All articles in Biography & Memoir
17th April, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment
Orson Welles on Churchill
In late autumn 1968, Dorian Bond was tasked with travelling to Yugoslavia to deliver cigars and film stock to the legendary Hollywood director Orson Welles. The pair soon struck up an unlikely friendship as they travelled across Europe and reminisced about Winston Churchill and F…
16th March, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History
The death of Robert Falcon Scott
When, on 29 March 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott wrote his last exhortation, ‘For God’s sake look after our people’, two members of his Polar Party, ‘Titus’ Oates and ‘Taff’ Evans, were already dead, and Scott, ‘Doc’ Wilson and ‘Birdie’ Bowers had just a few hours left to…
8th March, 2018 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Stella Rutter: Spitfire draughtswoman and D-Day secret keeper
Stella Rutter was the only female draughtswoman working at the Vickers-Supermarine Aircraft Company during World War II. Her artistic and creative talents led to a very interesting career and some unique wartime experiences in what was a very male-dominated environment and line o…
27th February, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture
The golden days of Kennedy’s special relationship with Britain
It’s one thing for the Anglo-American ‘Special Relationship’ to seemingly be in danger of drifting into the area of unprincipled and short-sighted platitudes which encompasses so much of our modern political thinking. That has happened before. What’s surely new today is the quite…
19th January, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture
Fighting fascists: Battling Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts
Founded in early 1946, the 43 Group was an anti-facist group, membership of which, at first, was almost entirely made up of tough, Anglo-Jewish former servicemen. In a five-year covert campaign these men set about disrupting the public meetings of the resurgent fascist movement a…
17th January, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History
No reconciliation, no address: King Charles I in exile
In January 1648 a measure was passed declaring that the two Houses would ‘make no further Addresses or Applications to the King’ and ‘receive no more any Message from the King’. To complete Charles’ isolation from power, it was also made treasonable for anyone else to apply…
8th January, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, History, Maritime
Vice Admiral Lord Nelson’s state funeral
The funeral of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson on 9 January 1806 was a vast spectacle, at the time probably the largest public event in London’s long history. Advertisements appeared for days beforehand promoting the best vantage points for the procession to St Paul’s Cathedral, newspap…
6th December, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment
At the Oscars with producer Michael Deeley
It is the night of the Oscars, 9 April 1979, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Inimitable master of ceremonies Johnny Carson announces the presenter of the last and most important award category, Best Picture – and the audience is astonishe…
16th November, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, History
The death of Henry III
Henry III ascended to the throne at the age of nine in 1216 and reigned for the rest of his life. He held the record for the longest-serving English monarch until modern times. It was on 16 November in 1272 that his reign of 56 years came to an end. That figure stood for 544…
10th November, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, History
The man who found Dr Livingstone
Famous for having found the great missionary and explorer Dr David Livingstone on the shores of Lake Taganyika and immortalised as the utterer of perhaps the four most quoted words of greetings of all time – ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’ – Henry Morton Stanley was himself a man wh…
30th October, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Who were the real Enigma heroes?
On 30 October 1942, two Royal Navy men serving on HMS Petard drowned whilst capturing codebooks from a German U-boat. A teenager, who helped them, tragically died two years later. Able Seaman Colin Grazier, from Tamworth in Staffordshire, was 22 and had been married for just two…
25th October, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Transport & Industry, Women in History
The Honourable Mrs Victor Bruce’s quest for more horsepower
From a somewhat privileged background, Mildred – known in later life as the Hon. Mrs. Victor Bruce, the first woman to fly solo from the UK to Japan – was given her first pony at the age of six. The beast was a Shetland, appropriately named ‘Dinky’; he was used to pull a ‘g…