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Thorp, John Brown (1862–1939), architect and model-maker

The architect and model-maker John Brown Thorp exhibited models both of ancient and new buildings. His most notable models included the proposed Charing Cross bridge in London (1930) and Edwin Lutyens’s design for the Liverpool Roman Catholic cathedral (1934).

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Ellison, Grace Mary (1880–1935), journalist and nurse

The journalist Grace Ellison established a career as a continental correspondent for British periodicals and newspapers in the early twentieth century. As a result of a visit to Turkey in 1908, following the Young Turk revolution, she wrote extensively on the position of women in the Ottoman empire.

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This month’s update adds or revisits the lives of eleven women and men active from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries: benefactors Eleanor Holles and Anne Kennicott; traveller and playwright Elizabeth Craven and her son Keppel Craven; artist and biographer Prince Hoare; publisher Owen Rees; astronomer Mary Anne Fallows; architectural model makers Richard Day and John Brown Thorp; author Gertrude Mayer; journalist Grace Ellison; and medical writer Winifred de Kok.

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FEBRUARY 13, 2025

What’s New: February 2025

Welcome to the 119th update of the Oxford DNB which comprises four new and nine updated articles, adding the lives of eight women and men active from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, accompanied by two new portrait likeness.

JANUARY 9, 2025

What’s New: January 2025

Welcome to the 118th update of the Oxford DNB, featuring the lives of operatic and theatre singers. This update adds biographies of seven women and men, accompanied by one new portrait likeness. The update also includes 82 updated Reference Lists, and identifies over 1,500 biographical anniversaries in 2025.

JANUARY 8, 2025

Biographical anniversaries in 2025

Meet influential individuals with milestone anniversaries in 2025, marking significant life events ranging from 100 to 400 years ago. Browse our collection of biographies and learn more about each person's life and legacy …