Walter Fitzwilliam Starkie was the first Professor of Spanish at Trinity College, Dublin, and an authority on Spanish literature and gypsy culture. He is best known as a translator of Spanish literature and drama, and for serving as the director of the Abbey Theare, Dublin, for 17 years. His sister, Enid Mary Starkie, taught French at Somerville College, Oxford.
Osbert Lancaster was born in London in 1908. He was educated at Charterhouse and at Lincoln College, Oxford, before entering the Slade School of Art. He spent most of his working life as a cartoonist for the Daily Express newspaper; his work was considered witty and topical. Lancaster was awarded the CBE in 1953 and knighted in 1975.
Edward Howard Marsh was born in London in 1872. He was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the Colonial Office in 1896 and subsequently enjoyed a distinguished career in several civil service departments, much of it as Winston Churchill's private secretary. He received a knighthood on his retirement in 1937. Marsh was also an active art collector, literary critic and translator. On his death in 1953, The Times declared him 'the last individual patron of the arts'.
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.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Born in Philadelphia, Henry George settled in California, where he became successful in the newspaper industry and wrote several books. He is known as the founder of 'Georgism', an economic policy advocating land value taxation as a replacement for other forms of taxation and asserting that land and natural resources belong to all humanity equally.
Peter Mackenzie was born in 1799. He originally trained as a lawyer, but eventually turned to journalism. He founded The Loyal Reformers' Gazette, a periodical supporting parliamentary reform, in 1831; Mackenzie lived and worked mainly in Glasgow. His book Old Reminiscences of Glasgow (1865) was a rather unflattering portrait of the city and many of its inhabitants, but he remained a popular figure among the general public.
Henry Warburton was born in Eltham, Kent, and educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduating, he joined his family's timber business, which he directed between 1808 and 1831. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809. Warburton served as MP for Bridport, Dorset, between 1825 and 1841, and as MP for Kendal, Cumberland, between 1843 and 1847. Whilst active in politics, he espoused several radical and reforming causes, including the repeal of the Corn Laws, the introduction of the penny post, and the abolition of timber duty.
David Astor was born in London and brought up in London and Buckinghamshire. His parents were Waldorf and Nancy Astor (afterwards Viscount and Viscountess Astor). David Astor was educated at Eton and at Balliol College Oxford. He joined The Observer, a newspaper then owned by his family, informally in 1941 and formally in 1946. He became editor in 1948, retaining the position until 1975; under his influence, the paper became much less conservative and more liberal in outlook. Astor was interested in social and political issues and in philanthropy throughout his life and in retirement became heavily involved in charity work. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1994.
Robert Stephenson, the only son of the engineer George Stephenson, was born in Northumerland and educated at school in Newcastle upon Tyne and at the University of Edinburgh. He followed his father into the engineering profession and became a successful railway engineer in his own right, remembered particularly for his bridge designs. Stephenson was MP for Whitby from 1847 until his death in 1859, and served as president of Institution of Civil Engineers during 1856-1857.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Elias Avery Loew was born in Moscow, Russia, and emigrated to New York City as a child; he became an American citizen in 1900 and changed the spelling of his surname to Lowe in 1918. Lowe was educated at the College of the City of New York, Cornell University, the University of Halle and the University of Munich, earning his PhD in 1907. He lectured in palaeography at the University of Oxford from 1913 until 1936, when he was given a professorship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The author of the seminal Codices Latini antiquiores (11 vols, 1934-1971) Lowe was recognized as one of the world's leading researchers in palaeography. He received many academic honours, including the Bibliographical Society's gold medal (1959).
Reginald Baliol Brett was born in London in 1885. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He served as Liberal MP for Penrhyn between 1880 and 1885 and succeeded his father as Viscount Esher in 1899. Lord Esher became closely associated with the Royal Family, serving as Deputy Constable and Lieutenant Governor of Windsor Castle from 1901 until 1928, and subsequently as the castle's Constable and Governor until his death in 1930.
William Collingwood Smith was a noted watercolourist, whose work was often featured in the London Illustrated News.
Henry Spencer Moore was born in Castleford, Yorkshire, and educated locally before training as a teacher. After the First World War he studied at the Leeds School of Art and subsequently at the Royal College of Art in London, which enabled him to fulfill his childhood ambition of becoming a sculptor. His work, in a modernist style and much of it on a large scale, was a financial and often also a critical success over several decades. Towards the end of his life he endowed the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to promote contemporary art.
Laurence Edward Alan [Laurie] Lee was born and educated in Gloucestershire. He lived in London and Spain as a young man, working in a variety of jobs, and fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. During the Second World War he worked as a film scriptwriter for the Ministry of Information. Lee's first volume of poetry was published in 1944 and he subsequently wrote a variety of fiction and non-fiction works. He is best known, however, for Cider with Rosie (1959), the first of his three volumes of autobiography. He received the MBE in 1952 and was made a freeman of the City of London in 1982.
Leon Maxwell Gellert was born in Adelaide, Australia, into a family of Hungarian origin. He studied at the University of Adelaide and became a teacher. During the First World War, he saw active service in the Mediterranean, but was invalided out of the army in 1916 and returned to teaching. Songs of a Campaign, Gellert's first book of poetry, was published in 1917. Gellert lived in Sydney for many years, working as a journalist. He was the co-editor of Art and Australia from 1922 and became known as a columnist in Sunday newspapers. He died in Adelaide in 1977.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Randall Carline Swingler was born at Aldershot, Hampshire in 1909. He was educated at Winchester College and at New College, Oxford. He was a poet, prose author and journalist, as a well as a flautist to professional standard. A member of the Communist Party, he also edited the Left Review and wrote for the Daily Worker.
John Edgell Rickword was born in Colchester in 1898. He was educated at Colchester Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford. He became known as a poet and literary journalist in the early 1920s. Commited to left-wing politics, Rickword joined the Communist Party in 1934 and founded the Left Review the same year. In the late 1940s he developed a new career as a bookseller. Rickword left the Communist Party following the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 but continued to regard himself as a Marxist.
Hermione Llewellyn was born in Gloucestershire and brought up in Wales. Whilst working in Australia as personal assistant to the Governor of New South Wales, she met Daniel Knox, Earl of Ranfurly, whom she married in 1939. Following miliatary service in the Second World War, Lord Ranfurly was appointed Governor of the Bahamas in 1953. Whilst living in Nassau, Lady Ranfurly founded the Ranfurly Library Service, in response to the lack of libraries and school books available in the Bahamas. After the couple's return to Britain, she expanded the service (later renamed Book Aid International) to other parts of the English-speaking world; in 1970 she received an OBE in recognition of her work. Lady Ranfurly also published a memoir of her wartime experiences, To War With Whitaker (1994).
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Sir Thomas (Tam) Dalyell was born in England and brought up at The Binns, West Lothian, Scotland. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge. As a young man he supported the Conservatives, but he joined the Labour Party after the 1956 Suez Crisis. Dalyell served as MP for West Lothian from 1962 until 1983. Following boundary changes, he was MP for Lithlingow from 1983 until he retired in 2005; at the time of his retirement he was Father of the House. As a working politician Dalyell was known for his strong and outspoken views. He inherited the Dalyell of the Binns baronetcy through his mother but does not use the title.
David Edward Alexander Lindsay was born in Aberdeen and educated at Eton and at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was elected Conservative MP for Chorley, Lancashire in 1895, and retained the seat until succeeding his father in the House of Lords in 1913. He was chief whip between July 1911 and January 1913. Lord Crawford largely retired from active politics in the early 1920s and was subsequently chiefly known as a patron of the arts, an area that had interested him for many years. His diary, kept continously from 1892 until his sudden death in 1940 and rich in political detail, was published in 1984.
Joseph Gouge Greenwood was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, in 1821. He graduated from the University of London in 1840 and worked for some years as a teacher and private tutor. In 1850 he was appointed Professor of Classics at Owens College, Manchester, becoming Principal in 1857, retaining both positions until 1889. Owens College became part of the Victoria University of Manchester in 1880; Greenwood was its first Vice-Chancellor (1880-1886).
No information was available at the time of compilation.
George Julian Harney was born into a poor family in Deptford, Kent in 1817. He was heavily involved in Chartism and working class politics from early adulthood. He began writing for the Northern Star in c 1841, becoming sub-editor in 1843 and editor in 1845. Harney left Britain in 1838, moving first to Jersey and then to Boston, Massachusetts, but returned in 1888 for the last 9 years of his life.
William Hazlitt was Registrar of the London Court of Bankruptcy but is better known for overseeing the posthumous publication and republication of many of the works of his father, also William Hazlitt (1778-1830). His son, William Carew Hazlitt (1834-1913) also became a well-known writer.
John Benjamin Heath was born to an English nonconformist mercantile family in Genoa, Italy, in 1790. He was educated at Harrow School before entering the family business. He served as a director of the Bank of England for 50 years, including terms as deputy governor and governor. In 1867 he received a barony in the Kingdom of Italy.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
Jean-Baptiste Biot was born in Paris and educated at the Ecole Polytechnique. His fields of research included astonomy, the Earth's atmosphere, and light and optics, but he is best known for his work on electricity and magnetism; the Biot-Savart law in electromagnetics is named after him, and Felix Savart.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
John Baker Holroyd was born in 1735. In 1781 he was created Baron Sheffield of Dunamare, Co Meath in the Peerage of Ireland and in 1802 created Baron Sheffield of Sheffield, Co York in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He was President of the Board of Agriculture, a Lord of Trade and one of His Majesty's most honourable Privy Council. He was known in the literary world as a writer on political economy. He died in 1821.
Leonard Horner was born and educated in Edinburgh. He worked initially in his family's linen business and later, unsuccessfully, as an underwiter at Lloyd's insurance office; after his father's death in 1829 he had a private income. From 1833 to 1859 he was a member of the Royal Commission on the employment of children in factories and worked hard to ensure that factory workers received the legal protection to which they were entitled. Horner was very interested in scholarship: in 1821 he founded the Edinburgh School of Arts (later to become Herriot-Watt University) and was the first warden and secretary of the new University of London (later University College London) during 1827-1831. His keenest interest was in geology and he served twice as president of the Geological Society (1845-1846 and 1860-1861), controversially allowing women to attend meetings during his second term of office. In 1813 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Joseph Hume was born in Montrose, Forfarshire in 1777. He studied medicine in Aberdeen and Edinburgh before becoming a surgeon. Employed by the East India Company, he worked as a doctor and intelligence officer in India for several years and later travelled through Europe before settling again in Britain. Hume entered parliament in 1812 as MP for Weymouth and subsequently served as MP for Aberdeen Burghs, Middlesex, Kilkenny and Montrose Burghs. He was very active in the House of Commons and often supported radical causes.
William Huskisson was born in Worcestershire in 1770. He was brought up in England, and in Paris, where he lived from 1783-1792, witnessing the early part of the French Revolution. On his return to Britain he was employed at the Home Office before entering parliament in 1796 as MP for Morpeth; he subsequently served as MP for Liskeard, Harwich, Chichester and Liverpool, and was a cabinet minister several times. Huskisson was known during his lifetime for his interest in trade and commercial policy, but is now most often remembered for the manner of his death. His left leg was crushed by Stephenson's 'Rocket' train during the first day of service on the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway and he died of his injuries a few hours later, the first person to be fatally injured in a railway accident.
John Kells Ingram was born into a Protestant family in County Donegal, Ireland in 1823. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, where he co-founded the Dublin Philosophical Society. He became a fellow of Trinity College in 1846 and a professor in 1852, later serving as librarian and vice-provost. From 1847 he was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy, serving as president from 1892 until 1896. His interests were wide-ranging, from geometry to classical literature, but he is best remembered as an economist.
Thomas Joplin was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in c 1790. He initially worked in the family business as a timber merchant but left in the early 1820s and devoted his life to studying political economy and monetary considerations, and to promoting joint-stock banking. In 1833 he co-founded the National Provincial Bank (now part of the National Westminster Bank).
Little is known about Charles King's life. He was a regular contributor to The British Merchant, a periodical that began to be produced after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 and argued against a proposed commercial treaty with France. King produced a collection of some of the more important articles, which was published in three volumes in 1721, also under the title The British Merchant; the work was influential. A French translation by Forbonnais, based on either the 2nd (1743) or 3rd (1748) edition, was published in 1753.
Jean Joseph Louis Blanc was born in Spain in 1811. He was brought up and educated in Corsica. He moved to Paris shortly before the July Revolution of 1830 and became a journalist, historian and leading socialist thinker. Exiled from France, he lived in England from 1848 to 1870, where he became popular in Chartist and in labour circles and was in close contact with other left-wing emigres. He returned to France in 1870 and served in the French National Assembly during 1871-1876.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
James Ludovic Lindsay was educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge before entering the Grendier Guards. He served as MP for Wigan from 1874 until 1880, when he entered the House of Lords on his father's death. Lord Crawford was a keen astronomer and bibliophile, maintaining an observatory in Scotland and a extensive library at the family seat of Haigh Hall, near Wigan. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and, at various times, President of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Philatelic Society, the Royal Photographic Society and the Camden Society.
No information was available at the time of compilation.
George Long was born in Lancashire in 1800. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated in 1822. He became a fellow of Trinity in 1823 and Professor of Ancient Languages at the newly-founded University of Virginia in 1824, returning to England in 1828 as Professor of Greek at the University of London (afterwards University College London), a chair which he held until his resignation in 1831; he returned to University College between 1842 and 1846 as Professor of Latin. Besides classics, Long was also interested in geography and law: he co-founded the Royal Geographical Society in 1830 and lectured at the Middle Temple from 1846 to 1849. He also wrote and edited publications on various topics for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. From 1849 Long lectured a new progressive school, Brighton College, and remained influential in the field of classical scholarship. After retiring in 1871 he lived in Chichester until his death.
Thomas Longman was one of several Thomas Longmans in the publishing family active throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
Thomas Babington Macaulay was born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire in 1800. He was the son of the abolitionist Zachary Macaulay and his wife Selina (née Mills). He was educated at Trinity College Cambridge and subsequently studied law at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar in 1826. He first entered Parliament in 1830 as MP for Calne and subsequently for Leeds. He left Parliament in 1834 to serve on the Governor-General's Council in British India, returning to Britain in 1838. In 1839 he re-entered Parliament as MP for Edinburgh, keeping the seat until 1847 and spending several years as a cabinet minister. Macaulay was also known as a poet and author. Between 1839 and 1855 he wrote four volumes of a History of England, which was well-received by many critics. He was granted a peerage in 1857 and buried in Westminster Abbey after his death in 1859.
Alexander Macdonald was born in Lanarkshire in 1821 and worked as a coal and ironstone miner from the age of nine. He studied Greek and Latin at evening classes and was later able to attend Glasgow University (1846-1849), subsequently becoming a teacher. He became a leading trade unionist in the mid 1850s and lobbied strongly for workers' rights. Macdonald entered Parliament in 1874 as MP for Stafford, remaining in post until his death in 1881. His surname was originally spelt McDonald, but he adopted the spelling Macdonald in the 1870s.
Henry Dunning Macleod was born in Edinburgh and educated at the Edinburgh Academy and at Eton before entering Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduating in 1843, he studied law at the Inner Temple and was called to the bar in 1849. From 1853 onwards he live mainly in London. Macleod's main interest was in political economy, on which he had strong and unorthodox views. He lectured occasionally at universities and wrote several works on economic and banking theory.
Thomas Robert Malthus was born in Surrey in 1766. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and graduated with a BA in 1788 and an MA in 1791, becoming a fellow in 1793. He was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1789 and ordained priest in 1791. His first and best-known book An Essay on the Principle of Population was published in 1798, with several substantially revised editions following during the next two decades; he also wrote several other books on economics and demographics. From 1805 until his death Malthus was professor of history and political economy at East India College, Haileybury, Hertfordshire. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1818 and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1825, and was a founding member of both the Political Economy Club and the Statistical Society of London.
Karl Heinrich Marx was born in Trier, Germany in 1818. His family was Jewish but he and his siblings were baptised into the Protestant church. He studied law and philosophy at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin before becoming a journalist and editor, initially in Berlin and later in Paris and Brussels. From 1849 onwards he and his family lived in exile in London. From the 1840s onwards Marx developed the set of economic and political theories now known as Marxism. Many of his ideas were developed in collaboration with Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). His best known works are The Communist Manifesto [with Engels] (1848) and Das Kapital vol 1 (1867). Marx died in 1883 and was buried in Highgate cemetery. His ideas were very influential during the 20th century and the original source of the ideology adopted by Communist revolutions and governments in Soviet Russia and elsewhere.