Windsor and Maidenhead Lives

 The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is the national record of men and women who’ve shaped all walks of British life—from the Romans to the 21st century. Published online and updated every month, the ODNB includes more than 60,000 life stories.

Public libraries in Windsor and Maidenhead subscribe to the Oxford DNB, which means you can look for people either in the library or from home (or anywhere, anytime) using your library membership number as a personal log-in.
You can gain access via Windsor and Maidenhead libraries’ Reference Online or the Oxford DNB online, adding your number.

With access Windsor, Maidenhead, Britain, and indeed the world, is your online oyster.

1. Windsor and Maidenhead lives

The Oxford DNB includes nearly 2,000 men and women with connections to Windsor and more than 130 with links to Maidenhead—from the 12th century soldier Gerald of Windsor to the Chelsea footballer Peter Osgood (1947-2006), and the physicist Ted Allibone who contributed to splitting the atom in 1932.

Peter OsgoodEdward III
In between you’ll find many sons and daughters of Maidenhead and Windsor, including (in 1312) Edward III, Restoration dramatist Sir George Etherege, and Sir Sydney Camm (1893-1966), designer of the Hurricane fighter plane.
You can also search within Windsor and Maidenhead, allowing you to find 40 people baptized in the two towns.

Across the ODNB’s 65 million words, you’ll also find more than 2,600 references to both towns, 45 to Stanley Spencer, 182 to Ascot, and more than 2,100 to the Thames.
Stanley SpencerElizabeth
It’s easy to search by place in the Oxford DNB as the following section explains.

2. How do I search?

The Oxford DNB includes the life stories of more than 60,000 men and women. Online you can search for where they were born, baptized, lived, died or were buried, by date range or location.

  • The advanced search ‘life event’ feature can be used to find people near you—be they men and women baptised in Edinburgh (189), those born in Whitby (28), or those buried in Exeter (133). Used in this way the ODNB is an excellent resource for school projects or family history.
  • Text searching across the Oxford DNB’s 68 million words, you can also make links between people and places: for example, we’ve 102 references to “Clapham Common”, 27 to the “River Trent”, and 51 to “Snowdonia”.


3. Topical and local history

Try a map—from British brewersto gardeners and seafarers

Listen to a life

Duke of Windsor
Every two weeks the Oxford DNB releases a biography podcast. There are more than 100 episodes to choose from, including John Lennon, Madame Tussaud, Morecambe and Wise, Roald Dahl, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Browse the episodes by list or by place


> Read the Oxford DNB, free and at home, using your library's subscription
> More about the Oxford DNB