Boden, Joseph (d. 1811), army officer in the East India Company and benefactor, details of whose birth and parentage are unknown, was appointed lieutenant in the Bombay native infantry on 24 November 1781. He became captain on 25 October 1796, major on 12 October 1802, and lieutenant-colonel on 21 May 1806. His name was borne at various times on the rolls of the ...
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H. M. Chichester
revised by Philip Carter
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G. C. Boase
revised by Elizabeth Baigent
Brady, Sir Antonio (1811–1881), Admiralty official, naturalist, and social reformer, was born at Deptford, London, on 10 November 1811, the eldest son of Anthony Brady (1777–1847) of the Deptford victualling yard, then storekeeper at the Royal William victualling yard, Plymouth, and his wife (whom he married on 20 December 1810), ...
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Chacksfield, Sir Bernard Albert (1913–1999), air force officer and chief scout, was born at 28 Khartoum Road, Ilford, Essex, on 13 April 1913, son of Edgar Chacksfield, printers' reader, and his wife, Alice Annie, née Fairbeard. He was educated at Ilford county high school...
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Christopher Foxley-Norris
Cheshire, (Geoffrey) Leonard, Baron Cheshire (1917–1992), air force officer and charity founder, was born on 7 September 1917 in the Egerton Nursing Home, 65 Hoole Road, Hoole, Chester, the elder of two sons of Geoffrey Chevalier Cheshire (1886–1978), an academic lawyer who became Vinerian professor of English law at ...
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Cohen, Sir (Benn) Jack Brunel (1886–1965), campaigner for former servicemen, was born at Ethelstone, Alexandra Drive, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, on 5 October 1886, the sixth son of nine children (one of whom did not survive infancy) of Louis Samuel Cohen (1844/5–1922) and his wife, ...
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Andrew Chandler
Deedes, Sir Wyndham Henry (1883–1956), army officer, civil administrator, and social worker, was born on 10 March 1883 at 19 Westbourne Place, Belgravia, London, the second son of Colonel Herbert George Deedes, assistant under-secretary of state for war, and his wife, Rose Eleanor (...
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Benjamin S. Beck
Foster, Robert (1754–1827), naval officer and benefactor, was born on 24 April 1754 in Lancaster, the eldest of the four children of Dodshon Foster (1730–1792), merchant, and his wife, Elizabeth, née Birket (1729–1766). He attended John Jenkinson's school at Yealand Conyers and the free school at ...
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Roger T. Stearn
Gildea, Sir James (1838–1920), army officer and philanthropist, was born at Kilmaine, co. Mayo, on 23 June 1838, the third son of George Robert Gildea (1803–1887), Church of Ireland clergyman, later provost of Tuam, and his wife, Esther (1802–1894), only daughter and heiress of ...
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Gomm, Richard Culling Carr- (1922–2008), army officer and charity founder, was born at Mancetter Lodge, Mancetter, near Atherstone, Warwickshire, on 2 January 1922, the third of four sons of Mark Culling Carr-Gomm (1883–1963), civil engineer, and his wife, Amicia Dorothy, née Heming (1880–1962)...
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Kelly, Benedictus Marwood (1785–1867), naval officer and benefactor, was born at Holsworthy, Devon, on 3 February 1785, and baptized on 1 September 1790 (the date sometimes given for his birth), the second son of Benedictus Marwood Kelly (d. 1836) of Holsworthy, attorney, and his wife, ...
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Rosie Llewellyn-Jones
Martin, Claude (1735–1800), army officer in the East India Company and philanthropist, was born in the rue de la Palme, Lyons, France, on 4 January 1735, son of Fleury Martin (1708–1755), vinegar maker, and his wife, Anne Vaginay (1702–1735), butcher's daughter. At his parish school he excelled in mathematics and physics. Although apprenticed in 1749 to a local silk weaver, ...
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Jonathan Sumption
Mauny [Manny], Sir Walter (c. 1310–1372), soldier and founder of the London Charterhouse, was the fourth of five sons of Jean le Borgne, lord of Masny in the imperial county of Hainault, and Jeanne de Jenlain. The brothers probably passed their youth in the household of ...
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Maker: Sir Hubert von Herkomer
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Powell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-, first Baron Baden-Powell (1857–1941), army officer and founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, was born at 6 Stanhope Street, Paddington, London, on 22 February 1857, the sixth son of the Revd Baden Powell (1796–1860), Savilian professor of geometry at ...
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E. M. Lloyd
revised by Roger T. Stearn
Stewart, David, of Garth (1772–1829), army officer and writer on the Scottish highlanders, was the second son of Robert Stewart of Garth, Perthshire, and was descended from James Stewart (son of the Wolf of Badenoch, one of the many bastard children of Robert II...
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Thorne, Sir David Calthrop (1933–2000), army officer and charity director, was born in the County Hospital, Hertford, on 13 December 1933, the identical twin son of Richard Everard Thorne, a senior colonial service police officer in Tanganyika, and his wife, Audrey Ursula, née...
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Basil Curtis
revised by Roger T. Stearn
Towse, Sir (Ernest) Beachcroft Beckwith (1864–1948), army officer and campaigner for the welfare of blind people, was born at Regent's Park, London, on 23 April 1864, the elder of the two sons of Robert Beckwith Towse, solicitor, and his Irish wife, Julia Ann Corcoran...