What's New: October 2023

This month’s update adds the biographies of eight new subjects of African or part-African descent: Harry Edward, James Harley, Peter McLagan, Sam Minto, De Jornette Plummer, David Smith, Daphne Steele, and Cassie Walmer. Read the introduction.

Edward, Harry Francis Vincent (1898–1973), athlete and human rights worker

Harley, James Arthur (1873–1943), Church of England clergyman and local politician

McLagan, Peter (1822/3–1900), agriculturalist, temperance campaigner, and politician

Minto, Samuel Augustus [Sam] (c.1883–1964), boxer and stage artist

Plummer, James Thomas [De Jornette] (1879–1954/1958), photographer, artist, and inventor

Smith, David [known as Chicago or Chicago Kid] (1889-1983), boxer and wrestler

Steele, Daphne Adrianna (1927–2004), nurse and midwife

Walmer, Cassandra [Cassie] [also known as Janice Hart] (1888–1980), music-hall entertainer

 

Introduction to the October 2023 update

Welcome to the 103rd update of the Oxford DNB, which adds eight new articles to the dictionary, with a focus on Black British history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also includes five new images.

From October 2023, the Oxford DNB offers biographies of 64,889 men and women who have shaped the British past, contained in 62,473 articles. 12,010 biographies include a portrait image of the subject—researched in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Most public libraries across the UK subscribe to the Oxford DNB, which means you can access the complete dictionary for free via your local library. Libraries offer 'remote access' that enables you to log in at any time at home (or anywhere you have internet access). Elsewhere the Oxford DNB is available online in schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions worldwide. Full details of participating British public libraries, and how to gain access to the complete dictionary, are available.

October 2023: summary of new articles

To coincide with Black History Month in the UK, the Oxford DNB is publishing the lives of eight people of African, Caribbean, or part-African descent, included for their impact or roles in the UK in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These add to our existing coverage of Black British lives, many of which can be found summarised.

The earliest of the new entrants to the dictionary is Peter McLagan (1822/3-1900), born in Demerara, British Guiana, the son of a wealthy estate and slave owner and an unknown Black woman, thought to be one of his slaves. Brought up in Scotland by his father, he inherited extensive estates in Linlithgowshire and North Lanarkshire, and from 1865 to 1893 was the Liberal MP for Linlithgowshire, known especially as an advocate of temperance. He is believed to be the first British MP of part-African descent.

James Arthur Harley (1873-1943), an anthropologist, Church of England clergyman, and county councillor in Leicestershire, was also of mixed race. Born in Antigua, he grew up on the island, qualifying as a teacher and becoming a headmaster there before moving to the USA, where he took degrees in law and Semitic languages before studying theology at Oxford and taking a diploma in anthropology there. Ordained a Church of England priest, he spent the First World War as a munitions worker before becoming a firebrand figure in Leicestershire local politics and the publisher of a free weekly newspaper.

The photographer, artist, and inventor James Thomas (De Jornette) Plummer (1897-1954/1958) was born in Florida, of African-American descent. He moved to England at the turn of the century, where he set up a photographic studio first in London and by 1903 on Brighton’s Palace Pier (trading as American Art Rapid Photography). Such was his success that branches were soon opened along the south coast and in Brighton. After the First World War he moved briefly to Liverpool, then, after bankruptcy, Belgium, before returning to the USA, where he settled in the art department at Piney Woods School, the celebrated African-American institution. He was awarded patents for several inventions, including an in-car apparatus for distributing sand on roads.

Born in Berlin, the son of a seaman from Dominica and his German wife, Harry Francis Vincent Edward (1898-1973) might never have come to the UK had he not been interned as an enemy alien (on account of his father’s nationality) during the First World War, and ‘repatriated’ to the UK afterwards. A keen athlete – tipped to represent Germany at the 1916 Olympics had it not been for the war – he represented Great Britain at the 1920 Olympics, winning bronze medals in both the 100 metres and the 200 metres. In 1922 he won the 110 yards, 220 yards, and 440 yards at the AAA championships all within the space of an hour. The following year he moved to the US, where he became a noted civil rights activist.

The update includes two Black British boxers, both celebrated in their time. Little is known of Samuel Augustus (Sam) Minto (c.1883-1964)’s origins, but he was most likely born in Barbados or of Barbadian ancestry. By 1909 he was in Withernsea, near Hull, and starting a forty-year career as a pugilist and showman, fighting all-comers in the boxing booths that travelled around fairgrounds and racetracks, and notching up at least 345 professional fights. He was the model for Zeke Pinto, the central character in H. E. Bates’s story, ‘The Black Boxer’ (1932).

The early life of David Smith [known as Chicago or Chicago Kid] (1889-1983) is similarly unclear, though it is known he was born in Trinidad, despite often passing himself off as American. He is first recorded in the UK in 1916, and made a living as a professional boxer (as ‘Chicago Kid’) – his opponents including world champions Mickey Walker and Vince Dundee – and ‘showman wrestler’ (as ‘the Black Devil’). He was also for many decades a fixture of Gaston Berlemont’s renowned Soho pub, the York Minster, where he was a well-known figure amongst its Bohemian and artistic clientele.

From a later generation, Daphne Adrianna Steele (1927-2004) was born on the Essequibo coast of British Guiana and began training as a nurse in Georgetown before arriving in the UK in 1951 to complete her studies. After a brief period working in the US she returned to the UK, where in 1964 she attracted much publicity as the first Black woman to be appointed matron of a hospital. She subsequently worked as a health visitor and became active in various roles in Ilkley, where she lived for over forty years. A building at the University of Huddersfield will be named after her.

Last but by no means least, Cassie Walmer (1888-1980), the only one of the new entrants to the dictionary to have been born in the UK, enjoyed a more than fifty-year career as an actress, comedian, singer, dancer, and music-hall entertainer. Born in London, the daughter of an African-American actor and singer and his French or German wife, she first appeared on stage at the age of three. Extremely popular with audiences, known for her fine voice, her artistic and innovative dances, and her versatility, she headlined in variety theatres across the country for many decades (from 1919 appearing as ‘Janice Hart’ in a double-act with her eventual husband, Frank O’Brian). She was also popular in Australia, touring there for the first time in 1906 and the last in 1935.

The entry on Cassie Walmer is the fifty-first of a Black British subject written by historian Stephen Bourne (who has contributed fifty-six entries overall). Other entries published over the last twenty years include Second World War RAF navigator Ulric Cross, actor Norman Beaton, jazz singer Adelaide Hall, composer Amanda Ira Aldridge, dramatist Alfred Fagon, cabaret star Evelyn Dove, and, most recently, singer-songwriter and entertainer Kenny Lynch.

The entries on Edward, McLagan, Minto, and Smith include likenesses. This update also adds a likeness to the entry on James Johnson (1847-1914).

 

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The Oxford DNB is updated regularly throughout the year, giving you access to the most up-to-date and accurate information available. Nearly all public libraries in England, Scotland, and Wales—and all in Northern Ireland—subscribe to the Oxford DNB. This means you can access tens of thousands of biographies, free, via your local library—anywhere, anytime. Full access to all biographies is also available by individual subscription.

Discover a full list of entries added this year.