Historical men and women

  Henry Fox was a prominent English politician during the late 18 th century, although he never became Prime Minister (or First Lord of the...

Mary Seacole is now being given proper recognition for her contribution to nursing and the welfare of soldiers during the Crimean War....

General Ned Ludd never existed, but his followers wreaked havoc in the factories of early 19 th -century Britain and provoked stron...

Frances Howard was a 17 th century murderer who was lucky to escape the ultimate penalty for her crime but who caused other people t...

Sampson Gideon was a Jewish financier who gave valuable service to the British Government during the 18 th century and helped to bre...

Spencer Compton, 1 st Earl of Wilmington, was the second person to be recognised as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first ...

John Wilkes was an 18 th -century radical British journalist and politician whose activities paved the way for reform of the politica...

London owes a huge debt to Joseph Bazalgette for solving the problem of how to dispose of the sewage produced by a rapidly growing po...

Legend meets reality Dick Turpin is one of those “everybody knows” characters of English folklore. Everybody knows that he was a ...

Captain Henry Morgan was a notorious privateer and pirate during the 17th century. He suffered an unfortunate setback when a celebratory p...

The woman who is best known as Wallis Simpson, and then the Duchess of Windsor, was born as Bessie Wallis Warfield on 19 th June 1...