Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection published in On The Origin of Species in 1859, re-shaped the way we understand the natural world and our place within it. The book was the result of decades of research during Darwin’s…
Hans Zimmer is perhaps the best-known contemporary composer of film scores and has worked on over 150 films. Born in Frankfurt in Germany, Zimmer received little formal training in music but from an early age was excited by music and how sounds can…
Caroline grew up as part of the Darwin-Wedgwood family whose members influenced public life in many ways across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. After the early death of her mother, Caroline and her older sister took on many of the…
Anthony Caro 8 March 1924 – 23 October 2013.
Anthony Caro’s work as a sculptor was hugely influential and he is often seen as Britain’s finest sculptor since Henry Moore, for whom he worked as an assistant after studying at the Royal Academy. …
Henry Richard Vizetelly 30 July 1820 - 1 January 1894, died, aged 73, at "Heatherlands", Rushmoor, Tilford, near Farnham in Surrey and is buried in the churchyard at St John’s, Churt. Vizetelly was a British publisher and writer. He started the…
Henry Woodyer (1816-1896) was born in Guildford, and educated at Eton and Oxford. He arrived in Oxford in 1835 as the Oxford Movement was gaining a momentum that was to transform religious life in England. Its adherents were committed to achieving…
Sir Anthony Browne, a long-serving courtier and confidant of Henry VIII, is a figure of considerable interest in Surrey. He was the only son of Sir Anthony Browne of Betchworth and knew Henry VIII from childhood.
His first official appointment…
Mary Frances Scott-Siddons. Image sourced through Wikimedia Commons.
Perhaps overshadowed by the success of her great-grandmother, Sarah Siddons, Mary Frances Scott-Siddons managed to make a name for herself in her ancestor’s profession:…
Lucy Prebble. Image sourced through Wikimedia Commons
Talented playwright, screenwriter and producer Lucy Prebble is a Haslemere-born creative paragon. This talented Surrey native has worked on several popular and well-awarded plays and TV…
Hobbs in Guildford High Street, showing the two blue plaques that commemorate John Russell. Photo by Alice Fowler.
A blue plaque suggesting this was John Russell’s birthplace. Photo by Alice Fowler.
Next time you walk down Guildford High…
Photo from the Guildford Institute Archives
Born in Shoreditch, London, John Rand Capron came from a leather-selling family, one of three children. His interest in scientific subjects started with visits to the Royal Polytechnic Institution. He…
Alan Turing. Image sourced through Wikimedia Commons
A young boy who spent his early years holidaying in a Guildford home became the father of computer science and helped the Allied powers win the Second World War. Alan Turing, a computing…
Agatha Christie (1890-1976), born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller of Torquay South Devon had an unusual childhood as she was homeschooled by her father from a young age. Her creative flare for storytelling came from her mother who made-up tales to tell…
Ada Lovelace. Image sourced through Wikimedia Commons
The mother of the computer, Ada Lovelace, spent many years of her life in the quiet, quaint realms of Ockham and East Horsley, following her marriage.
Lovelace was born Augusta Ada Byron,…
Albert Smith, from drawing in ‘The Struggles & Adventures of Christopher Tadpoles at Home and Abroad’. Pub Richard Bently, New Burlington St, London. 1848
Most people today would be hard pressed to recognise the name of the person acclaimed…
Arthur Baldwin Hayward was born on 6th July 1874 the son of Charles Forster and Lucy Emilia Hayward. Arthur was the youngest of 4 children.
Arthur Baldwin Hayward. Author’s own image.
Like his father he trained as an architect and lived and…
Charles Hayward was a successful architect, a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). His plans, drawings and sketches show his skill as a draughtsman. Several of his plans and drawings of the Cottages at North Street in…
Most people walking down Guildford Street in the 1960s would not have realised they were passing one of the country’s most renowned electric guitar and sound system factories. Watkins Electric Music (WEM) was founded by brothers Charlie and Reg…
In 1930 the King’s Rifle competition at Bisley was one of the most hotly contested shooting competitions in Europe. Nearly a hundred competitors, the finest riflemen of the Empire, assembled to shoot targets from 900 and 1,000 yards. Conditions were…
Lord Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, came from one of the most influential families in Lancashire. In Surrey, he owned the Oaks, a mansion in Carshalton. He married Lady Elizabeth Hamilton in 1774. The marriage was unhappy. The Countess,…
