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,…
Portrait of Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), by Frederick Hollyer. Public domain.
Edward Carpenter was born into a large family in Sussex in 1844. He was highly intelligent and widely-read and won various prizes during his time studying at…
The “Surrey style” of architecture was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century and Edwin Lutyens was a crucial figure in establishing this style that sought to challenge the dehumanising effects of the Industrial Revolution…
In 1885 Emilia Francis Strong (1840-1904) married Sir Charles Dilke following the death of her first husband, the 70 year old academic and Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford Mark Pattison. Widely travelled, cultured, she was an accomplished artist,…
Frances, also known as Fanny, Kemble was perhaps best known in the nineteenth-century for her stage acting but she was also a novelist, playwright and abolitionist. Born in 1809, she came from an acting dynasty (her father was Charles Kemble the…
James Clark Hook by Ralph Winwood Robinson, published by C. Whittingham & Co platinum print, circa 1891. NPG x7370. © National Portrait Gallery, London. Licensed under Creative Commons.
I think it is fair to say that the Victorian artist,…
John Mitchell Kemble was a scholar and historian most famous for his early translation of the Saxon poem, Beowulf. John was born in London, the son of famous actors Charles and Maria and brother to actor Fanny Kemble. Despite being from the most…
