- John Ritblat
Sir John Ritblat, educated at Dulwich College, is the honorary Chairman and formerly Chairman and CEO of British Land PLC a large London-based property company. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wallace Collection, Deputy Chairman of the Governing Body of London Business School, a Member of the Council of The Royal Institution and Honorary President of the British Ski & Snowboard Federation. - Colin St John Wilson
Sir Colin Alexander St John ("Sandy") Wilson, FRIBA, RA, (14 March 1922 – 14 May 2007) was a British architect, lecturer and author. He spent over 30 years progressing the project to build a new British Library in London, originally planned to be built in Bloomsbury and now completed near Kings Cross. - Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi CBE FRA (March 7 1924 - April 22 2005), was a Scottish sculptor and artist. Paolozzi was born in Leith in north Edinburgh, the eldest son of Italian immigrants. He studied at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1943, briefly at the St Martin's School of Art in 1944, and then at the Slade School of Art in London from 1944 to 1947, after which he worked in Paris, France. - Brian Lang
Brian Lang, FRSE, is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews. Lang was born on 2 December 1945 in Edinburgh and educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh where he studied Social Anthropology, graduating MA in 1968, and PhD in 1974. Following a period in Kenya studying and living among the Kamba people, he lectured in social anthropology for some years at Aarhus University, Denmark. - Robert Bruce Cotton
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet (January 22 1570/1-May 6 1631) was an English politician, founder of the famous Cotton library. He was of Huntingdonshire parentage and educated at Westminster School and Jesus College, Cambridge. He had become interested in antiquarian studies under William Camden, and began to amass a library. He entered the Parliament of England as a member for Huntingdon in 1601. - Marc Aurel Stein
Sir Marc Aurel Stein, Stein Márk Aurél in Hungarian. In 1901 Stein was responsible for exposing forgeries of Islam Akhun. During his expedition of 1906-1908 while surveying in the Kunlun mountain range in western China, Stein suffered frostbite and lost several toes on his right foot. When he was resting from his extended journeys into Central Asia, … - Helen Wallis
Helen Margaret Wallis (August 17, 1924-February 7, 1995) was the Map Curator of the British Library from 1967 to 1987. Born in Barnet, Wallis attended St Paul's School for Girls and studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she completed her D.Phil degree in 1954. In 1951, she was appointed assistant to R.A. Skelton, superintendent of the Map Room at the British Library, succeeding him in 1967. - Owen Jones
Owen Jones was a Welsh antiquary. He was born on the Llanfihangel Glyn y Myfyr in Denbighshire. In 1760 he entered the service of a London firm of furriers, to whose business he ultimately succeeded. He had from boyhood studied Welsh literature, and later devoted time and money to its collection. Assisted by Edward Williams of Glamorgan (Iolo Morganwg) and Dr. Owen Pughe, he published, at a cost of more than £1000, … - Martin Lings
Martin Lings (Abu Bakr Siraj Ad-Din). After completing his doctorate, Lings worked at the British Museum and later British Library, overseeing eastern manuscripts and other textual works, rising to the position of Keeper of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts 1970-73. A writer throughout this period, Lings output increased in the last quarter of his life. While his thesis work on Ahmad al-Alawi had been well-regarded, his most famous work was a biography about Muhammad, … - George Thomason
George Thomason (d. April 1666), English book and tract collector. George Thomason was a London bookseller, whose life contains few items of interest save the fact that he was concerned in a royalist plot in 1651. - William Wright
William Wright (17 January 1830 - 22 May 1889) was a famous British Orientalist, and Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge. Many of his works on Syriac literature are still in print and of considerable scholarly value, especially the catalogues of the holdings of the British Library and Cambridge University Library. Wright is best remembered for the "Short history of Syriac literature". - T C Skeat
Theodore Cressy Skeat (15 February 1907 - 25 June 2003) was Librarian at the British Library, where he worked as Assistant Keeper (from 1931), Deputy Keeper (from 1948), and Keeper of Manuscripts and Egerton Librarian (from 1961 to 1972) after studies in Cambridge and a spell at the British School of Archaeology in Athens. His work coincided with two important acquisitions by the Trustees of the aforementioned institution, … - Chris Mole
Christopher David Mole, known as Chris Mole, (born March 16, 1958, Bromley) is the current member of Parliament for Ipswich in eastern England, and a member of the ruling Labour Party. He won the seat in the 2001 by-election held after the death of Jamie Cann and was re-elected in the General Election held in May 2005. - William Anderson
William Anderson FRCS (18 December 1842 - 27 0ctober 1900), was a Scottish surgeon, Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy in London, and an important collector and scholar of Japanese art. He was the first chairman of the Japan Society. Between 1882 and 1900, Anderson donated his collection of approximately 2000 of Japanese illustrated woodcut books to what is now the British Library. - Simon Forman
Simon Forman (December 30, 1552 - September, 1611) was a prominent English Elizabethan occultist, astrologist and herbalist active in London. He was born in Quidhampton near Salisbury, Wiltshire. After an abortive apprenticeship in Salisbury, he attended Magdalen College, Oxford. After a spell as a teacher in Salisbury, in 1597 he developed his interest in the occult, moving to London in 1592. He set up a medical practice in Billingsgate, … - Colin MacKenzie
Colonel Colin Mackenzie was Surveyor General of India, and an art collector and orientalist. Mackenzie was born in Stornoway, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. He produced many of the first accurate maps of India, and his research and collections contributed significantly to the field of Asian studies. He began his career as a customs officer in Stornoway, but at age 28, joined the British East India Company as an officer in the engineers. - Luigi Rossi
Luigi Rossi was an Italian Baroque composer. Rossi was born in Torremaggiore, a small town near Foggia, in the ancient kingdom of Naples and at an early age he went to Naples. There he studied music with the Franco-Flemish composer Jean de Macque who was organist of the Santa Casa dell’Annunziata and maestro di cappella to the Spanish viceroy. Rossi later entered the service of the Caetanis, dukes of Traetta. - Eric Partridge
Eric Honeywood Partridge was a noted New Zealand/British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. Partridge was born near Waimata Valley, Gisborne, on the North Island of New Zealand to John Thomas Partridge, a grazier, and his wife Ethel Norris. In 1907 the family moved to Brisbane, Australia, where he was educated at the Toowoomba Grammar School. He then studied first Classics and then French and English at the University of Queensland. - Roger Lancelyn Green
Roger (Gilbert) Lancelyn Green was a British biographer and children's writer. Lancelyn Green studied under C. S. Lewis at Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a B.Litt. degree. Lancelyn Green produced retellings of the myths of Greece ("Tales of the Greek Heroes" and "A Tale of Troy") and Egypt ("Tales of Ancient Egypt"), … - Narcissus Luttrell
Narcissus Luttrell was an English historian, diarist, and bibliographer, and briefly Member of Parliament for two different Cornish towns (Rayment). He wrote a chronicle of Parliament from 1678 to 1714, distilled from his diary. Though Luttrell was for almost all this period a private citizen and relied primarily on secondary sources for the workings of Parliament, he is often the best source available for legal and political matters of the time. - Abu Al-Hasan
Abu al-Hasan was the son of Aqa Reza of Herat in western Afghanistan, a city with an artistic tradition. Aqa Reza had taken up employment with Jahangir before the latter's accession to the throne of the Mughal empire. Abu al-Hasan was initially trained by the emperor himself in his large studios and workshops but soon surpassed his father and his employer. Jahangir siad of him that he had no equal and bestowed the title <i>Nadir-uz-Saman</i> ("Wonder of the Age") on him. - Robert Hay
Robert Hay (6 January, 1799 - 1863) was a Scottish traveller, antiquarian, and early Egyptologist. He was born in Duns Castle, Berwickshire. During his service in the Royal Navy he visited Alexandria, Egypt, in 1818. In 1824 he met Joseph Bonomi in Rome, whom he hired as an artist and who accompanied Hay to Egypt. They stayed in Egypt from November 1824 until 1828, and 1829 to 1834, recording monuments and inscriptions, and making a large number of architectural plans. - Horace Hayman Wilson
Horace Hayman Wilson (26 September, 1786 - 8 May, 1860) was an English orientalist, was born in London. He studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, and went out to India in 1808 as assistant-surgeon on the Bengal establishment of the British East India Company. His knowledge of metallurgy caused him to be attached to the mint at Calcutta, where he was for a time associated with John Leyden. He became deeply interested in the ancient language and literature of India, … - Bentley Layton
Bentley Layton (born 1941), is Professor of Religious Studies (Ancient Christianity) and Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Coptic) at Yale University (since 1983). He is a Harvard-educated scholar who has been central to the late 20th-century "Rediscovery of Gnosticism", which was the title of the international conference he hosted at Yale in 1980 and the volume that came of it. - Alan G. Thomas
Alan G. Thomas is a Bournemouth-based antiquarian bookseller (of Commin's Bookshop, Bournemouth, England), bibliophile and Lawrence Durrell scholar. He came to know the young writers-in-the-making Lawrence and Gerald Durrell soon after their family moved to Bournemouth in 1932 'becoming a kind of extra brother to the boys and a lifelong friend' and correspondent. Alan Thomas is the editor of "Spirit of Place: Essays and Letters on Travel" (1969), … - Richard Napier
Richard Napier, (1559- 1 April 1634) was a prominent English astrologer and medical practitioner. - Francis Hargrave
Francis Hargrave (c.1741 to 1821) was the most prominent of the five advocates who appeared on behalf of James Somersett in the case which determined, in 1772, the legal status of slaves in England. Although the case was Hargrave's first, his efforts on the occasion secured his reputation. Hargrave was born in London, and educated at Lincoln's Inn. He came to prominence because of his brilliant performance in the Somersett's case. - Glanmor Williams
Sir Glanmor Williams (May 5 1920-February 25, 2005) was one of Wales's most eminent historians. Sir Glanmor was born in Dowlais, into a working-class family, and was educated at Cyfarthfa Castle School. He studied at Aberystwyth alongside Alun Lewis and Emyr Humphreys, becoming a specialist in the early modern period of Welsh history. His long academic career included 37 years at the University of Wales, Swansea, between 1945 and 1982, … - John Marbeck
John Marbeck, Merbeck or Merbecke (c. 1510 - c. 1585) was an English theological writer and musician who produced a standard setting of the Anglican liturgy. Probably a native of Beverley in Yorkshire, Merbecke appears to have been a boy chorister at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and was employed as an organist there from about 1541. Two years later he was convicted with three others of heresy and sentenced to the stake, … - Andrew Of Wyntoun
Andrew Wyntoun, known as Andrew of Wyntoun ("c." 1350 - 1420) was a Scottish poet, a canon and prior of Loch Leven on St Serf's Inch and later, a canon of St. Andrews. Andrew Wyntoun is most famous for his completion of an eight-syllabled metre entitled, "Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland" (which marks the earliest mention of "Robin Hood"). Wyntoun wrote the 'Chronicle' at the request of his patron, Sir John of Wemyss, … - Victor E. Marsden
Victor Emile Marsden (1866 - 1920) was a journalist and translator. He is known primarily for the translation of the most widespread English language version of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion". The first English language publication of this text was in London in 1920. However, prior to its publication, the "Morning Post", in 1920, utilized the text as a basis of 17, or 18 (depending on which authority is cited), … - William Holder
William Holder (1616 - January 24, 1698) was an English music theorist of the 17th century. His most notable work was his widely known 1694 publication "A Treatise on the Natural Grounds and Principles of Harmony". He was a fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge in 1640, and married Susanna Wren in 1643. In 1662 he received a D.D. Oxon., and was a fellow of the Royal Society in 1663. He became a Canon of St. Paul's in 1672, … - Felix Slade
Felix Joseph Slade FRA (6 August 1788 - 29 March 1868), was an English, a collector of glass, books and engravings, a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1866) and a philanthropist who endowed chairs of fine art (professorships) at Oxford University and Cambridge University, and at University College London, where he also endowed scholarships which formed the beginning of the Slade School of Art (founded 1871). - Thomas Tapling
Thomas Keay Tapling (October 30, 1855 - April 11, 1891) was an English cricketer, businessman, politician and philatelist. Born in Norwood, Surrey, Tapling's father was a Lincolnshire born businessman who made a fortune in London from the manufacture of carpets, pianos and other furnishings. Tapling was educated at Harrow and attended university at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he played first-class cricket, turning out for Trinity College, Cambridge, … - Ted Milton
Ted Milton (born 1943) grew up in Africa, Canada and Great Britain. He published some early poems in magazines like "Paris Review". In 1969 his poetry was published in the anthology "Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain". In the mid-sixties he began performing as a puppeteer, participating in numerous international festivals and appearing on "So It Goes", the TV show hosted by Tony Wilson. - John Ives
John Ives FRS (14 July 1751-9 January 1776) was an antiquarian and officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He was born in Great Yarmouth, the son of another John Ives, who was a wealthy merchant. He was baptized at a Congregationalist church and it was from a Congregationalist minister that Ives received his earliest educational instruction. He was planning on attending Gonville and Caius College but went to work in his father's counting-house in 1767. - John Of Lancaster 1st Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, also known as John Plantagenet also John soft sword Plantagenet, was the third surviving son of King Henry IV of England by Mary de Bohun, and acted as Regent of England for his nephew, King Henry VI. He was created Earl of Kendal, Earl of Richmond and Duke of Bedford in 1414 by his brother, King Henry V. In 1423, he married Anne, daughter of John the Fearless. - Thug Behram
Thug Behram (or Buhram), of the Thuggee cult in India, has frequently been said to be the world's most prolific serial killer. According to numerous sources, he was believed to have murdered 931 victims by strangulation between 1790-1830 by means of the ceremonial cloth (or "rumal", which in Hindi means handkerchief), used by his cult. Attribution of so many killings to this one murderer is, however, … - Widukind Of Corvey
Widukind of Corvey was a Saxon historical chronicler, named after (and possibly a descendant of) the Saxon duke and national hero Widukind who had battled Charlemagne. Widukind the chronicler was born in 925 and died after 973 at the Benedictine abbey of Corvey in Lower Saxony. His three-volume "Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres" is an important chronicle of 10th-century Germany. Widukind entered the monastery at Corvey around 940. - Colin Renshaw Lucas
Sir Colin Renshaw Lucas (born 1940) was the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. He was appointed in 1997 and was succeeded by John Hood in October 2004. In May 2006, he was appointed Chair of the Board of the British Library for a four-year term ending 2010. Sir Colin is the godfather of Boris Johnson.
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