Aspdin, Joseph (bap. 1778, d. 1855), cement maker, was baptized on 25 December 1778 in Hunslet, Leeds, the eldest in the family of five sons and one daughter of Thomas Aspdin, bricklayer of Hunslet, and his wife, Mary. Aspdin followed his father's trade of bricklayer and builder at ...
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Peter Hounsell
Beart, Robert (1801–1873), brick and tile manufacturer, was baptized on 6 September 1801 at Welney, on the Isle of Ely, the son of William Beart, a farmer, and his wife, Susanna. Little is known of his upbringing, except that he first followed his father's occupation, but by the 1820s he had moved to ...
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Brown, Richard (1736–1816), stonemason and manufacturer of decorative stone, was born in Derby and baptized at the collegiate church of All Saints on 25 July 1736, son of Richard Browne [Richard [i] Brown] (1700–1756), mason, and his second wife, Ann, née...
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Coade, Eleanor (1733–1821), manufacturer of artificial stone, was born on 3 June 1733 in Exeter, the elder daughter (there were no sons) of George Coade, wool merchant, of Exeter, and his wife, Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Enchmarch, wool merchant, of Tiverton, Devon. She was baptized at the ...
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Crittall, Francis Henry (1860–1935), metal window manufacturer, was born on 27 July 1860 at 27 Bank Street, Braintree, Essex, the eighth of the eleven children of Francis Berrington Crittall (d. 1879), an ironmonger, and Fanny Morris, née Godfrey (d. 1879). His parents, from ...
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Adam J. Silverstein
Crone, Patricia (1945–2015), historian and scholar of Islam, was born in Kyndeløse, Denmark, on 28 March 1945, the daughter of (Frederik) Thomas Georg Lønborg Crone (1912–1971), chief executive of the Scandinavian Tobacco Company, and his wife, Vibeke Scheel, née Richter (...
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Tom Donnelly
Fyfe, John (1830–1906), granite quarry master, was born at Goodhope, Bucksburn, Aberdeenshire, the eldest son of James Fyfe (d. 1846), quarry master, and his wife, Elizabeth Strachan. The region had for over two centuries been associated with the extraction of granite, and quarrying reached its peak in the latter half of the nineteenth century, when ...
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Robin Lucas
Gunton, George (bap. 1801, d. 1890), brickmaker, was born within the parish of Costessey, 4 miles west of Norwich, and baptized on 8 July 1801 in the Roman Catholic chapel attached to Costessey Hall, the son of John Gunton, and his wife, Elizabeth, ...
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Victor Belcher
Hill, John Cathles (1857–1915), builder and brick maker, was born in Anderson's Entry, Hawkhill, Dundee, on 12 December 1857, the eldest son of Robert Hill and his wife Eliza, née Cathles. There were six children, three boys (including John) and three girls, one of whom died in infancy. The elder ...
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Holland, Samuel (1803–1892), slate industrialist and railway promoter, was born on 17 October 1803 in Duke Street, Liverpool, the youngest son and fifth child of Samuel Holland (1768–1851), merchant, and his wife, Katherine Menzies (d. 1847). He had two brothers and three sisters and was educated at the ...
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Isaac Charles Johnson (1811–1911) by unknown photographer, 1911 [reading letter from King congratulating Johnson on reaching 100th year] © reserved
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Johnson, Isaac Charles (1811–1911), cement manufacturer, was born at Vauxhall on 28 January 1811, the second but only surviving child of Isaac Johnson, a cement works labourer, who worked for Francis and White & Co. at Nine Elms, Vauxhall, Surrey, and his wife, ...
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MacDonald, Alexander (1794–1860), granite manufacturer, was born at Foss on the banks of the Tummel in Perthshire, the son of William MacDonald, farmer, and his wife, Isabella Stewart. Little is known about his early life, but after completing an elementary education, he worked as a farm labourer before serving an apprenticeship as a stonemason. In 1820 at the age of twenty-six he moved to ...
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Tricia Cusack
Mouchel, Louis Gustave [formerly Gustave-Louis] (1852–1908), promoter of ferroconcrete, was born on 11 January 1852 at 56 rue Corne de Cerf, Cherbourg, third of the four children of Louis Mouchel, wig maker, and his wife, Felicité Duchemin. He had three sisters. Mouchel...
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Jean Lindsay
Pennant, George Sholto Gordon Douglas-, second Baron Penrhyn (1836–1907), landowner and quarry owner, was born on 30 September 1836 at Linton Springs, Yorkshire, the elder son and third child of Edward Gordon Douglas (1800–1886), third son of John Douglas, second son of James Douglas, ...
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Pennant, Richard, Baron Penrhyn (c. 1737–1808), slate manufacturer and politician, was the second son of John Pennant (d. 1782), merchant, and his wife, Bonella Hodges (d. 1763), who were resident in Jamaica. His father was descended from Thomas Pennant, the fifteenth-century abbot of ...
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Porter, Enid Mary (1908–1984), historian and museum curator, was born at 14 Burdett Avenue, Southend, Essex, on 8 October 1908, the daughter of Ethel Mary Porter, née Scott (1879–1925), who had been a schoolmistress in Cambridge, and her husband Hugh Porter...
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Pountain, Sir Eric John (1933–2003), industrialist, was born on 5 August 1933 at 10 Chestall Road, Cannock Wood, Staffordshire, the son of Horace Pountain, a waterman at the local waterworks, and later a builder, and his wife, Elsie May, née Lloyd. He left ...
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Rackham, Oliver (1939–2015), by Andrew Festing, 2009
With the kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; © Andrew Festing
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