Born in Belfast, Fraser was educated at the Royal Academical Institution and Queen's University, becoming a consultant at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in 1927. Fraser volunteered in ...

McEleny won more medals than any other British swimmer at Atlanta in 1996. Paraplegic, she has struggled against ill-health to achieve her sporting success and was the flag bearer for the opening ...

Sir Henry Hobart was an English judge and politician. He trained in the law and was called to the Bar in 1584. Hobart entered Parliament as an MP in 1588. Hobart was Steward of Norwich in 1595, made ...

Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka, in what is now southeastern Nigeria. He was kidnapped into slavery at the age of eleven and put to work for a number of different masters in America, the West ...

Bulgarian-born writer; studied Chemistry in Vienna before emigrating to England in 1938; wrote essays, plays, autobiography and a study of crowds, but made his name with the novel, Die Blendung (1935) ...

Younghusband's interests lay in problems of the poor, and whilst a full-time lecturer at the London School of Economics (1933-57), she devoted her spare time to the Citizens' Advice Bureaux, care ...

Eleanor of Castile was the first queen consort of King Edward I. She was the daughter of King Ferdinand III of Castile and his wife, Joan of Ponthieu. In 1254 Eleanor was married to Lord Edward, son ...

Gerrit van Honthorst was a Dutch painter from Utrecht. He travelled to Italy in 1616, where he copied the naturalism and eccentricities of Caravaggio. Honthorst spent four years painting in Rome after ...

Painter; born in Strasbourg, he trained in Paris before coming to England in 1771. He became principal designer at Drury Lane under his friend Garrick and his work for the theatre revolutionised ...

Jacob Ferdinand Voet was a Flemish painter who made his career in Rome. Little is known of his early life in Antwerp. He arrived in Rome in 1663, probably via France. Voet became a much sought-after ...

Mary Moser trained with her father George Michael Moser, a Swiss engraver, medallist and a leading figure at the St Martin's Lane Academy, as well as the first keeper of the Royal Academy. His ...

As a young man, Prout tried to earn a living as an illustrator and accompanied the historical painter B. R. Haydon on a tour of Devon. He produced some good work but his drawings were not of a ...