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Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour

  • Benjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten was born in the fishing port of Lowestoft, Suffolk, on the 22nd of November 1913. His father Robert Victor Britten worked as a…
  • James ChadwickJames Chadwick was born on the 20th of October 1891 in Cheshire, England. His father John Joseph Chadwick worked as a cotton spinner while his mother Anne…
  • Elton JohnOn the 25th of March 1947, Reginald Kenneth Dwight entered the world in Pinner, Middlesex. His father served in the Royal Air Force and his mother worked as…
  • Ian McKellenIan Murray McKellen was born on the 25th of May 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire. His family moved to Wigan when he was four months old, just before the Second…
  • Winston ChurchillOn the 30th of November 1874, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born at his family's ancestral home, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
  • John GielgudOn the 14th of April 1904, Sir Arthur John Gielgud was born in a house on Cromwell Road in South Kensington. He entered the world as the third child of Frank…
  • Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney was born on the 18th of June 1942 at Walton Hospital in the Walton area of Liverpool. His mother Mary Patricia Mohin worked as a nurse and…
  • Salman RushdieSir Ahmed Salman Rushdie entered the world on the 19th of June 1947 in Bombay. This city was then part of British India and is now known as Mumbai within…
  • Clement AttleeClement Richard Attlee was born on the 3rd of January 1883 in Putney, Surrey. He grew up in a two-storey villa with a large garden and tennis court.
  • Judi DenchJudi Dench was born in the Heworth area of York on the 9th of December 1934. Her father, Reginald Arthur Dench, practiced medicine there while her mother…
  • Friedrich HayekFriedrich August von Hayek was born on the 8th of May 1899 in Vienna to a family that valued scholarship. His father worked as a medical doctor for the…
  • Alec GuinnessAlec Guinness de Cuffe entered the world at 155 Lauderdale Mansions South in Maida Vale, London, on the 2nd of April 1914.
  • Stephen HawkingStephen William Hawking was born on the 8th of January 1942 in Oxford to Frank and Isobel Eileen Hawking. His mother came from a family of doctors in Glasgow…
  • David AttenboroughDavid Frederick Attenborough was born on the 8th of May 1926 in Isleworth, Middlesex. He grew up in College House on the campus of University College…
  • John BuchanJohn Buchan was born on the 26th of August 1875 at a double villa in Perth, Scotland. That building now bears his name as part of the York Place heritage…
  • Eric HobsbawmEric Hobsbawm entered the world on the 9th of June 1917 in Alexandria, Egypt. His father Leopold Percy Hobsbaum was a Jewish merchant from London's East End…
  • Philip LarkinPhilip Arthur Larkin was born on the 9th of August 1922 at 2 Poultney Road in the Radford district of Coventry. He grew up as the only son and younger child…
  • Eric WilliamsEric Eustace Williams was born on the 25th of September in 1911. His father Thomas Henry Williams worked as a minor civil servant and held devout Roman…
  • A. L. RowseAlfred Leslie Rowse was born on the 4th of December 1903 at Tregonissey near St Austell in Cornwall. His father Richard worked as a china clay worker while…
  • Richard Hamilton (artist)Richard William Hamilton arrived in the world on the 24th of February 1922 within the London district of Pimlico. He left school without any formal…