Wikipedia famous Combe Down people

Thomas Gray
Born	(1914-05-17)17 May 1914 Urchfont, England
Died	12 May 1940(1940-05-12) (aged 25) Albert Canal, Lanaken, Belgium
Buried	Heverlee War Cemetery, Leuven
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Air Force
Years of service	1929–1940
Rank	Sergeant
Unit	No. 12 Squadron RAF
Battles/wars	Second World War European air campaign French and Low Countries campaign Battle of Belgium  †
Awards	Victoria Cross

Thomas Gray, VC (17 May 1914 – 12 May 1940) was a British airman and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

RAF career

Gray was 25 years old, and a sergeant in 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he and his pilot Flying Officer Donald Garland were awarded the VC in a joint citation.

On 12 May 1940, over the Albert Canal, Belgium, one bridge in particular was being used by the invading German army, with protection from fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft and machine-guns. The RAF was ordered to demolish this vital bridge, and five Fairey Battle bombers were despatched with Sergeant Gray as the navigator in the plane leading the bombing attack. They met an inferno of anti-aircraft fire, but the mission was accomplished, much of the success being due to the coolness and resourcefulness of pilot Donald Garland of the leading aircraft and the navigation of Sergeant Gray. Only one aircraft made it back to base.

Gray is buried at the Heverlee War Cemetery near Leuven in Belgium.^[1]

Victoria Cross citation

The announcement and accompanying citation for Gray's VC was published in supplement to the London Gazette on 11 June 1940, reading:^[2]

Air Office, 11th June, 1940

The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the VICTORIA CROSS on the undermentioned officer and non-commissioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery :-

Flying Officer Donald Edward Garland (40105)

563627 Sergeant Thomas Gray

Flying Officer Garland was the pilot and Sergeant Gray was the observer of the leading aircraft of a formation of five aircraft that attacked a bridge over the Albert Canal which had not been destroyed and was allowing the enemy to advance into Belgium. All the aircrews of the squadron concerned volunteered for the operation, and, after five crews had been selected by drawing lots, the attack was delivered at low altitude against this vital target. Orders were issued that this bridge was to be destroyed at all costs. As had been expected, exceptionally intense machine-gun and anti-aircraft fire were encountered. Moreover, the bridge area was heavily protected by enemy fighters. In spite of this, the formation successfully delivered a dive-bombing attack from the lowest practicable altitude. British fighters in the vicinity reported that the target was obscured by the bombs bursting on it and near it. Only one of the five aircraft concerned returned from this mission. The pilot of this aircraft reports that besides being subjected to extremely heavy anti-aircraft fire, through which they dived to attack the objective, our aircraft were also attacked by a large number of enemy fighters after they had released their bombs on the target. Much of the success of this vital operation must be attributed to the formation leader, Flying Officer Garland, and to the coolness and resource of Sergeant Gray, who in most difficult conditions navigated Flying Officer Garland's aircraft in such a manner that the whole formation was able successfully to attack the target in spite of subsequent heavy losses. Flying Officer Garland and Sergeant Gray did not return.^[3]

Legacy

A Vickers VC-10 Serial 'XR807' of No. 101 Squadron was named 'Donald Garland VC & Thomas Gray VC'.

In 2005, to mark its 90th anniversary, No.12 Squadron RAF flew a Tornado GR4 with Flying Officer Garland's and Sergeant Gray's names painted under the cockpit as a mark of respect.

There is a monument on the bridge to the operation.

On the day of the attack on the bridge, Garland and his crew flew from the grass airfield near the village of Amifontaine, France, where No. 12 Squadron had been based since December 1939. No memorial to the airfield, and to the men who flew from it, has been reported to exist in the area.^[4]

References

External links

• Flying Officer D.E. Garland & Sergeant T. Grey in The Art of War exhibition at the UK National Archives

Robert Yaxley
Yaxley at El Adem, Libya in 1942
Born	1912 Bath, Somerset
Died	3 June 1943 (aged 30-31) Bay of Biscay
Buried	Body lost at sea
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Air Force
Years of service	1934–1943
Rank	Group Captain
Service number	33130
Commands held	No. 117 Squadron RAF (1942–43) No. 272 Squadron RAF (1941–42) No. 252 Squadron RAF (1940–41)
Battles/wars	Arab revolt in Palestine Second World War North African Campaign Western Desert Campaign Mediterranean theatre  †
Awards	Distinguished Service Order Military Cross Distinguished Flying Cross

Group Captain Robert Gordon Yaxley, DSO, MC, DFC (1912 – 3 June 1943) was a Royal Air Force pilot and commander during the Second World War.

Early life

Yaxley was born in Bath, Somerset, the son of Robert and Agnes Elizabeth Yaxley. After attending the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, he commissioned into the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 4 September 1934, with seniority of 28 July 1934.^[1]

RAF career

Yaxley served with the No. 2 Armoured Car Company RAF in the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, and was awarded the Military Cross on 6 November 1936.^[2] He had been promoted to the rank of flying officer on 28 January 1936.^[3]

At the beginning of the Second World War, Yaxley was serving with No. 252 Squadron RAF and by December 1940 he was the unit's Commanding Officer. On 9 September 1941 he was promoted to wing commander,^[4] and took command of No. 272 Squadron RAF, a unit equipped with Bristol Beaufighters. On 17 October 1941 Yaxley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his command of raiding detachment of fighter aircraft. The citation for the award read:

This officer commanded a detachment of fighter aircraft which recently carried out a series of sorties with the object of assisting in the safe passage of our convoys in the Mediterranean. Attacks were made on certain aerodromes and seaplane bases which resulted in a loss to the enemy of at least 49 aircraft and a further 42 damaged. The successes achieved undoubtedly contributed largely to the fact that the convoys were able to proceed without loss; only 1 ship was damaged but it succeeded in reaching port. The courageous leadership and determination of this officer is worthy of the highest praise, and throughout he set an example which proved an inspiration to his fellow pilots.^[5]

This was followed by the award of the Distinguished Service Order on 12 December 1941 for his leadership in the Western Desert Campaign.^[6] The decoration was the first awarded during the campaign in Libya,^[7] and was announced with the following citation:

Since the operations in the Western Desert commenced this officer has led his squadron with conspicuous success. Enemy airdromes far west of the battle area as Benghazi, have been attacked daily and other serious damage has been inflicted on the enemy. On the opening day of the operations a number of Junkers 52 aircraft carrying troops were encountered and seven of them were shot down. In addition to a daily toll of enemy aircraft destroyed, heavy casualties have been inflicted on ground crews, while lines of communication have been harassed and petrol tankers set on fire. Altogether, within a space of six days operations, no fewer than 46 of the enemy's aircraft were destroyed. Much of the brilliant success achieved can be attributed to the courageous leadership and determination displayed by Wing Commander Yaxley. Throughout he has set a magnificent example.^[6]

On 8 July 1942 became Commanding Officer of No. 117 Squadron RAF and under his leadership the squadron began to play a big part in the advance from El Alamein.

On 3 June 1943, Yaxley was killed while piloting a Lockheed Hudson over the Bay of Biscay en route to North Africa.^[8] His plane, carrying several passengers including Osgood Hanbury, was shot down by a German Junkers Ju 88 C flown by Lieutenant Hans Olbrecht.

References

Harry Patch
Patch, aged 109, in 2007
Birth name	Henry John Patch
Born	(1898-06-17)17 June 1898 Combe Down, Somerset, England
Died	(2009-07-25)25 July 2009 (aged 111 years, 38 days) Wells, Somerset, England
Buried	St Michael's Church, Monkton Combe
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army British Expeditionary Force
Years of service	1916–1918
Rank	Lance corporal Private (after demotion)
Service number	29295
Unit	Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
Battles/wars	First World War Western Front Battle of Passchendaele  (WIA)
Awards	See medals
Spouse(s)	Ada Billington (m. 1919; d. 1976) Kathleen Joy (m. 1982; d. 1989) Doris Whittaker (1998; d. 2007)
Children	2

Henry John Patch (17 June 1898 – 25 July 2009), dubbed in his later years "the Last Fighting Tommy", was an English supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe, and the last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World War from any country.^[1] Patch was not the longest-surviving soldier of the First World War, but he was the fifth-longest-surviving veteran of any sort from the First World War, behind British veterans Claude Choules and Florence Green, Frank Buckles of the United States and John Babcock of Canada.^[2] At the time of his death, aged 111 years and 38 days, Patch was the third-oldest man in the world, behind Walter Breuning and Jiroemon Kimura.

Early life

Harry Patch was born in the village of Combe Down, near Bath, Somerset, England. He appears in the 1901 Census as a two-year-old boy along with his stonemason father William John Patch (1863–1945), mother Elizabeth Ann (née Morris) (1857–1951) and older brothers George Frederick (1888–1983) and William Thomas (1894–1981) at a house called "Fonthill" in Gladstone Road.^[3] The family are recorded at the same address "Fonthill Cottage" in the 1911 census.^[4] His elder brothers are recorded as a carpenter and banker mason. Longevity ran in Patch's family; his father lived to 82, his mother to 94, his brother George to 95 and his brother William to 87. Patch left school in 1913 and became an apprentice plumber in Bath.^[5][6]

First World War

In October 1916, during the First World War, he was conscripted into the British Army as a private, reporting for duty at Tolland Barracks, Taunton. During the winter of 1916–17 he was promoted to lance corporal, but was demoted after a fistfight with a soldier who had taken Patch's boots from his billet, and he saw no further promotion.^[7] Patch went through a series of short-lived attachments to several regiments, including the Royal Warwickshire Regiment before being posted after completing training to the 7th (Service) Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, serving as an assistant gunner in a Lewis gun section.^[8] Patch arrived in France in June 1917.^[9] He fought on the Western Front at the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres) and was wounded, when a shell exploded overhead at 22:30 on 22 September 1917, killing three of his comrades. He had a two-inch piece of shrapnel removed from his groin; as there was no anaesthetic remaining in the camp he chose to have the operation done without anaesthesia. He was removed from the front line and returned to England on 23 December 1917. Patch referred to 22 September as his personal Remembrance Day. He was still convalescing on the Isle of Wight when the Armistice with Germany was declared the following November.^[10]

When the war ended, I don't know if I was more relieved that we'd won or that I didn't have to go back. Passchendaele was a disastrous battle—thousands and thousands of young lives were lost. It makes me angry. Earlier this year, I went back to Ypres to shake the hand of Charles Kuentz, Germany's only surviving veteran from the war. It was emotional. He is 107. We've had 87 years to think what war is. To me, it's a licence to go out and murder. Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn't speak? All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Now what is the sense in that?^[11]

— Harry Patch, Nov. 2004

Medals

Patch received eight medals and honours; for his service in the First World War, he received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.^[12] In 1998, as a surviving veteran of the First World War, who had fought for the Allies in France and Flanders, the President of the Republic of France made him a Knight of the Légion d'honneur. The award was presented to Patch on his 101st birthday. On 9 March 2009, Patch was appointed an Officer of the Légion d'honneur by the French Ambassador at his nursing home in Somerset.^[13] On 7 January 2008, Albert II, King of the Belgians, conferred upon Patch the award of Knight of the Order of Leopold. He received the award from Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet, Belgium's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, at a ceremony in the Ambassador's residence in London, on 22 September 2008, which coincidentally was the 91st anniversary of the day he was wounded in action and three of his closest friends killed.^[14]

For service during the Second World War, Patch was awarded the 1939–45 Defence Medal. This was subsequently lost and on 20 September 2008, at a ceremony at Bath Fire Station, Patch was presented with a replacement medal.^[15] Patch also received two commemorative medals: the National Service Medal and the Hors de combat medal, which signifies outstanding bravery of servicemen and women, who have sustained wounds or injury in the line of duty. The medals are unofficial and not a part of the official order of wear in any Commonwealth realm. In accordance with his wishes, Patch's medals are displayed at the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Museum in Bodmin.^[16]

Ribbons

Personal life

After the war, Patch returned to work as a plumber, during which time he spent four years working on the Wills Memorial Building in Bristol, before becoming manager of the plumbing company's branch in Bristol.^[17] A year above the age to be called up for military service at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he became a part-time fireman in Bath, dealing with the Baedeker raids.^[17][18] Later in the war he moved to Street, Somerset, where he ran a plumbing company until his retirement at the age of 65.^[17]

Patch married Ada Emily Billington (1891–1976) at the Parish Church, Hadley, Shropshire on 13 September 1919.^[19] They had two children. Denis and Gordon. Ada died in 1976, aged 85.^[20] Patch subsequently married Kathleen Alice Joy at Mendip Register Office on 5 June 1982.^[21] Harry was 83 and Kathleen, known as Jean, was 80. Jean died aged 87 on 18 March 1989.^[22] At the age of 100, Patch moved to Fletcher House Nursing Home in Wells, where he found a companion in Doris Whitaker.^[23] Doris died on 19 March 2007, aged 92.^[24] Patch's sons, Denis and Gordon, both predeceased him.^[25][26]

The Last Fighting Tommy

Patch consistently refused to discuss his war experiences until approached in 1998 for the BBC One documentary Veterans, on reflection of which, and with the realisation that he was part of a fast-dwindling group of veterans of "the war to end all wars", he agreed.^[10] Patch was featured in the 2003 television series World War 1 in Colour and said "if any man tells you he went over the top and he wasn't scared, he's a damn liar". He reflected on his lost friends and the moment when he came face to face with a German soldier. He recalled the story of Moses descending from Mount Sinai with God's Ten Commandments, including "Thou shalt not kill" and could not bring himself to kill the German. Instead, he shot him in the shoulder, which made the soldier drop his rifle. However, he had to carry on running towards his Lewis Gun, so to proceed, he shot him above the knee and in the ankle. Patch said,

I had about five seconds to make the decision. I brought him down, but I didn't kill him… Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.

— Commenting on graves at a Flanders war cemetery, July 2007.^[27]

In November 2004, at the age of 106, Patch met Charles Kuentz, a 107-year-old Alsatian veteran, who had fought on the German side at Passchendaele (and served on the French side in World War II).^[28] Patch was quoted as saying: "I was a bit doubtful before meeting a German soldier. Herr Kuentz is a very nice gentleman however. He is all for a united Europe and peace – and so am I". Kuentz had brought along a tin of Alsatian biscuits and Patch gave him a bottle of Somerset cider in return.^[29] The meeting was featured in a 2005 BBC TV programme The Last Tommy, which told the stories of several of Britain's last World War I veterans.^[30]

In December 2004, Patch was given a present of 106 bottles of Patch's Pride Cider, which has been named after him and produced by the Gaymer Cider Company.^[31] In the spring of 2005 he was interviewed by the BBC Today programme, in which he said of the First World War: "Too many died. War isn't worth one life" and in July 2005, Patch voiced his outrage over plans to build a motorway in northern France over cemeteries of the First World War. In July 2007, marking the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele, Patch revisited the site of the battle in Flanders, to pay his respects to the fallen on both sides. He was accompanied by historian, Richard van Emden. On this occasion, Patch described war as the "calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings" and said that "war isn't worth one life".^[32] In August 2007, Patch's autobiography The Last Fighting Tommy, written with Richard van Emden, was published, making him one of the oldest authors ever.^[33][34] With the proceeds from this book, Patch decided to fund an Inshore Lifeboat for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and he attended the RNLI's Lifeboat College on 20 July 2007, to officially name the boat The Doris and Harry.^[35] In 2008, the poet laureate of the United Kingdom, Andrew Motion, was commissioned by the BBC West television programme Inside Out West, to write a poem in Patch's honour. Entitled "The Five Acts of Harry Patch" it was first read at a special event at the Bishop's Palace in Wells, where it was introduced by the Prince of Wales and received by Harry Patch.^[36][37]

In July 2008, Wells City Council conferred the freedom of the city of Wells on Patch.^[38] On 27 September 2008, in a private ceremony attended by a few people, Patch opened a memorial on the bank of the Steenbeek, at the point where he crossed the river in 1917. The memorial reads,

Here, at dawn, on 16 August 1917, the 7th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 20th (Light) Division, crossed the Steenbeek prior to their successful assault on the village on Langemarck. This stone is erected to the memory of fallen comrades, and to honour the courage, sacrifice and passing of the Great War generation. It is the gift of former Private and Lewis Gunner Harry Patch, No. 29295, C Company, 7th DCLI, the last surviving veteran to have served in the trenches of the Western Front."^[39]

Also in September 2008, Patch visited the nearby Langemark German war cemetery and laid a memorial wreath on the grave of an Imperial German Army soldier who was killed in action on 16 August 1917; the day that Private Patch's Division had attacked and taken the village of Langemarck during the Battle of Passchendaele. Noticing three acorns nestled beside the German soldier's gravestone, Patch picked them up, brought them back to England, and planted the acorns beside the Fletcher House nursing home, where he was living in Wells, Somerset.^[40]

In October 2008, Patch launched the 2008 Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal in Somerset.^[41] On 11 November 2008, marking the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I, together with fellow veterans Henry Allingham and Bill Stone, Patch laid a commemorative wreath for the Act of Remembrance at The Cenotaph in London, escorted by Victoria Cross recipient Johnson Beharry.^[42] On 9 November 2008, the Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, attended the world premiere of his choral work paying tribute to Patch. The piece sets words by the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, and was performed at Portsmouth Cathedral by the London Mozart Players, the Portsmouth Grammar School chamber choir and the cathedral's choristers. The creation of the work was featured in A poem for Harry, a BBC West documentary that was subsequently repeated on BBC Four. The programme won a gold medal at the New York Festivals International Television Programming and Promotion Awards.^[43]

On 18 July 2009, with the death of Henry Allingham, Patch became the oldest surviving veteran and also the oldest man in the United Kingdom.^[44] Patch was the last trench veteran of World War I. The penultimate Western Front veteran, the 108-year-old Fernand Goux of France, who died on 9 November 2008, fought for 8 days. He came out unscathed, unlike Patch and the last Alpine Front veteran, 110-year-old Delfino Borroni of Italy, who died on 26 October 2008. Patch was also the last surviving Tommy, since the death on 4 April 2009 of Netherwood Hughes, who was still in training when the war ended. The last-but-one fighting Tommy, Harold Lawton, died on 24 December 2005. Claude Choules, the last remaining First World War naval veteran, died on 5 May 2011.^[45]

We came across a lad from A company. He was ripped open from his shoulder to his waist by shrapnel and lying in a pool of blood. When we got to him, he said: 'Shoot me'. He was beyond human help and, before we could draw a revolver, he was dead. And the final word he uttered was 'Mother.' I remember that lad in particular. It's an image that has haunted me all my life, seared into my mind.

— An extract from Patch's book The Last Fighting Tommy which was read out at his funeral by Marie-France André, the chargé d'affaires of the Belgian embassy, August 2009.^[46]

Honorary degree

On 16 December 2005, Patch was awarded an honorary degree of Master of Arts, honoris causa, by the University of Bristol, whose buildings he helped construct in the 1920s.^[47][48] The University's restored Wills Memorial Building was reopened by Patch on 20 February 2008. He was chosen for this honour as he was a member of the workforce that originally helped build the tower, which was opened on 9 June 1925 by King George V, an event which Patch also attended.^[49] Guinness World Records recognised him as the oldest person to have ever received an honorary degree, at the age of 107 years and 182 days.^[50]

Death

Patch died at Fletcher House at 9 a.m. on 25 July 2009, aged 111 years and 38 days.^[1] His death came seven days after that of fellow veteran Henry Allingham, the last veteran of The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and founding member of The Royal Air Force (RAF), aged 113. Charles III (then Prince of Wales) led the tributes to him, saying: "Today, nothing could give me greater pride than paying tribute to Harry Patch, of Somerset".^[1] Patch was the last male First World War veteran living in Europe and the last British male known to have been born in the 1800s.^{[citation needed]}

Funeral

Patch's funeral was held in Wells Cathedral on 6 August 2009.^[51][52] At 11:00 a.m., the bells of Wells Cathedral were rung 111 times to mark each year of his life. A quarter peal of Grandsire Caters was also rung, half muffled, while quarter-peals were also rung in Bristol and at several churches around the country.^[53][54] His coffin travelled from his home, Fletcher House, to the cathedral where the service commenced at noon.^[55] The theme of the service was "Peace and Reconciliation" and in addition to pallbearers from The Rifles (the successor regiment to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry), Patch's coffin was accompanied by an honour guard of two private soldiers each from the armies of Belgium, France, and, most symbolically, from the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany.^[52] According to his friend and biographer Richard van Emden, Patch, "an ordinary man who had worked so hard towards reconciliation between former foes... had genuinely died surrounded by peace."^[56]

In accordance with Patch's instructions, no guns were allowed at the funeral and even the officiating soldiers did not have their ceremonial weapons.^[57] Due to public interest in the funeral, which was broadcast live on TV and radio, 1,050 tickets were made available for the service.^[52] Some, wanting to pay their respects, slept overnight on the Cathedral green in order to get tickets.^[58] The funeral was led by John Clarke, Dean of Wells and Peter Maurice, Bishop of Taunton.^[55] Among notables to attend the funeral were Queen Camilla (then Duchess of Cornwall) and Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester. Patch was buried at St Michael's Church, Monkton Combe, near his parents and brother.

Legacy

Race horse trainer and owner Michael Jarvis named a horse after Patch in 2008. Having bought the horse in October 2007, during that year's Poppy Appeal, the Newmarket trainer decided to name him after a First World War veteran. Michael's daughter suggested Patch after reading an article about him.^[59] The horse won the 1:30 at Doncaster racecourse on 8 November 2008, the day before Remembrance Sunday. A commemorative plaque in Patch's memory is to be placed on the Guildhall in Bath.^[60]

The BBC commissioned Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate, to write a poem to mark the deaths of Patch and Henry Allingham (who died one week before Patch, on 18 July 2009). The result, Last Post, was read by Duffy on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 on 30 July 2009, the day of Allingham's funeral.^[61]

On 5 August 2009, the band Radiohead released the song "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)". Singer Thom Yorke explained that the song was inspired by a 2005 interview with Patch on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. The song was sold from Radiohead's website for £1, with proceeds donated to the British Legion.^[62][63]

In mid-2009, Harry recorded some spoken word parts for UK heavy metal band Imperial Vengeance, to be included on the title track to the album At the Going Down of the Sun. The song was about the horrors of the trenches and Patch read part of the poem For the Fallen.^[64]

The former UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion composed a poem, The Death of Harry Patch, which he read for the first time on The World at One Radio 4 programme on Armistice Day 2010.^[65]

On 6 November 2015, Great Western Railway named one of their Class 43 High Speed locomotives after Harry to commemorate the forthcoming armistice day. The locomotive was wrapped in remembrance vinyls that included images of poppies, soldiers, and text from the 'For the Fallen' poem by Laurence Binyon. The locomotive nameplates read: 'Harry Patch The last survivor of the trenches' and included a coloured line of all eight ribbons from the medals awarded to Patch.^[66] The locomotive no longer carries the nameplates or vinyls, these having been removed when the locomotive was retired from service in late 2019 and its subsequent refurbishment and re-entry into service in 2020.

Harry Patch's portrait, painted from life by the artist Bill Leyshon, was commissioned by the Western Daily Press in 2007 and is now in the collections of Somerset Museums Service, Taunton.^[67][68] In 2009 Harry Patch's portrait was painted by Dan Llywelyn Hall and was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and is now in the collections of Bath's Victoria Art Gallery^[69]

After his death, several articles examined how Patch's life and image served as a reference point for thinking about the meaning of the Great War, commemoration and indeed the figure of the veteran. Patch's hard won pacifism can be seen to sit uneasily with contemporary jingoism and militaristic rhetoric.^[70]

See also

• List of British supercentenarians
• List of the verified oldest people
• List of last surviving World War I veterans

References

External links

• Harry Patch at IMDb
• Harry Patch in profile and Obituary (BBC)
• Daily Telegraph Obituary
• Guardian Obituary
• BBC News report of Patch's 108th birthday
• BBC News report of Patch's 109th birthday
• BBC News report of Patch's 110th birthday
• BBC News report of Patch's 111th birthday
• In Memory of Harry Patch – A poem by former Royal Marine Commando, Michael Browne
• "Harry Patch (In memory of)" by Radiohead, words inspired by an interview of Harry Patch's. BBC Radio 4 Today programme
• Harry Patch at Find a Grave

Herbert Lambert
Born	Herbert Richard Lambert 1882 United Kingdom
Died	7 March 1936 (aged 53–54) United Kingdom
Occupation	Photographer

Herbert Richard Lambert, FRPS, (1882 – 7 March 1936)^[1] was a British portrait photographer known for his portrayals of professional musicians and composers including Gustav Holst.

In 1923 he published Modern British Composers: Seventeen Portraits in collaboration with Sir Eugene Goossens,^[2] and in 1926, he became managing director of the Elliott & Fry portrait studio.^[3] In 1930, he published Studio portrait lighting, a technical guidebook.^[4] He is also responsible for salvaging much of the 19th-century photography of Henry Fox Talbot, by re-photographing the remains of Talbot's photographs.^[5]

In addition to photography, Lambert was also an amateur maker of musical instruments, specialising in harpsichords and clavichords. In 1927, he lent a clavichord which he had built to Herbert Howells; Howells used it to compose a 12-piece collection, which he named "Lambert's Clavichord".^[6][7]

Howells also introduced Lambert to Gerald Finzi,^[8] whose 1936 Interlude for oboe & string quartet, Op. 21 was inspired by Lambert.^[9]

A Quaker, Lambert was imprisoned as a conscientious objector during the First World War.^[5] He lived in Combe Down, Bath, Somerset.^[10]

References

External links

• Npg.org.uk
• Media related to Herbert Lambert at Wikimedia Commons

Frederic Edward Weatherly, KC (4 October 1848 – 7 September 1929) was an English lawyer, author, lyricist and broadcaster. He was christened and brought up using the name Frederick Edward Weatherly, and appears to have adopted the spelling 'Frederic' later in life. He is estimated to have written the lyrics to at least 3,000 popular songs, among the best-known of which are the sentimental ballad "Danny Boy" set to the tune "Londonderry Air", the religious "The Holy City", and the wartime song "Roses of Picardy".

Life and career

Weatherly was born and brought up in Portishead, Somerset,^[1] England the eldest son in the large family of Frederick Weatherly (1820–1910), a medical doctor, and his wife, Julia Maria, née Ford (1823–98). His birth was registered in the Bedminster district of Bristol in the fourth quarter of 1848 and the 1851 census shows the family living at 5 Wood Hill, Portishead. He was educated at Hereford Cathedral School from 1859 to 1867, and won a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford in 1867.^[2] Among his tutors was Walter Pater, who taught him about Italian art.^[3] Weatherly entered three times for the Newdigate Prize for poetry, but without success.^[3] In 1868, he helped out members of the Brasenose rowing team under Walter Bradford Woodgate who had practised for the Stewards' Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta without a cox. The race at the time was for coxed fours and Weatherly volunteered to start the race with them and immediately jump out of the boat. He did so and the team won but were disqualified.^[3][4] Woodgate had made his point and the race was later changed to one for coxless fours. Weatherly graduated with a degree in Classics in 1871, and in 1872 he married Anna Maria Hardwick (generally called "Minnie") of Axbridge in Somerset (d. 1920), with whom he had a son and two daughters. Weatherly and his wife later lived apart,^[2] and on the night of the 1881 census he is recorded as being on his own with his three young children and four servants at his house, Sevensprings, South Parks Road, Oxford. Weatherly and his wife later separated (around 1900).

Weatherly remained in Oxford, briefly working as a schoolmaster and then as a private tutor until 1887 when he qualified as a barrister, practising first in London and then in the west of England. The 1901 census records him living as a boarder at 2 Harley Place in Clifton, Bristol. The 1911 census shows him aged 62 living at 12 Penn Lea Road, Lower Weston, Bath in Somerset with a Maude Eugenie Beatrice Weatherly, aged 53 from Esher in Surrey (who is recorded as his wife of nine years' standing), and their two servants. In fact Weatherly and his wife Minnie never divorced: Maude Francfort used the name Weatherly while they lived together as husband and wife in Bath. Minnie lived on in seclusion in Portishead, financially supported by her husband until her death in 1920. The children remained loyal to her. Some time after 1911, Frederic and Maude moved to Grosvenor Lodge (now St Christopher's) in Belmont Road, Combe Down, just outside Bath.^[5]

Weatherly remained active both as an author and as a barrister until the end of his life. The Times wrote of his dual career, "His fertility was extraordinary, and though it is easy to be contemptuous of his drawing-room lyrics, sentimental, humorous and patriotic, which are said to number about 3,000 altogether, it is certain that no practising barrister has ever before provided so much innocent pleasure."^[3] He celebrated his golden jubilee as a songwriter in 1919, at a dinner given for him by publishers and composers with whom he had been associated over the past fifty years.^[3] In his last years he was much in demand as a lecturer, broadcaster and after-dinner speaker.^[3]

In early 1923 Maude Francfort died and on 2 August 1923 Weatherly married Miriam Bryan, née Davies (d. 1941), widow of a well-known tenor, John Bryan.^[3] She had been nurse/companion to Maude in her final years. He was made a King's Counsel, a senior barrister, in 1926. In the same year he published an autobiography, Piano and Gown. He died at his home, Bathwick Lodge, Bath, after a short illness on 7 September 1929, at the age of 80.^[2] At his funeral in Bath Abbey, the Londonderry Air, to which he had written the well-known words, was played as a voluntary.^[6] He was buried at Smallcombe Cemetery. A plaque unveiled by Dame Clara Butt commemorates him at 10 Edward St in Bath.^[7]

Works

The first of Weatherly's well-known works was the hymn "The Holy City", written in 1892 to music by the British composer Stephen Adams. The song includes the refrain "Jerusalem, Jerusalem!". He wrote the song "Danny Boy" while living in Bath in 1910, but it did not meet with much success. In 1912 his sister-in-law Margaret Enright Weatherly in America suggested an old Irish tune called "Londonderry Air", which he had never heard before. Margaret had learned the tune from her Irish-born father Dennis. The tune matched his lyrics almost perfectly. He published the now-famous song in 1913. His ballad "Roses of Picardy", written in 1916 and set to music by Haydn Wood, was one of the most famous songs from World War I.^[8][9][10]

Of his huge output of songs, Weatherly listed a selection of 61 titles in his Who's Who entry. In addition to the above, they were: "Nancy Lee"; "The Midshipmite"; "Polly"; "They all love Jack"; "Jack's Yarn"; "The Old Brigade"; "The Deathless Army"; "To the Front"; "John Bull"; "Darby and Joan"; "When We are Old and Grey"; "Auntie"; "The Chimney Corner"; "The Children's Home"; "The Old Maids of Lee"; "The Men of Ware"; "The Devoted Apple"; "To-morrow will be Friday"; "Douglas Gordon"; "Sleeping Tide"; "The Star of Bethlehem"; "Beauty's Eyes"; "In Sweet September"; "Bid me Good-bye"; "The Last Watch"; "London Bridge"; "The King's Highway"; "Go to Sea"; "Veteran's Song"; "Up from Somerset"; "Beyond the Dawn"; "Nirvana"; "Mifanwy"; "Sergeant of the Line"; "Stone-cracker John"; "Ailsa Mine"; "Old Black Mare"; "Coolan Dhu"; "Three for Jack"; "Bhoy I Love"; "The Blue Dragoons"; "At Santa Barbara"; "The Grenadier"; "Reuben Ranzo"; "Dinder Courtship"; "Friend o'Mine"; "When You Come Home"; "Little Road Home"; "Greenhills of Somerset"; "Danny Boy"; "As you pass by"; "Ships of my dreams"; "Why shouldn't I?"; "When Noah Went-a-sailing"; "Time to go"; "Chumleigh Fair"; "Our Little Home"; "The Bristol Pageant, Music Composed by Hubert Hunt in 1924" and "Little Lady of the Moon".^[11]

Weatherly's prose publications include Wilton School, (1872); The Rudiments of Logic, Inductive and Deductive, (1879); Oxford Days: or How Ross got his Degree, (1879); Questions in Logic, Progressive and General, (1883) and Musical and Dramatic Copyright (1890), with Edward Cutler.^[11] He published several collections of verse including Muriel and other Poems; Dresden China and other Songs; and Songs for Michael, 1927. Beatrix Potter's first signed illustrations were published in A Happy Pair, a book of verse written by Weatherly.^[12]

Weatherly also worked in opera, making English translations of Pagliacci and Cavalleria rusticana, for Covent Garden^[3] and writing the lyrics for the 1894 premiere of Mirette at the Savoy Theatre.^[13]

References

External links

• Library resources in your library and in other libraries about Frederic Weatherly
• Online books, and library resources in your library and in other libraries by Frederic Weatherly
• The "Londonderry Air": facts and fiction. URL accessed on 11 September 2005
• The Origin of "Danny Boy". URL accessed on 11 September 2005
• Who was at Brasenose? URL accessed on 11 September 2005
• First World War – Vintage Audio: "Roses of Picardy" URL accessed on 13 January 2009
• Works by Frederic Edward Weatherly at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Frederic Weatherly at Internet Archive
• Works by Frederic Weatherly at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• F. E. Weatherly at Library of Congress, with 34 library catalogue records
• F. E. Weatherly recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.

Frank Vallis (5 May 1896 — September 1957) was an English footballer who played as a goalkeeper.^[2]

Career

Frank Vallis played for Horfield United in the Bristol & Suburban League before signing for Bristol City in April 1919.^[2][3][4] He was later joined at Bristol City by his brothers Jack Vallis & Arthur Vallis. In May 1926 along with Charlie Sutherland he joined Merthyr Town.^[4] Vallis made his debut in a 0–3 defeat at Exeter City on 28 August 1926.^[5] Two days later Vallis suffered a broken leg playing in a 3–2 win over Bristol Rovers at Penydarren Park, this unfortunate incident led to the 35yr old player manager Albert Lindon making 33 appearances in goal in 1926–27.^[5] After retiring Frank Vallis coached football and cricket at Monkton Combe School in Bath where he was known and remembered with affection as "Pro Vallis".^[6] He served as chairman of Monkton Combe parish council. ^[3]

Honours

with Bristol City

• Football League Third Division South winner: 1922–23
• FA Cup semi-finalist 1920

References

Rodney Leslie Adams (born 15 September 1945) is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League for Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic as a winger.

His early football was played for Foxhill Rangers based at Foxhill, Bath where he lived. He joined Bournemouth from non-league Frome Town for a transfer fee of £500.^{[citation needed]}

He joined Weymouth, where he made 339 appearances in all competitions, including 28 as substitute.^[2] While at Weymouth off the field he was an accounts clerk for Devenish Brewery. Now resident in Vancouver, Canada. His father Les was a non-league footballer in Bath.^{[citation needed]}

References

General

• Rod Adams at the English National Football Archive (subscription required). Retrieved 28 October 2013.

Specific

Wordsworth Donisthorpe
Born	(1847-03-24)24 March 1847 Leeds, England
Died	30 January 1914(1914-01-30) (aged 66) Shottermill, England
Occupation(s)	Barrister, political activist, inventor
Spouses	Ann Maria Anderson ​ ​ (m. 1873, divorced)​ Edith Georgina Fleming
Children	1

Wordsworth Donisthorpe (24 March 1847 – 30 January 1914) was an English barrister,^[1] individualist anarchist^[2] and inventor, pioneer of cinematography and chess enthusiast.

Life and work

Donisthorpe was born in Leeds, on 24 March 1847.^[3][4] His father was George E. Donisthorpe, also an inventor;^[5] his brother, Horace Donisthorpe, was a myrmecologist. He studied at Leeds Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge.^[4] Donisthorpe married Ann Maria Anderson on 17 December 1873; he and his wife later separated and he had a daughter with Edith Georgina Fleming (whom he described as his second wife) in 1911.^[4]

In 1885, Donisthorpe was co-founder of the British Chess Association and the British Chess Club.^[5]

Donisthorpe spoke on anarchism at a conference organised by the Fabian Society in 1886.^[6] He was associated with the Liberty and Property Defence League and edited their Jus journal until his split from the League in 1888.^[1][7]

Donisthorpe filed for a patent in 1876, for a film camera, which he named a "kinesigraph."^[5] The object of the invention was to:

facilitate the taking of a succession of photographic pictures at equal intervals of time, in order to record the changes taking place in or the movement of the object being photographed, and also by means of a succession of pictures so taken of any moving object to give to the eye a presentation of the object in continuous movement as it appeared when being photographed.^[5][8]

According to Donisthorpe, he produced a model of this camera around the late 1870s.^[9] In 1890 he also produced, together with his cousin W. C. Crofts, a moving picture of London's Trafalgar Square.^[10] The camera that produced this moving picture was patented in 1889 along with the projector necessary to show the motion frames.^[11]

In 1893, Donisthorpe was one of the founding members and President of the children's rights and free love advocacy organisation the Legitimation League; he left the organization in 1897.^[12]

On 30 January 1914, Donisthorpe died of heart failure at Shottermill, Surrey.^[3][4]

Bibliography

• Principles of Plutology. London: Williams & Norgate. 1876.
• The claims of labour, or, Serfdom, Wagedom, and Freedom. London: Samuel Tinsley & Co. 1880.
• Empire and Liberty, a Lecture on the Principles of Local Government. London: Liberty and Property Defence League. 1886.
• Labour capitalization. London: G. Harmsworth & Co. 1887.
• Individualism, a System of Politics. London: Macmillan. 1889.
• Love and Law: An Essay on Marriage. London: W. Reeves. 1893.
• Law in a Free State. London: Macmillan. 1895.
• Down the stream of civilization. London: George Newnes. 1898.

References

Works online

• The claims of labour, or, Serfdom, Wagedom, and Freedom (1880).
• Labour capitalization (1887).
• Individualism: A System of Politics (1889).
• "The Woes of an Anarchist", Liberty (25 January 1890). Reprinted in Benjamin Tucker, Instead of a Book (1897).
• "L'État Est Mort; Vive L'État!", Liberty (23 May 1890). Reprinted in Benjamin Tucker, Instead of a Book (1897).
• Law in a Free State (1895).

External links

• Wordsworth Donisthorpe player profile and games at Chessgames.com

Eliza Humphreys
Gollan in 1906
Born	14 June 1850 Gollanfield, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Died	1 January 1938(1938-01-01) (aged 87) Combe Down, Bath, England
Occupation	Novelist
Years active	1877–1938
Known for	Popular writer of 120 novels, plays and essays
Notable work	A Husband of No Importance (1894) Souls (1903) Calvary (1909)
Spouses	Karl Booth (from 1872-?) Ernest (Desmond) Humphreys (until 1938)
Children	4 children (3 sons from 1st marriage to Karl Booth and 1 daughter from 2nd marriage to Ernest Humphreys)

Elizabeth Margaret Jane Humphreys née Gollan (14 June 1850 – 1 January 1938) was a Scottish novelist from Inverness-shire who wrote 120 books, plays and essays, and founded the Writers’ Club for Women.^[1]

Biography

Eliza Margaret Jane Gollan was born at Gollanfield in Inverness-shire, the daughter of John Gilbert Gollan, a Scottish businessman and his wife Jane Plumb, daughter of the manager of the Bank of Bengal.^[2] Her father travelled extensively, visiting India and Australia, and became a landowner in Scotland following his inheriting the family home at Gollanfield. This necessitated the family to move from India to Scotland to take ownership. Eliza Gollan was born on 14 June 1850 on the family estate as the second of three children.^[1]

The family then moved to Sydney, Australia where her father had business interests and she was raised and home educated there. The business venture turned out disappointingly however and the family returned to London when Gollan turned 14 years old.^[1][2] Eliza received little formal education, but her talent for story writing was apparent at an early age. She used her experience of Australia to write a semi-autobiographical novel Sheba in 1889, using the pen-name ‘Rita’.^[1] Another novel, Episodes, was originally published using the pen-name 'E. Jayne Gilbert.'

Eliza was married twice. On 23 July 1872, aged just 22, she married Karl Otto Edmund Booth, a musician, with whom she had three sons.^[2] This unhappy marriage later provided Eliza with material for four novels Saba Macdonald (1906) The Grandmothers (1927), The Wand’ring Darling (1928) and Jean and Jeanette (1929). The marriage to Booth ended, but the author went on to a happy union with Anglo-Irish singer William Humphreys, with whom she had a daughter. Humphreys used the stage name, Desmond Humphreys, and after their marriage Eliza was known as Mrs. W. Desmond Humphreys.^[1] Eliza spent her married life in Cork, Ireland, Bournemouth and Bath, Somerset. In 1910, she was listed as one of the celebrities of Bournemouth, with books published in French, German and Italian; at the time she was undertaking a tour of America.

The dedication in the first edition of Saba Macdonald reads: To "THE EMANACIPATED WOMAN" who owes her present freedom of mind, morals, and pastimes, to such repression and tyranny as formed the discipline of youth in days such as this book commemorates.^[3]

Writing career

Under the penname 'Rita', Gollan produced a remarkable 120 books, plays and essays from 1877 onwards when she was still in her twenties. These started as 'light', 'daring' works of popular fiction, often featuring aristocratic characters in fashionable foreign settings.^[2] Gollan herself was an admirer of the works of Ouida^[2] but she was more often compared as a rival with her contemporary, the bestselling English novelist, Marie Corelli.^[1]

Gollan's widespread recognition grew as a popular writer with Dame Durden in 1883 while it was Peg the Rake (1894) that earned her real commercial success, having sold 160,000 copies.^[2]

She helped to found the Lyceum Club Writers’ Club for Women.^[4]

Her later work became infused with her own opinions and beliefs and works such as A Husband of No Importance (1894) and Souls (1903) were vehicles for attacking an emerging trend in novels at the time, the New Woman movement, fearing that women were 'aping men' and disapproving of what might be later termed polemical feminism.^[1] A Husband of No Importance (1894) was also more than a passing nod to Oscar Wilde's play A Woman of No Importance, which had opened in 1893.^[2]

After meeting Madame Blavatsky she became interested in Theosophy and wrote Calvary: A Tragedy of Sects (1909) exploring religious themes. This was one of her books that was made into a film, as were other works Grim Justice and The Iron Stair.^[2]

After the First World War Eliza struggled financially, as her husband became an invalid and her style of writing went out of fashion. However in 1930 she received a Royal Bounty Fund grant for her work, and Queen Mary liked her books and ordered a complete set of her works for her private bookcase.^[1][2]

Eliza Humphrey’s final book was an autobiography Recollections of a Literary Life (1936).^[1] In the preface, her friend Sir Philip Gibbs wrote:

'Somehow I think of “Rita”'s readers as lying on deck-chairs in pre-war summers, as tourists in Venice and other pleasant places where well-to-do English people used to take their holidays.'^[2]

Eliza Humphreys died of heart failure, aged 87, on 1 January 1938 at the family home at 239 West Brow, Combe Down, Bath;^[2] her husband died in the following year.^[1]

Literature

A Man of no Importance is set in Salwych, which "Rita" based strongly on Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire, after visiting the town for treatment at its brine baths, in 1906.

Biography

A biography, "Rita" The Forgotten Author. has been written by Paul Jones.^[4]

Novels and short stories

• Vivienne (1877) serialized as 'The Triumph of Love' (1914)
• Like Dian's Kiss (1878)
• Countess Daphne - A Musical Romance (1880)
• My Lady Coquette (1881)
• A Sinless Secret (1881)
• She is Woman, Therefore to be Won (short story) (1881)
• Faustine (1882)
• Dame Durden (1883)
• After Long Grief and Pain (1883)
• Two Bad Blue Eyes (1884)
• My Lord Conceit (1884)
• Fragoletta (1885)
• Corinna (1885)
• Gretchen (Published elsewhere as 'Adrian Lyle') (1887)
• The Seventh Dream (1888)
• Darby and Joan (1888)
• The Mystery of a Turkish Bath (1888)
• Miss Kate; or, Confessions of a Caretaker (1889)
• Sheba. A Study of Girlhood (1889)
• A Vagabond Lover (1889)
• The Doctor's Secret (1890)
• A Society Scandal (1890)
• The Laird o'Cockpen (1891)
• Brought Together. A volume of stories (1892)
• Asenath of the Ford (1892)
• The Fate of Fenella (1892) Ch. VII - "So Near -- So Far Away"
• The Countess Pharamond (1893)
• The Man in Possession (1893)
• Naughty Mrs. Gordon. A romance of society (1894)
• A Husband of No Importance (1894)
• The Ending of My Day. The story of a stormy life. (1894)
• Peg the Rake (1894)
• Master Wilberforce. A study of a boy. (1895)
• A Woman in It. A sketch of feminine misadventure. (1895)
• A Gender in Satin (1895)
• Vignettes (1896)
• Kitty the Rag (1896)
• Joan and Mrs. Carr (1896)
• Good Mrs Hypocrite (1897)
• The Sinner, serialized as The Grinding Mills of God (1897)
• Stephen Wynthorpe's Presentiment (short story) (1897)
• Adrienne: A Romance of French Life (1898)
• Petticoat Loose, serialized as A Daughter of the People (1898)
• The Voice on the Stairs (short story) (1898)
• An Old Rogue's Tragedy (1899)
• Vanity. The confessions of a Court modiste (1900)
• A Woman of Samaria, serialized as The Mystery of the Dark House (1900)
• The Bohemians (short story) (1900)
• Prince Charming. A fantastic episode in court dress (1901)
• The Sin of Jasper Standish (1901)
• The Ending of my Day (1901)
• A Jilt's Journal (1901)
• The Spell of The Yarrow (short story) 1901)
• The Lie Circumspect (1902), serialized as A Craven Heart (1902)
• Prince Charming, etc. (1903)
• Souls. A Comedy of Intentions (1903)
• The Valley of Desolation (short story) (1903)
• The Jesters (1904)
• The Silent Woman (1904) serialized as The Mystery of the 'Headless Woman' Inn (1904)
• The Sin and Scandal of the 'Smart' Set (1904)
• Vanity! (1904)
• The Masqueraders (1904)
• Valley of Desolation (short story) (1904)
• Queer Lady Judas (1905)
• The Baths of Salwych (short story) (1905)
• Saba Macdonald (1906)
• Personal Opinions Publicly Expressed (1907)
• A Man of no Importance (1907)
• The Pointing Finger (1907)
• The Millionaire Girl and other stories (1908) comprising:

1. The Millionaire Girl
2. The Other Woman
3. The Boots at No. 40
4. The Passing of Miss Flint
5. The Crank
6. Riviera studies: The brave Mariana, The Tremblement at Bussana, The Haunted Bedroom, The Sealed Door
7. The treacherous mountain
8. The valley of desolation
9. A Test of Endurance

• Betty Brent, Typist (1908)
• Calvary. A tragedy of sects. (1909)
• That is to say--. [Tales.] (1909)
• The Faithful Billium (short story) (1909)
• The Story of a Soul (short story) (1910)
• America-through English eyes (1911)
• Only an Actress (1911)
• Half a Truth (1911)
• Grim Justice. The study of a conscience. (1912)
• Edelweiss (1912)
• Two Detrimentals (short story) (1912)
• The Mystic and The Colonel (short story) (1912)
• The House Opposite (1913)
• A Grey Life. A romance of modern Bath. (1913)
• The Young Horatius (1914)
• The Simpleton (short story) (1914)
• The Ink-Slinger (1915)
• Unmasking the Hun - What the War has Revealed (Short article) (1916)
• The Wrong End of Religion (1917)
• The Rubbish Heap (1917)
• Diana of the Ephesians: A Novel. (1919)
• The Philanthropic Burglar (1919)
• The Make-believers (1920)
• When the Wicked Man, and other stories. (1920)
• The Iron Stair. A romance of Dartmoor. (1921)
• The Best Lover [and other tales]. (1921)
• Pat the Pedlar (1922)
• The Road to Anywhere (1922)
• Conjugal Rights, and other stories. (1922)
• The Man Who Understood (1923)
• The Ungrown-Ups. (1923)
• Episodes. By Rita. Originally published as by E. Jayne Gilbert. (1925)
• The Farm of Melchizedek (1925)
• The Great “Perhaps.” (1926)
• Our Miss Acadee (1926)
• The Grandmothers (1927)
• The Prince Errant, and other stories. (1928)
• The Wand'ring Darling (1928)
• Jean and Jeannette (1929)
• Quarrelsome Corner (1930)
• The New Poor. A romance of to-day. (1931)
• The Naughty Grandfather (1932)
• Six Mistresses, etc. (1932)
• The Ladies of Moyallo (1933)
• The Pointing Finger (1934)
• The Marriage Comedy (1934)
• Recollections of a literary life (1936)

References

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (2004) Bournemouth Celebrities 1910, from the Bournemouth Visitors' Directory.

External links

• Works by Rita at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Eliza Humphreys at Internet Archive
• Works by Eliza Humphreys at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Chris Anderson
Anderson in 2013
Born	1957 (age 66–67) Pakistan
Education	Woodstock School Monkton Combe School
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Occupation(s)	Journalist, publisher
Known for	Curator of TED Talks Future Publishing
Spouses	Lucy Evans ​ (divorced)​ Jacqueline Novogratz ​ ​ (m. 2008)​
Children	3 (1 deceased)
Chris Anderson's voice recorded 26 September 2016
Website	www.ted.com/speakers/chris_anderson_ted

Chris Anderson (born 1957) is a British-American businessman who is the head of TED,^[1] a non-profit organization that provides idea-based talks and hosts an annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Previously he founded Future Publishing.

Early life and education

Anderson was born to British parents in Pakistan in 1957.^[2] His father was "an eye surgeon and evangelical Christian", and ran a mobile hospital in rural Pakistan.^[3] He has two sisters, and is the middle child.^[3]

He studied at Woodstock School in the Himalayan mountains of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India briefly, before moving to Monkton Combe School, a boarding school near Bath, England.^[4][5] At the University of Oxford, Anderson initially studied physics before changing to philosophy, politics and economics, and graduated in 1978.^[2][6]

Career

Anderson began a career in journalism, working in newspapers and radio. He produced a world news service in the Seychelles.^[2]

After returning to the UK in 1984, Anderson was captivated by the home-computer revolution. He became an editor at two of the UK's early computer magazines, Personal Computer Games and Zzap!64.^[7][8] A year later he founded Future Publishing with a $25,000 bank loan. The new company initially focused on specialist computer publications, but he eventually expanded it into other areas such as cycling, music, video games, technology and design. It doubled in size every year for seven years.^[2]

In 1994, Anderson moved to the United States. There he developed Imagine Media, publisher of Business 2.0 magazine and creator of the popular video game users' website IGN. Anderson eventually merged Imagine and Future, taking the combined entity public in London in 1999, under the name Future US.^[2] At its peak, it published 150 magazines and websites and employed 2,000 people.^[3]

Based on this financial success, Anderson established a private nonprofit organization, the Sapling Foundation. He wanted to find new ways to tackle tough global issues through media, technology, entrepreneurship and ideas.^[3]

TED

In 2001, the foundation acquired the TED Conference, then an annual meeting of luminaries in the fields of technology, entertainment and design, held in Monterey, California. Anderson left Future to work full-time on TED.^[3]

He expanded the conference to cover all topics, including science, culture, academia, and business and key global issues. He added a fellows program, which now has some 400 alumni. He also established the TED Prize, which grants recipients $1 million to support their "one wish to change the world".^[9][10]

In 2006, TED experimented with posting some of its talks on the Internet. Their viral success encouraged Anderson to develop the organization as a global media initiative devoted to "ideas worth spreading". In June 2015, the organization posted its 2,000th talk online.^[11] The talks are free to view. Through a related project, they have been translated into more than 100 languages with the help of thousands of volunteers from around the world.^[12][13] Viewership has grown to approximately one billion views per year.^[2]

Continuing a strategy of "radical openness", in 2009 Anderson introduced the TEDx initiative. The TED organization provides free licences to local organizers who want to organize their own TED-like events. Requirements are that speakers must appear for free, and the events have to be non-profit, with talks released to TED through Commons Media.^[14][12] More than 10,000 such events have been held, generating an archive of 100,000 TEDx talks.^[15][16]

Three years later, the TED-Ed program was launched. It offers free educational videos and tools to students and teachers.^[17]

In 2012, Anderson was honored with an Edison Achievement Award for his commitment to innovation throughout his career.^[18]

In May 2016, Anderson published a book titled TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking which offers tips and advice for public speaking. The book became a New York Times bestseller.^[19]

Personal life

Anderson married Lucy Evans. Together they had three daughters, Zoe, Elizabeth and Anna, before their divorce.^[20] The eldest, Zoe, died in 2010 at age 24, from carbon monoxide poisoning due to an improperly-installed bathroom boiler.^[20][21]

In 2008, Anderson married Jacqueline Novogratz. She is the founder and CEO of Acumen, an organization that pioneered social impact investing.^[22]

References

Sir Richard Henry Peirse
Sir Richard H. Peirse c. 1915
Born	(1860-09-04)4 September 1860 York, England
Died	10 July 1940(1940-07-10) (aged 79)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1873–1919
Rank	Admiral
Commands held	Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station HMS Commonwealth HMS Bedford HMS Dido
Battles/wars	Second Boer War First World War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Member of the Royal Victorian Order Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (France) Order of the Nile, First Class (Egypt)
Relations	Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Peirse (son) Air Vice Marshal Sir Richard Peirse (grandson)
Other work	Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Somerset (1929)[1]

Admiral Sir Richard Henry Peirse, KCB, KBE, MVO, DL (4 September 1860 – 10 July 1940)^[2] was a senior Royal Navy officer during the First World War.

Naval career

Peirse joined the Royal Navy in 1873 and,^[2] in 1885, developed a new naval director^[3] which was to become the fire-control system used in all ships with large guns.^[4] Promoted to captain in 1900,^[5] he commanded HMS Dido during the Second Boer War.^[6]

Promoted to rear admiral in February 1909,^[7] Peirse was appointed Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station in 1913.^[8] Then promoted to vice admiral in October 1914,^[7][9] he served in the First World War taking part in the attack on Smyrna in 1915,^[10] where he outgunned the Turkish Fleet.^[11] He continued in his role on the East Indies Station until December 1915.^[12][13] He was promoted to admiral in March 1918.^[14]

After the war Peirse became Naval Member of the Central Committee of the Board of Invention and Research.^[15] He retired from the navy in January 1919.^[16]

Personal life

Peirse lived in Upper Norwood in London^[17] and there is a memorial to him in Bedale Parish Church in North Yorkshire.^[18]

He and his wife lived for many years at Fiesole on Bathwick Hill in Bath, Somerset before moving to Belmont in Combe Down, where he died in 1940.^[19]

His son, Sir Richard Peirse, became air chief marshal.^[20]

Awards and decorations

• Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath – 22 June 1914^[21]
• Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire – 7 June 1918^[22]
• Member of the Royal Victorian Order – 9 October 1903^[23]
• Legion of Honour, Grand officer (France) – 18 June 1918^[24]
• Order of the Nile, First Class (Egypt) – 25 October 1918^[25]

References

External links

• Portrait painting of Admiral Sir R H Peirse by Frederic Whiting

Sir Richard Peirse
Peirse broadcasting over the radio during the Second World War
Born	(1892-09-30)30 September 1892 Norwood, South London, England
Died	5 August 1970(1970-08-05) (aged 77)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy (1912–1918) Royal Air Force (1918–1945)
Years of service	1912–1945
Rank	Air Chief Marshal
Commands held	Air Command South-East Asia (1943–1944) Air Forces in India (1942–1943) Bomber Command (1940–1942) Palestine Transjordan Command (1933–1936) RAF Heliopolis (1929–1930) RAF Gosport (1923–1925) No. 222 Squadron RAF (1918–1919) No. 65 Wing RAF (1918) No. 2 Wing RNAS (1917–1918)
Battles/wars	First World War Arab revolt in Palestine Second World War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order Air Force Cross Mentioned in Despatches (3)
Relations	Admiral Sir Richard Peirse (father) Air Vice Marshal Sir Richard Peirse (son)

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Edmund Charles Peirse, KCB, DSO, AFC (30 September 1892 – 5 August 1970), served as a senior Royal Air Force commander.

RAF career

The son of Admiral Sir Richard Peirse and his wife Blanche Melville Wemyss-Whittaker, Richard Peirse was educated at the Junior School section of Monkton Combe School, Bath, Somerset, on HMS Conway and at King's College London. He became a midshipman in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and was commissioned in 1912.^[1] He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his contribution to the aerial attack on Dunkirk on 23 January 1915.^[1] and was promoted to flight commander in May 1915.^[2] He was further promoted in July 1916 to squadron commander.^[3]

Later that year, on 18 August 1915, Peirse married Mary Joyce Ledgard (1894–1975), younger daughter of Mr and Mrs Armitage Ledgard, of the Manor House, Thorner, Yorkshire. They had one son and one daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1945.

Peirse served as a pilot with the Royal Naval Air Service until 1 April 1918 when it became part of the Royal Air Force.^[1] With the formation of the RAF, Peirse became Officer Commanding No. 222 Squadron.^[1] Following promotion to wing commander in January 1922,^[4] in 1923 he became Station Commander at RAF Gosport and in 1929 he was made Station Commander at RAF Heliopolis.^[1] He was also promoted to group captain in 1929.^[5]

Peirse went on to be deputy director of Operations and Intelligence at the Air Ministry in 1930 and, having been promoted to air commodore in 1933,^[6] was appointed Air Officer Commanding Palestine Transjordan Command during the Arab revolt in Palestine.^[1] Promoted again, this time to air vice-marshal in 1936, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Air Staff and Director of Operations and Intelligence in January 1937.^[1][7]

In the Second World War, as a temporary air marshal, Peirse became Vice-Chief of the Air Staff from April 1940 and,^[8] and having had his rank confirmed as permanent in July,^[9] he became Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Bomber Command from October.^[1] He presided over a large expansion in the bomber force (and appeared in the propaganda film Target for Tonight). In the face of increasing losses and no evidence of significant impact on Germany, he was relieved of his duties as commander of the bomber force in January 1942. He was replaced by Arthur Harris.^[10]

When reports from Witold Pilecki of the treatment of Jews in Auschwitz reached London via the Polish government in exile, Peirse, then head of Bomber Command, was intrigued by their suggestion that the camp be bombed to allow the inmates to escape, even though the 1,700-mile round trip from Stradishall air base in Suffolk to Auschwitz was longer than any mission the RAF had yet attempted. Charles Portal, chief of the air staff, however, rejected the idea as an "undesirable diversion and unlikely to achieve its purpose".^[11] During early 1942, Peirse was appointed commander of Allied air forces in South East Asia and the South West Pacific, a post known as ABDAIR and part of the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDA). As the Dutch East Indies fell to Japanese forces, during February and March, ABDA was dissolved.

In March 1943 Peirse was appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF India and in November 1943 he was made Allied Air Commander in Chief, South-East Asia.^[1] He oversaw the building of his command from a small demoralised and poorly organised force with a collection of obsolescent aircraft into a powerful force with a three to one numerical superiority over the enemy.^[12] Although seen as somewhat aloof, he fought fiercely to bring the structure and resources needed for his command and was seen to make an able contribution to the higher direction of the war in the South East Asian theatre.^[13]

After a six-month extension,^[13] Peirse's term of office expired in November 1944 and was not renewed.^[14] He retired in May 1945 with the rank of air chief marshal^[15] but never received advancement to the Grand Cross level in the orders of knighthood which would normally have been forthcoming to an officer of his rank at the time. The reason for the abrupt termination of his career lay in his affair with Lady (Jessie) Auchinleck, the wife of his friend, Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, then Commander in Chief India.

The affair became known to Mountbatten in early 1944, and he passed the information to the Chief of the RAF, Sir Charles Portal, hoping that Peirse would be recalled. The affair was common knowledge by September 1944, and Peirse was considered to be neglecting his duties. Mountbatten sent Peirse and Lady Auchinleck back to England on 28 November 1944,^[13] where they lived together at a Brighton hotel. Peirse had his marriage dissolved in 1945, and the Auchinlecks divorced in December 1945. Peirse and the former Lady Auchinleck married the following year.

Awards and decorations

Notes

References

• Bond, Brian; Tachikawa, Kyoichi, eds. (2004). British and Japanese Military Leadership in the Far Eastern War, 1941–1945. London/New York: Frank Cass. ISBN 9780714656595.
• L, Klemen (2000). "Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942".
• Woodburn Kirby, Major-General S. (2004) [1st. pub. HMSO:1965]. Butler, Sir James (ed.). The War Against Japan, Volume IV: The Reconquest of Burma. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. Uckfield, England, UK: Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-845740-63-7.

Agnes Edith Metcalfe
Born	2 March 1870 Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
Died	6 October 1923(1923-10-06) (aged 53) Combe Down, Bath, Somerset
Occupation(s)	Teacher, headteacher, suffragist, writer
Organization	Women's Tax Resistance League

Agnes Edith Metcalfe (2 March 1870 – 6 October 1923)^[1][2] was a British headteacher, author, and active suffragist.^[3] In 1905, she was appointed headteacher at one of the first four county council secondary schools at Sydenham.^[1]

Early life and career

Agnes Edith Metcalfe was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire in 1870, the daughter of Frank Metcalfe and Judith Hopkinson.^[1] Through her father, Agnes was a great-great-niece of William Skrimshire and Fenwick Skrimshire. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in 1892 as an external student of the University of London.^[3]

Metcalfe became a teacher at Cheltenham, and grew increasingly interested in the higher education of women.^[1] She prepared a paper on the secondary education of girls in France, published by the Board of Education.^[1] In 1897, she became headteacher of Stroud Green School in North London.^[3]

In 1905, she was appointed the first headteacher of one of the first four County Council Secondary Schools, Sydenham County Council School.^[1][3] Metcalfe remained there for just over two years, until her appointment in December 1907 as an Inspector of the Board of Education.^[1] By 1913, she was described as an "ex. H.M.I."^[4][3]

Suffrage

Metcalfe was involved with the Women's Tax Resistance League, at one point acting as treasurer.^[3] The League protested against the requirement for women to pay taxes while they remained ineligible to vote.^[5] In 1913, she appeared at Greenwich Court on Tuesday, charged with non-payment of a dog license.^[3] Suffrage newspaper The Vote reported that:

In a short speech she said that she refused on conscientious grounds to pay taxes while women had no vote. The magistrate congratulated Miss Metcalfe on the clearness and eloquence with which she made out her case. He regretted that the law must take its course, and imposed a fine of 7s. with 2s. costs, recoverable by distraint. The alternative was one day’s  imprisonment.^[4][3]

Metcalfe also wrote three books on women's struggle for the vote: Woman’s Effort: A Chronicle of British Women’s Fifty Years’ Struggle for Citizenship (1865-1914), with an introduction by Laurence Housman (1917); Woman, A Citizen (1918); and 'At Last’: Conclusion of Women’s Effort (1919).^[3][6] Woman's Effort was said to have been a persuasive and well-written work, which won many new sympathisers for the suffrage cause.^[5]

Works

• Women’s Effort: A Chronicle of British Women’s Fifty Years’ Struggle for Citizenship (1865-1914), 1917.
• Woman, A Citizen, 1918
• 'At Last': Conclusion of Women's Effort, 1919

Death and legacy

Agnes Edith Metcalfe died on 6 November 1923 in Combe Down, Bath, England.^[5] On her death, The Vote ran Metcalfe's obituary on its front page, under the title: Educational Pioneer, Author, and Suffragette'.^[1] Money left by Metcalfe was used to establish the Metcalfe Studentships for Women at the London School of Economics, awarded to female postgraduate students researching social, economic, or industrial issues.^[3]

References

External links

• Woman’s Effort: A Chronicle of British Women’s Fifty Years’ Struggle for Citizenship (1865-1914) by A.E. Metcalfe at the Internet Archive

Charlie McDonnell
Born	(1990-10-01) 1 October 1990 (age 33) Bath, Somerset, England
Known for	Vlogging, filmmaking, music, screenwriting, streaming
YouTube information
Channel	charlieissocoollike
Years active	2007–2018; 2023–present
Subscribers	2.12 million[1]
Total views	301 million; 1.2 million[1]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2011 1,000,000 subscribers 2011
Last updated: 27 August 2021
Website	charliemcdonnell.com

Charlie McDonnell (born 1 October 1990) is a British filmmaker, screenwriter, musician, former vlogger, author and Twitch streamer from Bath, Somerset.^[2] On 15 June 2011, her^[a] YouTube channel charlieissocoollike became the first in the United Kingdom to reach one million subscribers.

As a musician, McDonnell was a member of Doctor Who–themed rock band Chameleon Circuit and was also a member of the short-lived project Sons of Admirals until it was disbanded in May 2011. In 2010, McDonnell released a solo album titled This Is Me. She also directed a series of short films from 2013 to 2014, and co-hosted the weekday morning YouTube breakfast show Cereal Time with Capital FM presenter and fellow YouTube vlogger Jimmy Hill from 2015 to 2016.^[4] In 2016, she published a book, Fun Science.^[5]

After over a decade of regular uploads, McDonnell ended her YouTube career in December 2018 and moved on to screenwriting and television production duties. Her first series, the science fiction drama Don't Look Deeper, was released on the streaming platform Quibi in July 2020.^[6]

McDonnell creates content on Twitch, where she plays different games while interacting with her chat.

Early life

McDonnell was born and raised in Bath, Somerset to parents Lindsey and Mark.^[2] She has two younger siblings: her brother, William, and her sister, Bridie. She was educated at Beechen Cliff School,^[7] a local state comprehensive foundation school.

YouTube career

After setting up the YouTube channel, charlieissocoollike on 3 April 2007, McDonnell started posting video blogs (or vlogs) to a small audience. She first came to prominence when her video titled How To Get Featured on YouTube became popular after it was featured on YouTube's UK homepage. Her audience jumped from just under 150 subscribers to over 4,000 in two days.^[8]

In January 2008, in celebration of gaining 25,000 subscribers, McDonnell asked for 25 challenge suggestions from subscribers, which sparked her series of Challenge Charlie videos. She completed all of these challenges by March 2013, one of which was suggested by TV presenter Phillip Schofield and his daughter Molly, challenging McDonnell to perform the dance that accompanies the song "Hoedown Throwdown" from Hannah Montana: The Movie.^{[citation needed]}

In June 2011, McDonnell became the first YouTuber in the United Kingdom to reach 1 million subscribers, and in May 2013, her channel reached 2 million subscribers.^[9] Most of McDonnell's videos end with an outro by Stephen Fry.^[10] In 2014, McDonnell's YouTube Channel, charlieissocoollike, was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #63.^[11]

On 6 March 2019, McDonnell announced on Twitter that she had quit YouTube to focus on screenwriting.^[12] She currently streams on Twitch.^[13]

In January 2023, McDonnell posted a YouTube video in which she discussed her life and said, "I'm a transgender woman, my pronouns are she/they, and I am continuing to use the name 'Charlie'". She also made all past videos on her YouTube channel private.^[14]

Short films and screenwriting career

On 8 March 2013, McDonnell announced that she would be making five short films.^[15] In a video published on 27 October 2014, she announced her last two films would actually be one film, split into two parts.^[16]

On 27 July 2020, Don't Look Deeper, a 14-episode series co-created by McDonnell and Jeffrey Lieber, premiered on Quibi. McDonnell wrote several episodes of the series.^[24]

Music career

Chameleon Circuit

McDonnell was one of the founding members of Chameleon Circuit, a band known for creating music inspired by the British television series Doctor Who. Along with fellow vloggers Alex Day (Nerimon on YouTube), Liam Dryden (Littleradge), and former member Chris Beattie (CowInParachute), Chameleon Circuit released their self-titled debut album on 1 June 2009.^[25] In July 2010, their song Count the Shadows also appeared on DFTBA Records, Volume Two, a compilation sampler that was given for free in the grab bags at VidCon 2010.^[26] At the beginning of 2011, Chameleon Circuit, in their new line-up following the departure of Beattie and the addition of Ed Blann and Michael Aranda, began work on their second album Still Got Legs. It was released on 12 July 2011.^[27]

In 2014, McDonnell and Dryden publicly denounced members Blann and Day, who both suspended their online presence following separate reported incidents of sexual abuse.^[28][29] McDonnell, Dryden and Aranda appeared together at VidCon 2014 for photo signings.^[30] In 2017, Aranda wrote in a Reddit AMA that "it's safe to say that Chameleon Circuit is dead for now. I know that the last time Charlie and I spoke about it, [she] didn't feel interested in writing new music in general."^[31]

Sons of Admirals

In 2010, McDonnell, along with three other YouTubers, Alex Day, Ed Blann and Tom Milsom ("Hexachordal") formed a new project titled "Sons of Admirals". Sons of Admirals was not a band in the traditional sense; they were all solo artists, but as well as having their solo careers, they came together to form one group. The idea and nominal inspiration for the band came from the Admiral's Men, which was a Shakespearean group of actors that came together to perform, whilst still retaining their individual careers.^[32]

Their first single was released via YouTube on 14 June 2010 on McDonnell's channel: the group covered Cat Stevens' song "Here Comes My Baby", featuring all four members on vocals. The track peaked at No. 61 in the UK.^[33] In October 2010 the band released an EP including "Here Comes My Baby"; an acoustic version of the same song; a cover of "Believe in Yourself", the theme of children's television show Arthur; the music video of "Here Comes My Baby"; and a behind-the-scenes video.^[34] Sons of Admirals disbanded in May 2011, publishing a statement on their website that "the core goal of the group – to get into the charts, and to increase exposure for the group members' individual talents proved to run against too many of our beliefs and approaches to music and promotion".^[35]

Solo career

A prominent feature of McDonnell's YouTube channel were the songs which she wrote and performed herself, usually on a ukulele. The most popular of these is "Duet with Myself."^[36] On 1 December 2010, in response to demand, she released her debut album, entitled This Is Me, via DFTBA Records. The album features several songs from her channel that were remixed for the album, as well as several previously unreleased songs.^[37] In December 2016, she teamed up with Project for Awesome to release A Very Gideon Christmas, an exclusive Christmas EP sung from the perspective of and with the imaginary inflections of her cat Gideon.^[38][39]

Music videos

• In The Absence Of Christmas (2008)
• A Song About Acne (2009)
• Duet with Myself (2009)
• A Song About Love (2010)
• Chemical Love (2010)
• A Song About Monkeys (2010)
• Time to Reply (2012)

Charity and media work

On 30 September 2008, to celebrate her 18th birthday, McDonnell and Alex Day dyed and then shaved their hair off whilst live on BlogTV for a period of seven and a half hours in aid of Cancer Research UK.^[40] They managed to raise nearly £5000.^[41] The broadcast viewership peaked at 4,500.

In October 2009, McDonnell was named as one of a number of prominent YouTube users who would be participating in a project called RNLI Shout. The aim of the project is to raise money to purchase a lifeboat for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

In the autumn of 2009, McDonnell featured with three other YouTube users on the BBC Switch documentary series Chartjackers. The programme documented their attempt to achieve a number one single in the UK Singles Chart within 10 weeks, by crowdsourcing resources provided by the online community. McDonnell was cast in the series for her familiarity to young British YouTube viewers. Over the course of Chartjackers, McDonnell solicited lyrics, music, performers and stylists to record the final single and video via a YouTube channel named ChartJackersProject. An unofficial charity single for Children in Need, the completed song was titled "I've Got Nothing" and was sung by vocalists Miranda Chartrand and Adam Nichols.^[42] McDonnell edited the single's official music video,^[43] which was shown nationwide on British music channels such as 4Music and Viva. "I've Got Nothing" was released exclusively through the iTunes Store at midnight on 9 November 2009^[44] and reached No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart.^[45] Sales of the single raised a total of approximately £10,000 for Children in Need.^[46]

McDonnell was purportedly approached to be a Housemate on the eighth series, and first revived series, of Celebrity Big Brother but declined the offer.^[47]

In October 2013, it was announced that McDonnell was to play the main voice role along with Danny Wallace in Mike Bithell's indie video game Volume.^[48] The game was released in 2015 for PS4, PC and Mac and in 2016 for PlayStation Vita.

In 2014, McDonnell worked with the Home Office on their This Is Abuse Campaign, alongside other prominent YouTubers, in order to educate people about the importance of consensual sex.^[49] She also made a video regarding consent on her YouTube channel.

Presenting roles

On 6 June 2010, McDonnell presented the YouTube Audience Award to The Inbetweeners as part of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Television Awards.

In July 2010 McDonnell was signed up alongside KateModern star Emma Pollard and X Factor contestants Nicola and Fran Gleadall to present a TV show run by Piers Morgan called FirstTV, an offshoot of First News newspaper. On FirstTV McDonnell did a few challenges like trying to break a Guinness world record by typing the alphabet on an iPad keyboard quickest and she got asked to tell a joke.^[50][51] However, after filming four episodes of FirstTV, McDonnell decided to leave the show because she did not enjoy presenting pre-scripted work.^[52]

On 4 September 2010, McDonnell and fellow YouTuber Myles Dyer co-presented Stickaid, a 24-hour live web show. Starting from 12:00 noon BST, the two hosted the fifth annual charity event from Middlesex University's Trent Park campus in London. Their goal was to raise £10,000 ($15,900), which they more than doubled.^[53] All the proceedings went to UNICEF.

In November 2010, McDonnell was part of a group of YouTube videos called The Science of Attraction where she hosted a few experiments and had her body digitally swapped with somebody else's. She was a co-presenter with Kat Akingbade and Derren Brown. As part of the series, eight videos were produced.^[54] In December 2010, McDonnell filmed a series of behind-the-scenes videos for Doctor Who Confidential during the filming of the Doctor Who Christmas special "A Christmas Carol".

Personal life

McDonnell considers herself an atheist.^[55]

In March 2014, McDonnell announced on her blog that she had terminated her friendship with frequent collaborator Alex Day, stating that "I just don’t feel able to call Alex a friend of mine anymore", following allegations that Day had sexually manipulated and emotionally abused women, and cheated on past girlfriends.^[56][57]

In October 2022, McDonnell came out as transgender on Instagram, using the trans flag in her post and stating that she would now be going by she/they pronouns.^[58][59] In January 2023, McDonnell came out as a trans woman on YouTube, and said she began feminising hormone therapy in September 2022.^[3]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Charlie McDonnell at IMDb

Charles Norris (C N) Williamson (1859–1920) was a British writer, motoring journalist and founder of the Black and White Magazine who was perhaps best known for his collaboration with his wife, Alice Muriel Williamson, in a number of novels and travelogues.

Biography

Born in Exeter, Williamson was educated at University College, London, where he studied engineering. He spent eight years as a journalist on The Graphic before establishing the Black and White in 1891 as founding editor. He published a Life of Carlyle in 1881. Several of the Williamsons' short stories and novels later became films.

Charles Norris Williamson wrote many of his published works in partnership with his wife, Alice who he married in 1894; she apparently said of him "Charlie Williamson could do anything in the world except write stories": she also said "I can't do anything else." Charles wrote some novels on his own, as did Alice after her husband's death

He died at Combe Down, Bath, on Sunday 3 October 1920.^[1]

Works

Edited by C N Williamson and R H Shepherd

• Memoirs of Carlyle with personal Reminiscences and Selections from his private Letters. 2 vols. 1881.

Authored by C N & A M Williamson

• The Eccentricity of Fleetwood, The Strand Magazine (US) Aug 1901
• The Lightning Conductor (1902)
• The Princess Passes, Metropolitan Magazine (New York) Oct, Nov 1904
• Lady Betty Crosses the Ocean, Ladies' Home Journal Oct 1905
• My Friend the Chauffeur (1905)
• Lady Betty Across the Water (1906)
• Lady Betty Runs Away, Ladies' Home Journal Jan 1906
• The Chauffeur and the Chaperon, The Delineator Oct 1906
• A Real English Christmas with Lady Betty, Ladies Home Journal Dec 1906
• The Princess Virginia, Ladies' Home Journal Oct, Dec 1906, Jan 1907
• The Botor Chaperon, The Grand Magazine Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec 1906, Jan 1907
• The Car of Destiny (1907)
• Scarlet Runner (1908) - serialised in the Strand Magazine December 1906 to November 1907
• Set in Silver (1909)
• The Motor Maid (1910)
• The Golden Silence (1910)
• Flower Forbidden [Part 1], Smith's Magazine Apr 1911
• The Heather Moon (1912)
• Champion: The Story of a Motor Car (1913)
• The Love Pirate (1913)
• The Port of Adventure (1913)
• The Shop-Girl, Munsey's Magazine Jul 1914
• It Happened in Egypt (1914)
• The Love Trees, Munsey's Magazine, Dec 1915
• This Woman to This Man, All-Story Weekly Apr 29, 13 May 1916
• The War Wedding (1916)
• The Lightning Conductress (1916)
• The Shop-Girl (1916)
• The Lion's Mouse, Munsey's Magazine, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug 1918
• The Second Latchkey (1920)S
• Berry Goes to Monte Carlo (1921)
• The Great Pearl Secret (1921)

For an unknown period, but certainly in the 1890s he edited (or "conducted") a 1 penny fortnightly periodical entitled The Minute, illustrated, a sort of Reader's Digest of contemporary Victorian society, supported by much advertising.

Filmography

• The Lightning Conductor (1914)
• Lord John in New York (1915)
• The Grey Sisterhood (1916, short)
• Lord Loveland Discovers America (1916)
• Three Fingered Jenny (1916, short)
• The Eye of Horus (1916, short)
• The League of the Future (1916, short)
• The Shop Girl [it] (1916)
• The Scarlet Runner (1916, serial)
• The Demon (1918)
• A Woman in Grey [pt] (1920, serial)
• Passion's Playground (1920)
• My Lady's Latchkey (1921)
• The Lion's Mouse (UK, 1923)
• My Friend the Chauffeur (Germany, 1926)
• The Man Without a Face (1928, serial)
• Yūrei tō (Japan, 1948)

References

External links

• Works by Charles Norris Williamson at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about C. N. Williamson at Internet Archive
• Works by C. N. Williamson at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Alice Muriel Williamson
Born	Alice Muriel King 8 October 1858 Cleveland, Ohio
Died	24 September 1933(1933-09-24) (aged 74) Bath, England
Resting place	Bath Abbey
Pen name	Alice Stuyvesant, John Colin Dane, William Allison, Alice Livingston
Occupation	Writer
Language	English
Spouse	Charles Norris Williamson m.1894

Alice Muriel Williamson (8 October 1858 – 24 September 1933), who published chiefly under names the "C. N. and A. M. Williamson" and "Mrs. C. N. Williamson," was an American-English author.

Biography

She was born 8 October 1858 to parents Marcus and Jane (Thomas) King in Cleveland, Ohio, where her father was co-founder of the Ohio State and Union Law College. In 1890 she adopted the surname "Livingston" from her maternal great grandfather following separation from her first husband, Lieutenant William Reeve Hamilton, who disapproved of her budding career as an actress. In 1892 she expatriated herself to England (and from her first husband) as foreign correspondent for the Boston Evening Transcript, supplying that paper with approximately 120 "letters" between 1892 and 1897 before devoting herself full-time to fiction, although she remained an occasional freelance journalist for the rest of her life. Two years after arriving in England she married magazine editor Charles Norris Williamson (1857–1920) whom she persuaded to appear as co-author for many of her books, later acknowledging her sole authorship.

Her success as an author, in its early stages, was owing to Alfred Harmsworth who, recognizing her talent, promoted her stories – especially sensational serials – in the Daily Mail and his many other publications. Her first serial, "Confessions of a Stage-Struck Girl," appeared in Forget-Me-Not (August 11-November 17, 1894), partly inspired by her earlier career as an actress in America, as was her first novel, The Barnstormers (1897), written at the suggestion of S. R. Crockett upon hearing her describe some of her theatrical experiences at a dinner party. Her second novel, A Woman in Grey (1898), established her reputation as a worthy successor to Wilkie Collins. A third, The Newspaper Girl (1899), exploited Elizabeth Banks's "stunt" journalism, turning some of the same stratagems to humorous effect. Humor would become one of her most striking characteristics as an author, beginning with The Lightning Conductor (1902), the novel that catapulted her overnight to international fame, selling more than a million copies in America. James Milne, in Memoirs of a Bookman (1934), speaks of a "tradition" that she was "the wittiest girl who ever invaded Fleet Street."

Although best known for her series of motor travel romances, she was a literary polymath adept at a wide variety of genres (detective, mystery, Gothic, spy, adventure, war, ghost, fairy, satire, fictional memoir, muckraking, etc.), often published anonymously or pseudonymously, such as Champion: The Story of a Motor Car (1907) as by John Colin Dane (memoirs narrated by the car itself), and her sensational exposé of German war plans on the eve of World War I, What I Found Out in the House of a German Prince (1915), purporting to be "by an American-English Governess," the latter so realistic that it was accepted as a true account and published serially in the Fortnightly Review.

She died 24 September 1933 under strange circumstances at Bath, where her remains are interred next to those of her husband in the graveyard behind Bath Abbey.

Works

• The Barnstomers: Being the Tragical Side of a Comedy (1897)
• Berry Goes to Monte Carlo (1921)
• The Botor Chaperon (1907); and (sl) Grand Magazine August 1906-March 1907
• The Car of Destiny (1907)
• The Career of Joan Carthew (aka The Girl Who Had Nothing) - serialised in the Windsor Magazine December 1903 to May 1904
• The Case of Ann Arthur, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly March 1930
• The Castle of Shadows (1909)
• Champion: The Story of a Motor Car (1907) with illustrations by Walter Ernest Webster
• The Chauffeur and the Chaperon (1908); and (sl) The Delineator July 1906-August 1907
• The Darkened Room, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly April 1933
• The Diamond Code, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly March 1932
• The Door Between, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly December 1932
• Duchess, Behave!, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly June 1929 (with Sydney Arundel)
• The Eccentricity of Fleetwood, (ss) Strand Magazine (UK) July 1901, (US) August 1901
• The Flower Forbidden, (sl) Smith's Magazine April–June 1911
• The Girl with One Dress, (sl) Motion Picture Magazine April–September 1927
• The Golden Silence (1910)
• The Heather Moon (1912)
• The Hidden House, (sl) Cavalier 1913–1914 (as Alice Stuyvesant)
• Honeymoon Hate, (nv) The Saturday Evening Post, July 9–16, 1927
• The House by the Lock (1899)
• The House of Silence (1921); and (nv) Five-Novels Monthly December 1931
• The Inky Way (1931)
• It Happened in Egypt (1914)
• Lady Betty Across the Water (1906)
• Lady Betty Crosses the Ocean, (sl), Ladies Home Journal October 1905-April 1906
• The Lady in Gray, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly September 1932
• The Lightning Conductor (1902)
• The Lightning Conductress (1916)
• The Lightning Conductor Comes Back (1933)
• The Lion’s Mouse, (sl) Munsey’s February–August 1918
• Lord John, (ss) Argosy (UK) July 1933
• The Love Pirate (1913)
• The Love Trees, (ss) Munsey’s December 1915
• The Man from Joliet, (nv) Short Stories August 1915
• The Motor Maid (1909)
• The Murder House, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly October 1932
• My Lady Cinderella (1906)
• Passport, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly September 1930
• The Port of Adventure (1913)
• The Princess Passes, (sl) Metropolitan Magazine July 1904-April 1905
• The Princess Virginia, (sl) Ladies Home Journal August 1906-January 1907
• Publicity for Anne (1926); and (sl) Charm, November 1925-January 1926
• A Real English Christmas with Lady Betty, (ss) Ladies Home Journal December 1906
• The Red Pen Murder, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly January 1931
• Rosemary, A Christmas Story (1906)
• The Scarlet Runner (May 1908) - serialised in the Strand Magazine December 1906 to November 1907
• The Sea Could Tell (1904); and (nv) Five-Novels Monthly October 1929
• The Second Latchkey (1920)
• Secret Gold (1925); and (sl) Country Gentleman September 20-November 8, 1924
• Set in Silver (1909)
• The Shop-Girl (1916); and (nv) Munsey’s July 1914
• The Silent Battle (1902)
• This Woman to This Man (1917); and (sl) All-Story Weekly April 15-May 20, 1916
• Tiger Ride, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly June 1931
• The Truth About Tanita, (nv) Five-Novels Monthly September 1931
• The Underground Syndicate, (1911); and (nv) Five-Novels Monthly July 1932
• The War Wedding (1916)
• What’s in a Name?, (ss) The New Passing Show, May 14, 1932
• A Woman in Gray (1898)
• A Woman Tried to Steal My Husband, (ar) Cosmopolitan, October 1925
• The Woman Who Dared (1903)

Translations

Her mystery A Woman in Grey (1898) was translated and adapted into Japanese by Kuroiwa Ruiko (黒岩涙香) under the title Yūrei tō (幽霊塔; Ghost Tower) in 1901, and it was adapted by Edogawa Rampo (江戸川乱歩) in 1937–1938. Translations of her novels and newspaper serials appeared throughout Europe, particularly in France, Holland and Switzerland.

Filmography

• The Lightning Conductor (1914)
• The House of the Lost Court (1915)
• Lord John in New York (1915)
• The Grey Sisterhood (1916, short)
• Lord Loveland Discovers America (1916)
• Three Fingered Jenny (1916, short)
• The Eye of Horus (1916, short)
• The League of the Future (1916, short)
• The Shop Girl [it] (1916)
• The Scarlet Runner (1916, serial)
• The Woman Who Dared [it] (1916)
• The Life Mask (1918)
• The Demon (1918)
• A Woman in Grey [pt] (1920, serial)
• Passion's Playground (1920)
• My Lady's Latchkey (1921)
• The Lion's Mouse (UK, 1923)
• My Friend the Chauffeur (Germany, 1926)
• Honeymoon Hate (1927)
• The Man Without a Face (1928, serial)
• El príncipe gondolero (Spanish language, 1931)
• Yūrei tō (Japan, 1948)

Notes

Further reading

• Plomley, Brian, “C.N. And A.M. Williamson,” Biblionews and Australian Notes & Queries, 18 (1) March 1993, pp.25-29.
• Richard E. Rex: Alice Muriel Williamson : The Secret History of an American-English Author (2016), ISBN 978-1-63505-309-8

External links

• Works by Alice Muriel Williamson at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about A. M. Williamson at Internet Archive
• Works by or about C. N. Williamson at Internet Archive
• Works by or about Alice Muriel Livingston at Internet Archive
• Works by or about Alice Stuyvesant at Internet Archive
• Works by A. M. Williamson at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Online Books by A. M. Williamson at onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
• A. M. Williamson Author Record at Project Gutenberg Europe ^{[dead link]}
• C. N. Williamson Author Record at Project Gutenberg Europe ^{[dead link]}
• Sep 24 – Author Anniversaries
• Works by Alice Muriel Williamson at the FictionMags Index (The FictionMags Index)
• Public domain audio books of works by Alice Muriel Williamson at Librivox
• A. M. Williamson at Library of Congress, with 78 library catalogue records

Peter Wright (30 December 1919 – 20 June 2003) was a British potter and sculptor.

Biography

Wright was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire in 1919 and was brought up in Enfield Town, north London.^[1] After army service in World War Two, he attended Hornsey College of Art from 1946 to 1950, learning graphics but developing his interest in clay.^[1] After Hornsey, he was appointed as a teacher of art at Sutton Coldfield College of Further Education.^[1] In 1954 he opened his own studio in Monkton Combe, just outside Bath, before relocating to Gloucester Street in the city.^[2] His pottery marks dating from 1953 include his initials, his name and the outline of a fish.^[3] As an avant-garde ceramic artist and clay sculptor he began teaching at Bath Academy of Art in 1957, the same year in which his work was shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum.^[1]

Wright's work has been acquired by several museums around the world.

He died on 20 June 2003 in Bath, Somerset, aged 83.^[2]

Personal life

He was married to Sheila and they had one son. The marriage ended in separation in the 1960s.^[2]

Legacy

A retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Bristol Guild of Applied Art Gallery in 2003.^[2]

References

The Reverend Percy Ewart Warrington (1889–1961) was an educationist and evangelical Church of England clergyman. He was vicar of Monkton Combe for forty-three years from 1918 to 1961 and the founder of an educational trust, Allied Schools, in the 1920s which founded and purchased a number of private schools in Britain and a girls' school in Kenya. He also founded homes for the elderly which continue today as the Warrington Homes Ltd.^[1] He was described as a 'financier in a surplice'.^[2]

Early life

Warrington was born in Newhall, Derbyshire on 29 December 1889, where his father Thomas Warrington was a farmer. He attended Stapenhill School.^[3]

Career

Warrington entered Hatfield College, Durham as an ordinand, where he obtained his licentiate in theology. He was ordained a deacon in 1914 and priest in 1915 at Worcester Cathedral for St Matthew's Church, Rugby, Warwickshire. In 1917 he moved to St Peter's, Congleton, Cheshire and in 1918 he accepted the benefice of Monkton Combe in the Bath and Wells diocese, a small village in which Monkton Combe School was based.^[4] Warrington would later describe his experience in Monkton Combe as a 'living hell'.^[5] This was likely due to a rift that developed between himself and the school when he accused pupils of heckling him as he preached, an accusation that was roundly refuted by the Headmaster.^[6] However, in later years a happier relationship developed.^[7]

Allied Schools Trust

Warrington became secretary to the Church Trust Society, through which he founded a series of schools, typically by purchasing country houses and then converting them. Wrekin College was acquired in 1921. In 1923, Warrington saw an advertisement in The Times for Canford Manor and bought it the same day, founding Canford School which opened on 15 May 1923. In the same year he purchased Stowe House from the estate of the Dukes of Buckingham in which Stowe School was established. In 1928 he purchased Weston Birt as a public school for girls; Westonbirt School. This was followed in 1929 by Felixstowe College.

The Allied Schools Trust was developed which incorporated the Church Trust Society and was renamed The Martyrs Memorial. Eventually, the Trust administered some thirteen public schools.

The financial activities related to the founding of these schools have been described as a 'reverse ponzi scheme'.^[8] Each successive school was founded by raising a mortgage on the last, with the financial years of the schools ending in different months, with all the cash balances being placed into the school that was next to report.^[9]

The Trust ran into severe financial difficulties during the years of depression in the early 1930s and was rescued by the intervention of the Legal & General Assurance Society through a mortgage that was not paid off until 1980.^[10] As a consequence, Warrington lost his positions except from his living at Monkton Combe, with the schools he founded becoming the Allied Schools group.^[11]

In 1934 he acquired Stoke House in Bristol, which became the Clifton Theological College for Church of England candidates by ordination (later merged with others to become Trinity College, Bristol).^[12]

Warrington was instrumental in the founding of the evangelical St Peter's College, Oxford, through financial assistance provided to Christopher Chavasse.^[13]

In 1946 he founded Warrington Homes Ltd, which today offers residential care for the elderly in two homes in Corsham, Wiltshire.^[14]

Pentonville Church

Warrington was a vigorous supporter of the restoration of Pentonville Church, London, which was derelict after World War I.^[15] The church was reconsecrated in 1933.

Death

Warrington died in a nursing home in Bath in 1961, leaving an estate valued at £47,000.^[16]

References

Isabel Diana Colegate FRSL (10 September 1931 – 12 March 2023) was a British author and literary agent.

Early life and education

Born in Paddington in London, England, Colegate was the youngest of her parents' four daughters.^[1] Her father was Sir Arthur Colegate, while her mother was Winifred Mary, a daughter of Sir William Worsley, 3rd Baronet, and the widow of Captain Francis Percy Campbell Pemberton of the 2nd Life Guards, who had been killed in action in the First World War.^[2]

Colegate was a first cousin of Katharine, Duchess of Kent, who is also a granddaughter of Sir William Worsley, 3rd Baronet.

She was educated at Runton Hill School in Norfolk.

Career

In 1952, Colegate, in partnership with Anthony Blond, set up the publishing firm, Anthony Blond (London) Ltd.^[3]