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.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
James Cosmo Melvill was born in Guernsey and brought up there and in England. He entered the East India Company's home service as young man and rose through the company's financial arm to become Chief Secretary in 1836. He was knighted in 1853 and retired in 1858, after 50 years of service.
Cyrus West Field was born in Stockbridge, Massachussetts. His successful business ventures in New York City as a young man enabled him to retire aged 33. With Charles Tilston Bright and others, he formed the Atlantic Telegraph Company, which laid the first telegraph cable between Europe and North America in 1858. In later life, Field lost his money due to bad investments and was bankrupt at the time of his death.
Edward Alfred Goulding was born in Cork, Ireland, and educated at St John's College, Cambridge. He trained as a lawyer, but preferred politics, serving on London County Council (1895-1901) and as Conservative MP for Devizes (1895-1906) and Worcester (1908-1922). He was made a baronet in 1915, a privy counsellor in 1918, and Baron Wargrave in 1922. Lord Wargrave was also a successful financier and a close associate of Lord Beaverbrook.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West (known throughout her life as Vita) was born at Knole, Kent, and educated at home and in London. She wrote both prose and poetry extensively from an early age. Sackville-West kept her own surname on her marriage to Harold George Nicholson (later Sir Harold) in 1913; the marriage was successful and lasted until her death, in spite of her many female lovers (including Violet Trefusis and Virginia Woolf). She continued to write throughout her life, alongside her long-running project to restore the gardens at Sissinghurst Castle.
Hilary Jenkinson was born in London in 1882. He was educated at Dulwich College and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He began work in the Public Record Office in 1906 and, aside from war service, spent his entire career there, rising to become deputy keeper in 1947; he retired in 1954. Alongside his civil service work, Jenkinson lectured in palaeography and archives and was instrumental in the decision of University College London's school of librarianship to provide a separate diploma in archive administration. Jenkinson was also active in the British Records Association and several learned societies, and served as one of the first vice presidents of the International Council on Archives. He was knighted in 1949.
Charles Darwin was born in Shropshire and educated at the University of Edinburgh and Christ's College, Cambridge. After graduating he spent two years exploring the coasts of South America, Australasia as a naturalist on HMS Beagle; the observations that he made during the voyage later led him to formulate his influential theory of evolution by natural selection, now regarded as the foundation of modern biology and one of the most important ideas in science. After returning to Britain he continued to research and published many books, including On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871).
Charles Mackay was born in Perth, Perthshire, and educated in London and in Brussels. He began working as a journalist in the 1830s and wrote for several papers, including the Morning Chronicle, the Glasgow Argus (which he also edited), the Illustrated London News and The Times. Mackay also published several volume of poetry and works on Celtic philology.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Eberhard Bethge was born in Warchau, near Magdeburg, Germany, and studied theology at several German universities. During the 1930s, he joined Germany's anti-Nazi resistance and the associated Bekennende Kirche, becoming a close associate of Dietrich Bonhoeffer; he married Bonhoeffer's niece Renate in 1943. After the Second World War, Bethge worked as a Lutheran pastor in Britain and in Germany. He also gave university lectures and wrote several books, including the definitive biography of Bonhoeffer.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
George Edward Bateman Saintsbury was born in Southampton and educated at King's College School, London, and Merton College, Oxford. He worked as a schoolteacher for several years before turning to journalism, becoming known as an expert reviewer and literary critic, writing many articles and several books on both French and English literature. Between 1895 and 1915, Saintsbury was Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. He retired to Bath and continued to read and write extensively until his death.
Stanley Arthur Morison was born in Wanstead, Essex in 1889. He was educated in London. He worked as a clerk after leaving school, but after becoming interested in letter forms he worked as an assistant and later a consultant to various publishing houses. He became a freelance authority and author on typography. One of Morison's most lasting achievements was his advocacy of using a more modern typeface for The Times newspaper; it first appeared in Times New Roman in 1932. He became a Roman Catholic in 1908.
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth was born in Ireland and read Classics and Trinity College Dublin and Balliol College, Oxford. He subsequently studied law and mathematics in London; he was called to the Bar in 1877 but never practised. He learnt economics from his friend and neighbour William Stanley Jevons and published an influential book, Mathematical Psychics, on the subject in 1881. He held chairs in economics at King's College London (1888-1891) and All Souls College, Oxford (1891-1922) and published widely in economics and statistics.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Esmond Samuel de Beer was born in Dunedin, New Zealand. He came to Britain in 1910 to attend Mill Hill School and subsequently studied at New College, Oxford, (interrupted by war service) and University College London. A private income from his family's clothing business enabled him to spend most of his life researching as a private scholar, living in London with his elder sisters Mary and Dora. De Beer was particularly interested in the late 17th century and produced editions of John Evelyn's correspondence and of John Locke's diaries. He was a member of several learned societies and became associated with the University of London's Institute of Historical Research and Warburg Institute. He was appointed CBE in 1969.
Michael Faraday was born in London in 1791. He was apprenticed to a bookbinder. He became deeply interested in chemistry and began to work for the retired Professor Humphrey Davy and for the Royal Institution, becoming its Director in 1925. From the 1820s he conducted many experiments in electromagnetism and made great advances in the understanding of electricity and magnetism; his work laid the foundations that have made practical use of electricity possible. From 1829 until 1952 he was Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, and from 1836 to 1863 he was a member of the University of London Senate. He married Sarah Bernard (1800-1879) in 1821 and they were both practising members of the Sandemanian Christian sect.
William Miles Malleson was born in Croydon, Surrey in 1888. He was educated at Brighton College and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, before entering the Academy of Dramatic Art. He became known as a gifted theatre actor, particularly in comic roles, before turning to films (as both actor and writer) in the 1930s; after the Second World War he returned to stage acting and had some success as a dramatist. The family planning pioneer Dr Joan Malleson was his second wife.