À Beckett, Arthur William (1844–1909), humorist and journalist, the third son of Gilbert Abbott À Beckett (1811–1856) and Mary Anne Glossop (1817–1863), was born at Portland House, North End, Fulham, on 25 October 1844. He was educated at Honiton, then at Felsted School...
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Arthur William À Beckett (1844–1909) by Lafayette, pubd 1907 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Gilbert Abbott À Beckett (1811–1856) attrib. Charles Couzens, 1855 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott (1811–1856), comic writer and police magistrate, was born at The Grange, Hampstead, Middlesex, on 17 February 1811, the third son of William A'Beckett (1777–1855), a reform solicitor, and his wife, Sarah Abbott. His forebears were an ancient Wiltshire family, who traced their ancestry back to the fourteenth century and claimed descent from ...
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Ackerley, Joe Randolph (1896–1967), writer and literary editor, was born on 4 November 1896 at 4 Warmington Road, Herne Hill, south London, the younger son and second of the three children of Alfred Roger Ackerley (1863–1929), fruit importer, of London, and his mistress, ...
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Adam [married name Ascherson], Corinna Jane (1937–2012), journalist, was born on 31 January 1937 at 40B Rosslyn Hill, a flat above a bank, in Hampstead, London, the daughter of Kenneth Adam (1908–1978), then a journalist for The Star, later the first director of ...
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Lewis Melville
revised by Nilanjana Banerji
Adams, William Davenport (1851–1904), journalist and compiler of reference works, was born at Park Terrace, New Park Road, Brixton, on 28 December 1851, the elder surviving son of William Henry Davenport Adams (1828–1891), then a private tutor, and his wife, Sarah Esther, née...
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Owen R. Ashton
Adams, William Edwin [pseuds. Caractacus, Ironside, Uncle Toby] (1832–1906), radical and journalist, was born in humble circumstances in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on 11 February 1832, the son of John Adams, a tramping plasterer, and his wife, Sarah, née Wells. He was raised by his widowed maternal grandmother, ...
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Thomas Seccombe
revised by Joanne Potier
Adams, William Henry Davenport (1828–1891), journalist and author, was born in London on 5 May 1828, the only son of Samuel Adams (1798–1853), born in Ashburton, Devon, an Inland Revenue officer, and his wife, Elizabeth Mary, née Snell. He was the grandson of Captain ...
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Julia Langdon
Aitken, Ian Levack (1927–2018), journalist, was born in the Airdrie Maternity Home, New Monkland, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on 19 September 1927, the son of George Sutherland Aitken (1894–1979), who had trained as an iron turner, and his wife, Agnes Lauchlan (sometimes ...
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D. George Boyce
Aitken, William Maxwell [Max], first Baron Beaverbrook (1879–1964), newspaper proprietor and politician, was born on 25 May 1879 at the manse, Vaughan, Maple, Ontario, Canada. He was the third son and fifth member of a family of ten children, whose father, ...
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Maker: Walter Sickert
William Maxwell Aitken, first Baron Beaverbrook (1879–1964) by Walter Sickert, 1935 © The Beaverbrook Foundation; collection National Portrait Gallery, London
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Hugo Vickers
Albert, Harold [formerly Harold Albert Kemp; pseud. Helen Cathcart] (1909–1997), author and journalist, was born on 15 April 1909 at 48 Marsala Road, Lewisham, the son of Albert William Kemp, builder, and his wife, Mabel, the daughter of Frederick Read, dramatic reciter. He was educated at ...
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Alexander, Andrew Clive (1935–2015), journalist and author, was born on 12 May 1935 at Caer Gwent, Wykeham Road, Worthing, the elder son of Ronald Fergus Alexander (1903–1971), schoolmaster, and his wife Doreen Olivia Myfanwy, née Davies (1896–1958). He was educated at ...
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Anne Pimlott Baker
Alexander, Stanley Walter (1895–1980), financial journalist and editor, was born on 16 November 1895 at 35 Harcourt Road, Deptford, London, the son of Walter Henry Alexander, board of works clerk, and his wife, Alice Maude Mary Kemp. He left the Roan School, Greenwich...
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William Donaldson
Alexander, William (1826–1894), novelist and journalist, was born on 12 June 1826 at the farm of Westerhouses, Rescivet, in the parish of Chapel of Garioch, Aberdeenshire. He was the eldest son of the ten children of James Alexander (1789–1856), blacksmith and tenant farmer, and his wife, ...
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William Alexander (1826–1894) by Sir George Reid Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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S. E. Fryer
revised by H. C. G. Matthew
Alger, John Goldworth (bap. 1836, d. 1907), journalist and historian, born at Diss, Norfolk, and baptized on 7 August 1836, was the only son of John Alger, a corn merchant of that town, and his wife, Jemima, daughter of Salem Goldworth, yeoman, of ...
