Baltic until 1660. Hamilton was made a Baron in the Swedish nobility in 1654, but gave up his Swedish estate shortly after returning to Ireland in 1661, when he was granted a peerage as Baron Hamilton of Glenawly, County Fermanagh.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
William Manning was born in London in 1763. He joined his father's trading firm as a young man. After the death of his parents, he inherited the firm and several West Indian estates, confirming his status as a wealthy City merchant. He became a director of the Bank of England in 1792, serving as Deputy Governor during 1810-1812 and then Governor until 1814. He also sat as the MP for several boroughs between 1794 and 1830 and was a staunch supporter of William Pitt's government. From the 1820s a downturn in the West Indies trade led to financial difficulties for Manning's company, and he was eventually declared bankrupt in 1831, after which he retired from public life. His son, Henry Edward Manning, a convert to Roman Catholicism, later became Archbishop of Westminster.
Edward Codrington entered the navy in 1783 aged 13 and rose through the ranks to become a Vice-Admiral in 1825, Admiral of the blue in 1839 and Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth in 1839. He was knighted in 1815 and made a Grand Commander of St Michael and St George in 1827. He also served as Liberal MP for Devonport (1832-1839).
Jeremy Bentham was born in London in 1748. He was educated at Westminster School, and Queen's College, Oxford, before practising law. He became a leading enlightenment thinker and the originator of Utilitarianism. His body was preserved after his death and is displayed at University College London.
George Combe was born and educated in Edinburgh before practising as a lawyer. He first encountered phrenology in 1815 and, though initially sceptical, he and his brother Andrew soon became two of its leading exponents, co-founding the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820. George Combe lectured extensively on phrenology and its relationships with religion, science, education and social systems, and wrote several books, including The Constitution of Man (1828). The actress Sarah Siddons was his mother-in-law.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
George Parker Bidder was born in Moretonhampstead, Devon. As a child, he was discovered to have an outstanding memory and a gift for mental arithmetic, which led to his being 'exhibited' throughout Britain; eventually, he was sponsored to study at the University of Edinburgh. After leaving Edinburgh in 1824, Bidder became a succesful civil engineer, working particularly on railways and telegraphs, and was an active member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the British Association of the Advancement of Science. His eldest son and grandson, both also named George Parker Bidder, were successful in the fields of law and marine biology respectively.