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Latest online update: October 2008

• biographies of 125 people who shaped British life from the twelfth to the twentieth century.
  > See full list of new lives
• Special focus on:
  • World War One lives: biographies of 30 men and women active in all theatres of war. Highlights include the inventor of the gas mask, Edward Harrison; Victoria Cross recipients William Coltman, Mir Dast, and Daniel Laidlaw (the ‘piper of Loos’); the patriotic poet Jessie Pope and Alfred Leete whose portrait of Lord Kitchener became a well-known poster image.
  • Gardeners: the second of our three-part series focuses on horticulturalists, including the Jackman family, cultivars of the clematis Jackmanii; Ernest Ballard (Michaelmas daisies), and William Wilks (poppies).
• reference groups: 21 articles explain historical groups from all periods of British history. New groups include the Lancastrians and Yorkists, Gunpowder plotters, Putney debaters, and Bluestockings. More groups published in May 2009.
• themes: features include General officers of the First World War [> FREE: read more]

Read the editor's preface to the October 2008 update.

• October 2008

• The October issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue includes highlights from the October 2008 update which adds biographies of 125 new people and 21 reference groups to the dictionary.
• Lives of the Day for October: this month’s lives include Britannia ‘patriotic icon’, 3rd) and the extraordinary Chevalier D’Eon (‘diplomatist and transvestite’, 5th); Newcastle United’s greatest Number 9, Jackie Milburn is followed by the Haniverian impresario ‘Beau’ Nash (18th), Geoffrey Chaucer (25th), and the seventeenth-century diarist John Evelyn (31st). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, tales of words and war.

• September 2008

• The September issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights winners and finalists during 40 years of the Booker Prize. Plus golfing greats for the Ryder Cup and ‘The Few’ to mark Battle of Britain Day.
• Lives of the Day for September: this month’s anniversaries include 30 years since the murder of the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge, London (11th) and the 250th anniversary of the birth of Horatio Nelson (29th). September also features Samuel Ryder, founder of the Ryder Cup golf tournament, 16th), New Zealand health campaigner, Ettie Rout, (17th), IT businesswoman Hilary Cropper (22nd), and Gordon Reece, the PR expert credited with transforming Margaret Thatcher’s image (29th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, traitorous Haw Haw and mysterious jaw jaw.

• August 2008

• The August issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights those remembered for lives on, by or under the sea. Plus UK Oyster Day, and (inevitably) five golden Olympians.
• Lives of the Day for August include the ‘Mouseman’ woodcarver Robert Thompson for Yorkshire Day (1st August) and Ralph Vaughan Williams, on the fiftieth anniversary of his death (26th). Along the way there’s John Keats’s fiancé Frances Brawne (9th), circus proprietor Bertram Mills (11th), founder of Save the Children, Eglantyne Jebb (25th), and the journalist and editor Huw Cudlipp (28th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Olympic games and baroque gourmands.

• July 2008

• The July issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights the shapers of the National Health Service as it marks its 60th anniversary. Plus biographical holiday ideas, and independent-minded Americans for 4 July.
• Lives of the Day for July: this month's anniversaries include 150 years since the birth of the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst (15th) and 100 years since the opening of the London’s 1908 Olympics, marked here with the life story of archer and gold medalist, Sybil Newall (20th). Along the way there’s racing driver James Hunt for the British Grand Prix (6th) and Francis Drake for Armada Day (29th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, A-Z and TV.

• June 2008

• The June issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights new biographies added in the latest online update, with a special focus on garden designers, shapers of empire, and groups in British history. Plus a selection of tennis ‘champions’—on and off court—for the start of Wimbledon fortnight.
• Lives of the Day for June: this month's anniversaries include the centenary of the poet Kathleen Raine (14th) followed by the 50th anniversary of the death of the cricketer Douglas Jardine (18th). In between there's James Joyce for 'Bloomsday' (16th), as well as figures from the political left in unionist Hugh Scanlon (whose tanks gathered on Harold Wilson's lawn) and the radical journalist Paul Foot (3rd). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, tales of the greenwood and of the city.

• May 2008

• 22 May - new update published: biographies of 91 men and women active between the first and twentieth century; plus 45 new groups in our history of British clubs, gangs and coteries.
• The May issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue marks Local History month with two interactive maps, plus some 007 lives for Ian Fleming's centenary.
• Lives of the Day for May: this month's selection marks May Day with the morris dancer, William Kimber, and the result of the London elections with the early modern mayor, John Leman (2nd). There’s also Stanley Mortensen, the footballer whose hat-trick won Blackpool the FA cup in 1953 (17th this year’s cup final day); along the way you’ll find drinks manufacturer James Horlick (7th), traveller and writer Freya Stark (9th), and modern artist Terry Frost (21st). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Alice and James.

• April 2008

• The April issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue includes historical hoaxers for the 1st and Bluestockings to mark the new 'Brilliant Women' exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
• Lives of the Day for April: this month's selection includes David Henderson, the officer who oversaw the formation of the Royal Air Force (on 1st April 1918) and the crystallographer and DNA pioneer, Rosalind Franklin, who died 50 years ago (16th). Sporting lives include the racing commentator Peter Bromley (for the Grand National on 5th) and Jim Clark, the racing driver killed on 7 April 1968. In between there's Margaret Duff, the political activist who took part in CND's first Aldermaston march on 4 April 1958, and the William Shakespeare for St George's Day. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, a young Darwin and a Bull.

• March 2008

• Oxford DNB editor receives Queen's Anniversary Prize
• The March issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue marks Mothering Sunday, Commonwealth Day, and St Patrick's Day.
• Lives of the Day for March: this month's selection includes land speed record holder, John Parry Thomas (1st), artist's model Margaret Lemon (4th), Francis Crick, discoverer of DNA (6th), Tadcaster brewer, John Smith (14th), football manager, Brian Clough (21st), and psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein (29th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, furnaces and fairgrounds.

• February 2008

• The February issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Munich air disaster, plus Mills and Boon for Valentine's Day, and leap year lives for the 29th.
• Lives of the Day for February: this month's selection includes screen lives Hughie Green (2nd) and Fred Dibnah (25th), the garden designer Rosemary Verney (7th) and early modern herbalist John Gerard (18th), and along the way Bloomsbury memoirist Frances Partridge (1st) and Lucy Morton, Britain's first female swimmer to win an Olympic title (23rd). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, a sporting tragedy and tales of romance.

• January 2008

• The January 2008 issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue includes highlights from the January 2008 update, plus diarists for a new year, and connections between ODNB and OUP's new online edition of Who's Who and Who Was Who.
• Lives of the Day for January: this month's anniversaries include the singer Al Bowlly, best known for the song 'Buddy can you spare a dime?' (7th) and John Moores (25th), creator of the Littlewood's football pools and now remembered in the name of a Liverpool university. Along the way there are the nawabs of Oudh (8th), cider champion Charles Cooke (16th), and vaccination pioneer Edward Jenner (26th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Letters from America and Bogo the bad.

• December 2007

• The ODNB 'Advent calendar' competition: one calendar, 31 people, three seasonal themes. Spot the links and you could win a set of Very Interesting People.
• The December issue of our monthly online magazine marks the 125th anniversary of the announcement of the first Dictionary of National Biography (23 December 1882); plus circus folk in our very own big tent.
• Lives of the Day for December: this month's anniversaries include the author Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski on 3 December 1857) and the founder of Methodism, Charles Wesley (born 18 December 1707). Along the way come E.H. Shepard, illustrator of Winnie the Pooh (10th), choreographer Kenneth MacMillan (11th), and writer Aphra Behn (14th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, a mystery man and Mr Men.

• November 2007

• 15 November Queen's Anniversary Prize awarded for Oxford DNB
  The University of Oxford has been awarded one of 20 prizes given by the Royal Anniversary Trust for outstanding projects in higher and further education. Oxford's Vice-Chancellor, Dr John Hood, said that the Oxford DNB had been an 'outstanding collaboration' between the University, its Press, and a worldwide community of scholarship on the British past.
• The November issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights those who make us a 'Nation of Shopkeepers', alongside some sons (and daughters) of the manse.
• Biography quiz: there's still time to enter our history competition, marking the Oxford DNB's third anniversary.
• Lives of the Day for November: this month's anniversaries include the birth of poet and artist, William Blake (23 November 1757) and the Gunpowder Plot for which we feature the conspirator, Thomas Percy (5th). The 14th marks the opening the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, a modern feat of engineering marked with the life of the station's original engineer, William Barlow. In between you'll find ambulance driver Elizabeth de T'Seclaes (for Remembrance Sunday), writer Roald Dahl (23rd), and the ingenious Martin Dunbar Nasmith, submariner and winner of the Victoria Cross (17th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Remembrance and Anglophilia.

• October 2007

• Biography competition: it's three years since the Oxford DNB was publication in print and online. To celebrate, try your hand at our nationwide biography quiz.
• The October issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue includes highlights from the October 2007 update, plus brothers and sitters to accompany Tate Britain's new Millais exhibition.
• Lives of the Day for October: this month's anniversaries include Henry III (born on 1 October 1207), Harriet Mill (born 25 October 1807), and Sylvia Plath who was born 75 years ago (27th). The work of another poet, Philip Larkin, is remembered on 4th for National Poetry Day, while the rugby world cup is a chance to highlight the life of the game's creator, William Webb Ellis, for whose cup two teams compete in the final (20th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, tales of calypso and courtly love.

• September 2007

• The September issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month we celebrate the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 4 with a historical dream schedule, from Today to Sailing By. Plus music makers for the Last Night of the Proms and a look at Welsh lives in the ODNB.
• Lives of the Day for September: centenarians this month include the poet Louis MacNeice (12th) and art historian and spy, Anthony Blunt (26th). Deception of a more benign kind was the life's work of another of this month's featured lives: Archibald Belaney, better know to many as Grey Owl (who appears on 18th). Elsewhere September offers glamour, speed, and fizz by way of actress Greer Garson (29th), racing motorcyclist Barry Sheene (11th), and Francis Showering (5th), cider-maker and creator of Babycham. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, a cello maestro and a Cheshire mystery.

• August 2007

• The August issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month we mark the 250th anniversary of Thomas Telford's birth with engineering lives. We also look at the shapers of independence for India and Pakistan, sixty years on; plus-some Liverpool figures as the former 'second city of empire', celebrates its 800th birthday.
• Lives of the Day for August: this month we mark the deaths of two prominent figures from 1960s' popular culture-playwright Joe Orton and Beatles' manager Brian Epstein-who died 40 years ago this month, on the 9th and 25th respectively. And to mark the start of the Edinburgh Festival we feature its founder, Henry Harvey Wood (10th). In between you'll find people of letters in the shape of Leonard Woolf (14th) and Mary Shelley (30th) and two men defined by speed: test pilot Roland Beaumont, on 4 August, and athlete Chris Brasher (21st) whose contribution allowed Roger Bannister to break the 4-minute mile, with 0.6 seconds to spare. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, stories of experience, courage and coffee.

• July 2007

  • The July issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month we mark the 50th anniversary of 'Never having it so good' and 100 years of the Boy Scouts; plus—as Britain gains a new prime minister—a historical look at Downing Street people.
  • Lives of the Day for July: this month's lives range from Edward I, who died 700 years ago this month, to Hannah Cullwick, servant and diarist whose unusual marriage took her above stairs. In between, July's birthdays include George Bradshaw, master of the railway timetable, while for the 20th it's Harold Macmillan who evoked the good life on this day in 1957. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
  • Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, a king of the court and the man behind the Mac.

• June 2007

• The fifth issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month—Sgt Pepper and the Summer of Love; plus, on the 150th anniversary of its first investiture, Victoria Cross holders from the Crimea to the Falklands.
• Lives of the Day for June: the 1st sees the centenary of jet pioneer Frank Whittle's birth, followed on the 11th by art collector and philanthropist, Paul Mellon. There's also George Mallory, victim of Everest (8th), and the Nazi sympathizer, Diana Moseley (17th). Marking the anniversary of D-Day (6th), we include the life of General Bernard Montgomery, better known to many as 'Monty'. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
• Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, a boy hero of Jutland and queens on wheels.

• May 2007

  • The May issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month—for Museums and Galleries month—men and women behind Britain's favourite institutions, from Ashmole to Whipple via Hayward and Horniman; plus the English in Virginia, 1607–2007, and ten May Days in history.
  • Lives of the Day for May: this month's lives range from Edward I, who died 700 years ago this month, to Hannah Cullwick, servant and diarist whose unusual marriage took her above stairs. In between, July's birthdays include George Bradshaw, master of the railway timetable, while for the 20th it's Harold Macmillan who evoked the good life on this day in 1957. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
  • Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, a king of the court and the man behind the Mac.

• April 2007

  • NEW from April: the third issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month—Anglo-Scottish relations in the 300 years since union; exotic visitors to the NPG and, as the Simpsons turn 20, their British ancestors revealed.
  • The Oxford Biography Index is launched. A free resource, on the open web, it contains the headword of every Oxford DNB article. It is, therefore, an authoritative index of notable people from British history. Anyone who needs to know exactly what someone was called, when they lived, or needs to refer to someone unambiguously and definitively, will find it invaluable.
  • Lives of the Day for April: this month's birthdays include the golfer Margaret Scott (5th) the novelist Charlotte Brontë (21st) and author and magistrate Henry Fielding (22nd), who was born three hundred years ago this month. We keep the rousing Georgian theme going for the 23rd (John Bull, epitomist of Englishness) and in between there's Anthony Mildmay, the tallest jockey to have won the Grand National (14th), and Barry Bucknell, father of TV DIY (6th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
  • Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, the very old Old Parr and America's favourite princess.

• March 2007

  • NEW from March: the second issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month—slavery and abolition; European visitors as the European community turns 50, plus premonitions and advice for the Ides of March.
  • Lives of the Day for March: this month's birthdays range from Jean Metcalfe (2nd), radio broadcaster and Woman's Hour presenter, to the craftsman and visionary socialist, William Morris (24th). There's also a tale of Irish philanthropy in Bulgaria for St Patrick's Day and a visit (on 9th) from Shen Fuzong, one of the earliest recorded Chinese people to come to England, where he met James II and helped catalogue Chinese books at Oxford. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
  • Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast

• February 2007

  • NEW from February: the Oxford DNB begins a monthly online magazine, with topical free content and regular features. This month—Hanoverian faces by Hogarth, Brits at the Oscars, and a Valentine's Day treat for your loved one.
  • Lives of the Day for Febuary: dates commemorated this month include the 150th anniversary of the birth of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements (22nd), and the centenary of W. H. Auden's birth (21st). For US Presidents' Day (19th) we have James Madison while director Carol Reed marks Oscar night (27th). Along the way there's Val McCalla, founder of The Voice (8th), and on the 14th that much-loved love poet, John Donne. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
  • Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast

• January 2007

  • The ODNB picture board: January's reading room brings you face to face with our latest update
  • Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast
  • Lives of the Day for January: anniversaries commemorated in January include the centenary of the birth of walker Alfred Wainwright (17th) and the 550th anniversary of the birth of Henry VII (28th). We mark Australia Day (26th) with Edmund Barton, the country's prime minister (1901–03), who comes shortly after one of the dictionary's most unusual subjects, self-styled druid William Price (23rd). As it's also a new year we begin, naturally, with a diarist, Samuel Pepys. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.

• December 2006

  • Christmas competitions: spot the links in the Oxford DNB Advent calendar for a chance to win £200 of OUP books
  • Five lives: this month, five children's favourites
  • Lives of the Day for December: this month we mark two centenaries: 8th December is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Llewellyn, author of How Green was my Valley, while 30th December marks the centenary of the death of social reformer, Josephine Butler. In between we range from architect Berthold Lubetkin (14th) to Salote Mafile'o Pilolevu Tupou III, queen of Tonga (16th). As this is the month for panto dames you'll also find Arthur Lucan (better known as Old Mother Riley) and an ‘old acquaintance’ for New Year's Eve. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.

• November 2006

  • 007 lives for a new James Bond
  • The ODNB Ashes: history's ultimate cricket series.
  • Lives of the Day for November: November's lives highlight men and woman active in recent military conflicts: on 3rd we feature the military painter, Elizabeth Butler, and for Remembrance Day Neville Talbot, army chaplain and founder in 1916 of Talbot House, Poperinghe, Belgium. The military culmination to the Suez crisis is recalled between 4th and 6th with three lives, concluding with Eden. Meanwhile the American festival of Thanksgiving is marked by the colonial governor, Edward Winslow, while two lesser-known lives conclude the month: the irascible butler Henry Moat (28th) and the ironmonger, Jonathan Buttall, thought to be the subject of Gainsborough's celebrated Blue Boy portrait. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
  • Road to Suez: the events of 1956 in context
  • Hans Holbein: behind the portraits: a gallery of faces from Henry VIII's court
  • Reading room for November: highlights new people added in our latest update to the dictionary, plus five people not to invite to dinner:> more

• October 2006

  • Lives of the Day for October: October's lives feature some household and lesser-known names. Prominent birthdays include the politician Barbara Castle (6th) and the astronomer Edmond Halley (29th). Less familiar perhaps are the Palau Islander Lee Boo, who came to Britain in the 1770s, and his near contemporary Hannah Lightfoot, the alleged first wife of George III. On the 5th we mark National Poetry Day with John Clare and commemorate two naval anniversaries on 11th (Camperdown, with the sailor Jack Crawford) and 21st (Trafalgar, with Nelson's captain Henry Blackwood). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
  • Hans Holbein: behind the portraits: a gallery of faces from Henry VIII's court
  • Reading room for October: highlights some of the new people added in our latest update to the dictionary, published on 5th October:> more

• September 2006

  • Lives of the Day for September: September's lives are characterized by remarkable creative talents: on 2nd we mark the anniversary of the Fire of London with Christopher Wren, the man who shaped the post-fire capital; for the Last Night of the Proms (9th) there's Benjamin Britten, and on 28th we offer Hans Holbein to coincide with Tate Britain's major new exhibition on the artist in England. In between there's the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, Penguin publisher Allen Lane, and pioneering mountaineer Lucy Walker.
  • Reading room for September: for ‘Local and Community History’ month a look at some lesser-known regional figures—from Cornwall's Dolly Pentreath to John O'Groats:> more