Barker, John (c. 1600–1653), naval officer and shipmaster, was possibly related to the John Barker of Ratcliffe, Middlesex, shipmaster and captain of the Golden Cock who in 1629, aged forty-five, appeared before the admiralty court in connection with illegally seizing, and selling, a ship belonging to the ...
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Norman Macdougall
Barton, Andrew (c. 1470–1511), seaman and shipowner, was one of three brothers, Robert Barton, John, and Andrew, sons of the seafaring merchant John Barton (d. in or before 1494). Like his brothers, Andrew was frequently employed as a naval commander by James IV...
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Beamont, Roland Prosper (1920–2001), air force officer and aviator, was born on 10 August 1920 at 8 Private Road, Enfield, Middlesex, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Clement Beamont, a trade officer with the Foreign Office, and his wife, Dorothy Mary, née Haynes. Educated at ...
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Roland Prosper Beamont (1920–2001) by William Vanderson, 1958 [with the English Electric P1B Lightning at Farnborough] Getty Images
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R. C. D. Baldwin
Best, Thomas (1570–1639), sea captain and master of Trinity House, was baptized on 8 June 1570 at Merstham, Surrey, the youngest son of Robert Best, an interpreter for the Muscovy Company, and Anne, formerly Bowman. Later, in 1623, Best told Sir William Conway...
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Maker: Walter Stoneman
Sir James Bird (1883–1946) by Walter Stoneman, 1946 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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C. R. Gray
revised by Peter Fearon
Bird, Sir James (1883–1946), naval architect and aircraft manufacturer, was born in Hackney, London, on 19 March 1883, the second son of Samuel Bird, merchant, of Calcutta and East Cowes, Isle of Wight. No birth certificate has been found, and there is uncertainty about the identity of his mother, as his father’s first wife, ...
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Sir John Nelson Boothman (1901–1957) by Walter Stoneman, 1946 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Boothman, Sir John Nelson (1901–1957), air force officer and aviator, was born at Napier Road, Wembley, Middlesex, on 19 February 1901, the son of Thomas John Boothman, a railway clerk, and his wife, Mary, née Burgess. Educated at Harrow county school he was, in January 1918, too young to enlist in the British forces, so he joined the French ...
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Brackley, Herbert George (1894–1948), air force officer and airline executive, was born in Islington, London, on 4 October 1894, the second of the seven children of George Herbert Brackley, a master tailor, and his wife, Lilian Sarah Partridge. The family later moved to ...
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Brown, Eric Melrose [nicknamed Winkle] (1919–2016), naval officer and test pilot, was born in Leith, Edinburgh, on 21 January 1919, the son of Robert John Brown, a Royal Air Force (formerly Royal Flying Corps) pilot, and his wife Euphemia, née...
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Graham Pitchfork
Bulloch, Terence Malcolm [Terry] (1916–2014), air force officer, was born at Montreagh, 1 Belsize Road, Lisburn, co. Antrim, on 19 February 1916, the second son, twinned with a sister, of Samuel Arthur Bulloch, linen merchant, and his wife, Elizabeth (Elsie), née...
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Clerke, Richard (fl. 1572–1596), navigator and privateer, claimed to have been born at Buckhurst, Essex, but is generally referred to as 'of Weymouth'. He presumably learned his trade in the ships of the latter port, being master of the Pilgrim between ...
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George Clifford, third earl of Cumberland (1558–1605) by Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1590 © National Maritime Museum, London
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Clifford, George, third earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), courtier and privateer, was born on 8 August 1558 in Brougham Castle, Westmorland, the eldest son of Henry Clifford, second earl of Cumberland (1517–1570), and his second wife, Anne (c.1538–1581), daughter of William, third Baron Dacre...
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Bernard Capp
Coxere, Edward (bap. 1633, d. 1694), sailor, was baptized on 16 June 1633 at St Mary's Church, Dover, the seventh (but second surviving) child of John Coxere (d. 1633), sailor, and his wife, Wealthan, née Peace. His mother, widowed when he was only five months old, quickly married a local cordwainer, ...
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Elizabeth Baigent
Crow, Hugh (1765–1829), privateer and slave trader, was born in Ramsey, Isle of Man, the son of Edmund Crow (1730–1809), a tradesman, and his wife, Judith (1737–1807). He lost his right eye in infancy, but despite this was apprenticed to a boat builder in ...
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Michael Fopp and Guy Revell
Cunningham, John [Cats-Eyes Cunningham] (1917–2002), aviator and businessman, was born on 27 July 1917 at Canley, 17 Castlemaine Avenue, Croydon, Surrey, the elder son and third of the four children of Arthur Gillespie Cunningham (d. 1930), company secretary of the Dunlop Rubber Company...
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Davidson, William (c. 1756–1797), privateer, was born in Scotland; further details of his family and upbringing are unknown. In 1791 he was serving as an able seaman on the Niger, then commanded by Sir Richard Keats. Davidson was noted as a comparatively well-educated man of gloomy and silent disposition, but liable to sudden outbursts of temper. While the ship was at ...
