BRITISH PERSONALITIES

8/7/2019 BRITISH PERSONALITIES

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Sir Francis Drake(1540 - 1596)English navigator and explorer

Marcus Gheeraerts: 16th century oil on canvas portrait of Sir Francis

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• He served an apprenticeship as a mariner

• 1567 he was given his first command

• In 1570 and 1571 Drake made two profitable trading voyages to the

West Indies• 1572 he commanded two vessels in a marauding expedition against

Spanish ports in the Caribbean Sea. During this voyage, Drake first

saw the Pacific Ocean; he captured the port of Nombre de Díos on the

Isthmus of Panama and destroyed the nearby town of Portobelo. He

returned to England with a cargo of Spanish silver and a reputation as

a brilliant privateer

• 1579 set sail again and was hailed as the first Englishman to

circumnavigate the world

• he was knighted aboard the Golden Hind by Queen



Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 – 1618)

Nicholas Hilliard: Portrait of Walter Raleigh 1585• English adventurer and writer, who was prominent at the court of Queen

Elizabeth I, and became an explorer of the Americas• Raleigh attended the University of Oxford. for a time

and later studied law in London• In 1578 Raleigh sailed to America that stimulated his

plan to found an

English empire there• In 1585, Raleigh sponsored the first English colony in

America on Roanoke Island in present-day NorthCarolina

• He was knighted, and became one of the most powerfulfigures in England

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Oliver Cromwell 1599 - 1658)Statesman

Samuel Cooper: Portrait of Oliver Cromwell

• Cambridge, and in 1628 he was first elected to Parliamentopposed the absolute power of the crown, and when war broke out he

became a military organizer for the Parliamentary forces

• After the Civil War and the execution of king Charles I, Cromwell

became first chairman of the new republic

• He suppressed an insurrection in Ireland (1650) with a severity

remembered by the Irish Catholics with bitterness

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• he defeated a Royalist army in Scotland, and he fought the Dutch in

several naval battles

• In 1653 dissolved Parliament and he became Lord protector of the

new puritanical republic

•he concluded the Anglo-Dutch War, sent an expeditionary force to theSpanish West Indies and destroyed the Spanish fleet at Teneriffe

• In the fall of 1658 Cromwell died, and England fell away from his

attempt to realize a puritanical commonwealth of free men



Sir Christopher Wren(1632 - 1723)architect, scientist, and mathematician

Godfrey Kneller: Sir Christopher Wren

• precocious child with remarkable talent for science and mathematicsand had already invented numerous scientific devices before the age

of 14

• University of Oxford. While still a student, he made several original

contributions in mathematics, winning immediate acclaim

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• 1657 he was appointed professor of astronomy at Gresham College in

London. Three years later he returned to Oxford to accept the post of

professor of astronomy

• started his career as an architect at the age of 29. His earliest work

included designs for several new structures at Oxford and atCambridge.

• The fire of 1666 burned the oldest part of London. Within a few days

Wren submitted a brilliant plan for rebuilding the area.

• In 1667 he was appointed for the reconstruction of Saint Paul's

Cathedral, numerous parish churches, and other buildings destroyed

by the fire

• Wren's designs for St. Paul's Cathedral were accepted in 1675, and he

superintended the building of the vast baroque structure until its

completion in 1710. It ranks as one of the world's most imposing

domed edifices. He also designed

o Saint James's, Picadilly, Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford (1664-

69), the Trinity College library at Cambridge (1677-92), and the

facade for Hampton Court Palace (1689-94). He also built the

Chelsea Hospital (1682), the Greenwich Observatory (1675),

and the Greenwich Hospital (1696).

• extraordinary contributions in science: a weather clock comparable to

the modern barometer and new methods of engraving and etching; His

biological experiments, in which he injected fluids into the veins of

animals, were important in developing blood transfusion.• Wren was knighted in 1673; he subsequently served for many years as

a member of Parliament

• One of the founders of the Royal Society of London for Improving

Natural Knowledge

• buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. Near his tomb is a tablet inscribed with

his epitaph, which ends with the following famous words: Si

monumentum requiris, circumspice ("If you seek his monument, look

about you")

•England’s foremost architect. His work, in a simple version of the

baroque style, displayed great inventiveness in design and

engineering. The Wren style strongly influenced English architecture

in the Georgian period and its colonial version in America



Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)

Godfrey Kneller: 1689 portrait of Isaac Newton

• studied at Cambridge• Legend has it that the fall of an apple initiated the train

of thought that led to the law of gravitation• As professor of mathematics at Cambridge he worked

on his famous Philosophiae naturalis principiamathematica, which supplied a complete proof of thelaw of gravitation. This law explained celestial motions,the tides, and terrestial gravitation

• He deveolped a new kind of mathematics known as thecalculus

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• He invented the reflecting telescope, and discoveredthat white light is a combination of all colors by usingprisms

• elected President of the Royal Society in 1703•

knighted in 1705



James Brindley (1716 - 1772)

Francis Parson: James Brindley

British canal builder

• He was the first to employ tunnels and aqueducts

extensively, in order to reduce the number of locks ona direct-route canal; His 580 km / 360 miles of canalsincluded:

1. the Bridgewater (Manchester-Liverpool) and2. Grand Union (Manchester-Potteries) canals

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• He set up a machine shop in Staffordshire and beganconstructing flint and silk mills. He was virtuallyilliterate and made all calculations in his head

• In 1759 Brindley was engaged by the Duke of

Bridgewater to construct a canal to transport coal toManchester from the duke's mines. Brindley'srevolutionary scheme included a subterranean channeland an aqueduct



John Howard (1726 - 1790)

Mather Brown: John Howard (1789)

English philanthropist

- improved prison conditions (continued today by the Howard League for

Penal Reform)- 1773, he undertook a tour of English prisons which led to two acts of

Parliament 1774:

• making jailers salaried officers and setting standards of cleanliness

After touring Europe 1775, he published State of the Prisons in England

and Wales, with an account of some Foreign Prisons 1777

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He died of typhus fever while visiting Russian military hospitals at Kherson

in the Crimea



Captain James Cook (1728 - 1779)

Nathaniel Dance: James Cook, portrait (1775), Nathaniel Maritime

Museum, Greenwich

• the son of a Scottish farm• In 1755 signed up with the Royal Navy; he worked his way up

through the ranks, eventually rising to command his own vessel

• His first mission was to map the estuary of the St. Lawrence River

prior to a naval assault on Quebec. It was those surveys that made

Cook's name, along with the information he obtained from observing

and recording an eclipse of the sun in 1766. The surveys were so

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accurate that they remained in use until the beginning of the

Twentieth Century.

• 1768: mission to explore the great unknown of the Pacific Ocean and

scientifically record everything that was encountered. It was the first

of the three great voyages of discovery he led in the South Pacific• killed by Hawaiian in February 1779



William Blake (1757 - 1827)

Considered insane and largely disregarded by his peers, the visionary poet

and engraver William Blake is now recognised among the greatest

contributors to English literature and art

Thomas Philips: William Blake in an 1807• William Blake, the son of a draper from Westminster

• At the age of eleven Blake entered Par's Drawing School in the strand.

• 1782 Blake became a freelance engraver and he experimented a new

method

• his first illuminated works, Natural Religion, appeared in 1788: the

poetry and their illustrations were drawn in reverse on copper plates in

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an impervious liquid, then the plain parts eaten away with acid. After

the prints were taken they were coloured by hand

• Natural Religion was followed by Songs of Innocence (1789),

Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) and Songs of Experience (1794),

a book that deals with topics of corruption and social injustice• In his books The French Revolution (1791), America: A Prophecy

(1793) and Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793), Blake

developed his attitude of revolt against authority, combining political

belief and visionary ecstasy. Blake feared government persecution and

some of work such as The French Revolution was printed

anonymously and was only distributed to political sympathizers

• In 1800 William was commissioned to decorate a library with

eighteen heads of poets

• His poetic works and paintings are provided with a complex mixture

of prophecy, social criticism and biblical legend



The archetype of the

Creator is a familiar image in Blake's work. Urizen prays before the

world he has forged

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Blake's The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with Sun (1805)

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Blake: Ancient of Days

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Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson (1758 - 1805)

Lemuel Francis Abbott: Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson

• In the time of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars:

• a commodore in 1796 and destroyed most of the French vessels

during the Battle of the Nile (1798);

• In the Battle of Trafalgar, on October 21, 1805, Nelson

overwhelmingly defeated the French and Spanish fleets, leading the

attack himself in his flagship Victory and put an end to Napoleon's

plans for invading England

• the most famous of all British naval leaders and as one of the most

noteworthy in world history

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• buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral

• In 1849 a monument known as the Nelson Column was erected to

Admiral Nelson in Trafalgar Square, London



Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769 - 1852)

Sir Thomas Lawrence: The Duke of Wellington, painted in 1814, several

months before the Battle of Waterloo• born in Dublin, Ireland

• commissioned as ensign in the British army in 1787

• elected to the Irish parliament in 1790

• took part in several military campaigns in India:

o the Battle of Assaye in 1803, he subdued the Marathas, then the

dominant people of India

• in England 1805 he was rewarded with a knighthood and with

election to the British Parliament

• involved in the struggle against Napoleon• He took part in military campaigns against France and its allies in

Hannover (1805-6) and in Denmark (1807)

• In 1808 he was given command of the British expeditionary forces in

Portugal, where in 1810 he first made use of his famous military tactic

known as the scorched-earth policy, laying waste to the countryside

behind him as he and his troops moved on

• In the ensuing Peninsular War (1808-14), which resulted in the

expulsion of Napoleon's armies from Portugal and Spain, Wellesley's

troops won the battles of Talavera de la Reina (1809), Salamanca

(1812), Vitoria (1813), and Toulouse (1814)

• His success in Spain won him many honors and large estates and cash

awards. In 1814 he was created 1st duke of Wellington

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George Stephenson (1781 - 1848)

• British inventor and engineer:

o built the first practical railroad locomotive

o devised one of the first miner's safety lamps but shared credit

for this invention with the British inventor Sir Humphry Davy,

who developed a similar lamp at about the same time

o Stephenson's early efforts in locomotive design were confined

to constructing locomotives to haul loads in coal mines, and in

1823 he established a factory at Newcastle for their

manufacture

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o In 1829 he designed a locomotive known as the Rocket , which

hauled both freight and passengers at a greater speed than had

any locomotive constructed up to that time. The success of the

Rocket greatly stimulated the subsequent construction of

locomotives and the laying of railroad lines



Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867)

Thomas Philips : Portrait of Michael Faraday

• physicist and chemist, best known for his discoveries of

electromagnetic induction and of the laws of electrolysis

• elected to the Royal Society in 1824 and the following year was

appointed director of the laboratory of the Royal Institution

• recipient of many scientific honors, including the Royal and Rumford

medals of the Royal Society

• offered the presidency of the society but declined the honor

• Faraday's earliest researches were in the field of chemistry:

o discovery of two new chlorides of carbon

o benzene

o optical glass, etc

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o experiments in the fields of electricity and magnetism

(electromagnetic induction, the induction of one electric current

by another, etc)

o research on the phenomena of electrolysis:

the amount of chemical action produced by an electricalcurrent in an electrolyte is proportional to the amount of

electricity passing through the electrolyte;

and that the amount of a substance deposited from an

electrolyte by the action of a current is proportional to the

chemical equivalent weight of the substance

Faraday wrote:

• Chemical Manipulation (1827),

• Experimental Researches in Electricity (1844-55), and

• Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1859)



Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

• born in London, son of an Anglicized Jew, baptized in 1817

• novelist,

• leader of the 'Young England' movement (he opposed free trade

policies, especially after the repealed the Corn Laws in order to

relieve the famine in Ireland)

• leader of the Conservatives

• Chancellor of the Exchequer in Derby's minority governments

• prime minister on

• supported reform at home and imperialism abroad

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• During his 2nd administration (1874--80) Britain became half-owner

of the Suez Canal, and the queen assumed the title Empress of India

(1876)

• Disraeli's diplomacy at the Congress of Berlin (1878) helped to

preserve European peace after the conflict between Russia and Turkeyin the Balkans



David Livingstone (1813 - 1873)

Posthumous portrait of David Livingstone by Frederick Havill

• Scottish missionary, doctor, explorer, scientist and anti-slavery

activist

• He spent 30 years in Africa, exploring almost a third of the continent• the first white man to see Victoria Falls and though he never

discovered the source of the Nile, one of his goals, he eliminated some

possibilities and thereby helped direct the efforts of others.

• At a village on the Lualaba River he witnessed the slaughter of

villagers by slave traders. The letter he sent home describing the event

so infuriated the public that the English government pressured the

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Sultan of Zanzibar to stop the slave trade. The pressure was only

partially successful

• On Nov. 10, 1871 in the village of Ujiji, on the east side of Lake

Tanganyika, Livingstone encountered Henry Stanley, who had been

sent by the New York Herald Tribune newspaper to find and help him• With Stanley's supplies Livingstone continued his explorations, but he

was weak, worn out and suffering from dysentery. Then, on the

morning of April 30, 1872, his two African assistants found him

kneeling at his bedside, dead. They dried his body and carried it and

his papers on a dangerous 11-month journey to Zanzibar, a trip of

1,000 miles. From there his body was taken to England



Sir (Frederick) Henry Royce

(1863 - 1933)

• the producer of some of the most luxurious cars in the

• apprenticed to a locomotive works where he became an expertmachinist noted for his dedication to unequalled precision

• in London he worked by the day at an electricity generating station,

while at night he went to school

• he went to Manchester to open his own shop to produce dynamos and

motors.

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• In 1904 he entered into partnership with Rolls to sell automobiles,

thus Rolls-Royce was formed

• 1906 Royce produced the Silver Ghost, a car which was to become

known as the greatest car in the world

•

Royce's reputation as a leading engineer led the Royal Navy to contacthim during World War I with an order to build Renault-designed aero-

engines. The result was the Eagle, a twenty-litre engine which

produced 225hp. This engine, and it's derivatives the Falcon and the

Hawk, were so successful that by the end of World War I Rolls-Royce

supplied 60% of all British built engines

• Royce stayed actively involved with the design of his company's

engines up until his death in 1933

• Before he died, he dictated what was to become known as the Rolls-

Royce bible. It was a set of guidelines for future generations of Rolls-

Royce engineers to follow. Even today, it is a closely guardedindustrial secret



Robert Falcon Scott(1868 - 1912)Profession: Explorer

British naval officer and explorer of AntarcticaBorn in Devonport, England. Scott entered the Royal Navy atthe age of 14. In 1900 he was placed in command of the

National Antarctic Expedition. Leaving England in 1901, Scottestablished a land base on the shores of McMurdo Sound, inAntarctica. He explored to the east of the Ross Ice Shelf andnamed Edward VII Peninsula. He also led a party thatachieved a record latitude of 81° 17' south and sledged overVictoria Land. The expedition, which returned in 1904, wasresponsible for scientific discoveries of marked importance.

In 1910 Scott embarked on a second Antarctic expedition,with the aim of being the first man to reach the South Pole.He again landed at McMurdo Sound and with four companionsbegan a trek

of 2964 km (1842 mi), the longest continuous sledge journey ever made in the polarregions. Scott reached the South Pole on January 18, 1912, only to find the tent andflag of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who had achieved the goal 5 weeksearlier. The return journey ended in the loss of the entire party. Petty Officer EdgarEvans died from a fall; Captain Lawrence Oates sacrificed his life, hoping thus tosave his comrades; Henry R. Bowers, Dr. Edward Wilson, and Scott perished of starvation and exposure on March 29, 1912, within 18 km (11 mi) of a supply depot.Their bodies, along with valuable documents and specimens left by Scott in his tent,were found by a search party almost eight months later. His diaries and otherdocuments were published as Scott's Last Expedition (1913). He is also the author of The Voyage of the Discovery (1905)

Sir Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill(1874 - 1965)Profession: StatesmanChurchill was born at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire,the elder son of Lord Randolph Churchill. Educated at Harrow andSandhurst, he joined the army in 1895. In the dual role of soldierand military correspondent he served in the Spanish-AmericanWar in Cuba, and then in India, Egypt, and South Africa, wherehe made a dramatic escape from imprisonment in Pretoria.

A British Conservative politician, prime minister from 1940-45and 1951-55. In Parliament from 1900, as a Liberal until 1923,

he held a number of ministerial offices, including First Lord of theAdmiralty, 1911-15 and chancellor of the Exchequer, 1924-29.Absent from the cabinet in the 1930's, he returned in Sept 1939to lead a coalition government from 1940-45, negotiating withAllied leadersin World War II to achieve the unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945; he led aConservative government from 1951-55. Churchill received the Nobel Prize forLiterature in 1953. He was a member of Parliament for more than 60 years and triedto prevent the dissolution of the British Empire, but his fierce opposition to the



ambitions of Nazi Germany transformed him into a war leader, who personifiedresistance to tyranny. Churchill played a considerable role in the eventual alliedvictory over Germany

The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls

(1877 - 1910)Profession: Engineer

The son of a wealthy British peer, Rolls might have leda carefree life often associated with the youngEdwardian aristocracy. Instead, he combined anadventurous spirit with an education and thus made auseful contribution to his nation.

Rolls went to Cambridge University where he earned aBA, and later MA in engineering. His love for speed ledhim to become a racing cyclist. Later he turned toracing automobiles along with his friend, Moore-

Brabazon. In 1896 Rolls joined with other autoenthusiasts to break a law which forbade automobiletravel at over 4mph (6.4km/hr). Their defiance led toa new speed limit which at 12 mph (19.3 km/hr) was200% faster than had previously been allowed.

In 1901 Rolls, having become an aeronaut, helped found the Aero Club. Two yearslater he entered an automobile sales venture in London selling expensive Frenchcars. One day a friend introduced him to F. H. Royce who was just beginning to buildquality automobiles. Royce, who had worked hard his entire life, had little in commonwith Rolls yet they still became friends. In 1904 they agreed that Royce would buildcars and Rolls would sell them. Rolls-Royce was born.

Rolls continued to fly balloons when he wasn't demonstrating his soon-to-be-famousproducts. His balloon flying led to aeroplane flying and in 1910 he received certificatenumber 2 from the Royal Aero Club (Royal as of that year). Later in the same yearhe became the first man to fly non-stop across the English Channel both ways, buthis triumph was short lived. In July 1910 he was killed when his French-built Wrightbiplane broke up in mid-air. Though he came down from only 20 feet, he cracked hisskull. He became Britain`s first aircraft fatality.

Marie Carmichael Stopes

(1880 - 1958)Profession: Scientist

English paleobotanist and eugenicist



Born in Edinburgh, D.Sc. Univ. of London, Ph.D. Univ. of Munich.She lectured on paleobotany at the universities of London andManchester.

In 1921, with Humphrey Verdon Roe, her second husband, shefounded the first birth-control clinic in the British Empire.

Her activities in this field gave impetus to similar movementselsewhere. Her many works include books on eugenics, birthcontrol, and paleobotany.

Sir Alexander Fleming

(1881 - 1955)Profession: ScientistBritish bacteriologist and Nobel laureate, best known for hisdiscovery of penicillin. Born near Darvel, Scotland, and educated atSaint Mary's Hospital Medical School of the University of London, he

served as professor of bacteriology at St. Mary's Hospital MedicalSchool from 1928 to 1948, when he became professor emeritus.

Fleming conducted outstanding research in bacteriology,chemotherapy, and immunology. In 1922 he discovered lysozyme,an antiseptic found in tears, body secretions, albumen, and certainfishplants. His discovery of penicillin came about accidentally in 1928 in the course of research on influenza. His observation that the mold contaminating one of his cultureplates had destroyed the bacteria laid the basis for the development of penicillintherapy.

Fleming was knighted in 1944. In 1945 he shared the Nobel Prize in physiology ormedicine with the British scientists Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain fortheir contributions to the development of penicillin.

Sir Geoffrey de Havilland(1882 - 1965)Profession: EngineerBorn the son of a clergyman, de Havilland was one of the mostsuccessful of all British aviation pioneers. Before his twentiethbirthday he designed a motorcycle and after graduating fromthe Crystal Palace Engineering School began a short-livedcareer in the automotive industry. By 1908, he persuaded hisgrandfather to loan him one thousand pounds from which hecould fund the construction of an aeroplane. Along with hisassistant Frank Herle, de Havilland built an engine and a bi-plane, which were ready to test by 1909. The success of thismachine, in which de Havilland taught himself to fly, broughthim to the attention of the British military which bought hisplane for four hundred pounds and offered him a job at HMBalloon Factory. He test-flew all of his



own designs until 1918.

In September 1920, de Havilland founded his own company and decided to targetthe commercial market and reject, for the most part, the military one. His factory,first at Stag Lane, Edgeware and later at Hatfield, produced a steady stream of well-designed biplanes for the civil and commercial markets.

To conserve vital materials during World War II, de Havilland's company designedthe Mosquito fighter bomber, using less important wood for it's structure. The'Mossie' is considered by some to have been the best all-round aircraft of World WarII. Not only was it twice as fast as any other bomber, it was even faster than thefastest British fighter.



Reginald Joseph Mitchell(1895 - 1937)Profession: Engineer

Designer of the Supermarine SpitfireBorn in Talke Village near Stoke on Trent on 20 May1895.

Leaving school in 1911 aged 16 he joined the locomotiveengineering company, Kerr Stewart & Co of Stoke as anapprentice and upon completion of his apprenticeship hebegan working in the drawing office.

At night school however he continued his educationstudying engineering, mechanics and highermathematics and with the use of a home based lathe hemastered practical engineering.

In 1917, at the age of 21, a partnership that was to have

a significant effect upon his future was formed when he joined the Supermarine Aviation Works as a designer andby 1918, recognising the excellent skills that he had,Reginald Mitchell was appointed Chief Designer byHubert Scott-Paine theManaging Director of Supermarine.

As seaplane manufacturers, Supermarine were attracted by the Schneider Trophycontests although until 1922 when Mitchell took over complete control of the designfor that years entry, the competition was dominated by Italy, who having won theTrophy in 1920 and 1921 meant that a further win in 1922 would secure them theTrophy outright.

Mitchell's aircraft was the only challenger to the Italian's in the 1922 SchneiderTrophy and flown by Captain Henri C Baird it won, also taking four new Marine WorldRecords.

Mitchell was however a sick man. He underwent an operation to remove abdominalcancer late in 1933 and almost died. He was told that if their was no recurrencewithin five years he would likely survive but following that operation he never fullyrecovered his vitality and remained a weak man.

Over the next two years his health deteriorated and resisting all medical advice hedrove himself hard, working not only on the Spitfire but also the Type 317 longrange, four engined bomber. On 11th June 1937 Reginald Joseph Mitchell died aged just 42



Stephen (William) Hawking(1942 - )Profession: Scientist

English physicistHawking was born in Oxford, studied at Oxford andCambridge, and became professor of mathematics at

Cambridge in 1979. He is confined to a wheelchairbecause of a rare and progressive neuromotor disease.His work in general relativity - particularly gravitationalfield theory - led to a search for a quantum theory of gravity to explain black holes and the Big Bang,singularities that classical relativity theory does notadequately explain. His book A Brief History of Time 1988gives a popular account of cosmology and became aninternational bestseller. Hawking's objective of producingan overall synthesis of quantum mechanics and relativitytheory began around the time of the publication in 1973of his seminal book The

Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, written with G F R Ellis. His most remarkableresult, published in 1974, was that black holes could in fact emit particles in the formof thermal radiation - the so-called Hawking radiation.

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