Arthur William À Beckett (1844–1909) by Lafayette, pubd 1907 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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A. J. A. Morris
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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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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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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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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William Alexander (1826–1894) by Sir George Reid Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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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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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 ...
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Ali, Dusé Mohamed [known as Dusé Mohamed] (1866–1945), journalist and playwright, was born Mohamed Ali on 21 November 1866, in Alexandria, Egypt, the son of Abdul Salem Ali, otherwise Abbas Mohamed (d. 1882), an Egyptian army officer, and his Sudanese wife. In 1876 his father sent him to study in ...
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Gail Minault
Ali, Sayyid Mumtaz (1860–1935), author and publisher, was born in 1860 near Deoband, Saharanpur district, United Provinces, India, the son of Sayyid Zulfiqar Ali, a landholder with ties to the ulama who founded the Deoband madrasa (or Islamic school) in 1866. His education began at an Arabic ...
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Allan, Elkan Philip (1922–2006), journalist and television producer, was born Elkan Philip Cohen at 16 Hoveden Road, Cricklewood, London, on 8 December 1922, the son of Allan Cohen, (d. 1952), furrier, later an owner of printing presses, and his wife, Rose, née...
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William Donaldson
Allan, John Robertson (1906–1986), novelist and journalist, was born on 4 September 1906 at Auchnashag, Udny, Aberdeenshire, the son of Eliza Jane Allan, a domestic servant. Allan was brought up on his grandfather's farm, Bodachra, near Aberdeen. He attended Robert Gordon's College and the ...
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Allardyce, Alexander (1846–1896), journalist and historian, son of James Allardyce, farmer, was born on 21 January 1846 at Tillyminit, Gartly, in the parish of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire. He received his first lessons in Latin from his maternal grandmother and was then educated at Rhynie parish school...
