Curated category
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Frederick S. BoasFrederick Samuel Boas lived for ninety-five years, long enough to see the study of early modern drama transform from a gentleman's hobby into a rigorous…
- Keira KnightleyKeira Knightley stood on a plank for two days during filming and refused the offer of a stunt double to jump off. She was twenty years old, earning a global…
- Harold WilsonHarold Wilson was born on the 11th of March 1916 on Warneford Road, in the mill town of Huddersfield, to a family that already breathed politics.
- Ernest ShackletonErnest Shackleton died at 2:50 a.m. on the 5th of January 1922, in a cabin aboard his ship, moored off the island of South Georgia.
- Ewan McGregorEwan Gordon McGregor was born on the 31st of March 1971 in Perth, Scotland, and grew up in the nearby town of Crieff. He left school at 16 to work as a…
- Luol DengLuol Deng was born on the 16th of April 1985 in Wau, a city in what was then Sudan and is now South Sudan. Before he was a teenager, he had already fled a…
- John Boardman (art historian)John Boardman arrived in the world on the 20th of August 1927 within the town of Ilford, Essex. His early years unfolded at Chigwell School between 1938 and…
- Michael FlandersMichael Henry Flanders was born on the 1st of March 1922 in Hampstead, London. He grew up as the third child and only son to Percy Henry Flanders and his…
- Rana MitterRana Shantashil Rajyeswar Mitter arrived in the world on the 11th of August 1969. He was born in Cambridge while his parents worked as academics near…
- Eric IvesEric William Ives was born on the 12th of July 1931 in Romford, Essex, into a Plymouth Brethren family. He died on the 25th of September 2012, leaving behind…
- Idris ElbaIdris Elba was born Idrissa Akuna Elba on the 6th of September 1972 in the London Borough of Hackney, the only child of a Sierra Leonean father who worked at…
- Patrick StewartPatrick Stewart grew a moustache for the role of Macbeth, and when he looked in the mirror just before going on stage, he saw his father's face staring…
- Alan TuringAlan Turing once chained his tea mug to a radiator pipe at Bletchley Park so it could not be stolen. In the first week of every June he cycled to the office…
- Peter MolyneuxPeter Douglas Molyneux was born on the 5th of May 1959, and he has spent four decades doing something most game designers never attempt: building whole…
- Martin EsslinMartin Esslin arrived in England in 1938 with almost nothing, having fled Vienna after the Nazi annexation of Austria. Within a few decades, that same man…
- Jeff LynneJeff Lynne was born on the 30th of December 1947 in Erdington, Birmingham, a city that shaped everything about him, including an accent he never lost.
- Gary LinekerGary Lineker was born on the 30th of November 1960 in Leicester, and a teacher once wrote on his school report that he concentrated too much on football and…
- Kylie MinogueKylie Ann Minogue was born on the 28th of May 1968 at Bethlehem Hospital in Caulfield South, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria.
- Barbara DicksonBarbara Ruth Dickson was born on the 27th of September 1947 in Dunfermline. Her family moved to Rosyth before settling back in Dunfermline during the 1950s.
- Andrew Wallace-HadrillAndrew Frederic Wallace-Hadrill entered the world on the 29th of July 1951 in Oxford, England. His father was John Michael Wallace-Hadrill, a mediaeval…
- Stuart J. RussellStuart Jonathan Russell entered the world in 1962 within the coastal city of Portsmouth, England. He attended St Paul's School in London before moving to…
- John KeeganJohn Desmond Patrick Keegan was born in Clapham, London on the 15th of May 1934. His father served as an Irish First World War veteran before the boy grew up.