Famous Westminster School Alumni
Voting Rules
People on this list must have gone to Westminster School and be of some renown.
List of famous alumni from Westminster School, with photos when available. Prominent graduates from Westminster School include celebrities, politicians, business people, athletes and more. This list of distinguished Westminster School alumni is loosely ordered by relevance, so the most recognizable celebrities who attended Westminster School are at the top of the list. This directory is not just composed of graduates of this school, as some of the famous people on this list didn't necessarily earn a degree from Westminster School.
These graduates, like Helena Bonham Carter and Alice Eve include images when available.
This list answers the questions “Which famous people went to Westminster School?” and “Which celebrities are Westminster School alumni?”- Gavin Rossdale, born on October 30, 1965 in London, England, is a renowned British musician and actor. He rose to fame as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Bush, which was formed in 1992. The band's debut album, Sixteen Stone (1994), was a huge commercial success, certified 6x multi-platinum by the RIAA. Post-Bush, Rossdale embarked on a solo career and his first album, WANDERlust, was released in 2008. Rossdale's impact on the music industry extends beyond Bush and his solo work. He was also part of the band Institute, which he formed after Bush disbanded in 2002. The band released one album, Distort Yourself, before disbanding in 2005. Furthermore, he has collaborated with various artists, such as Blue Man Group and Apocalyptica, showcasing his versatility as an artist. His songwriting prowess is evident in Bush's hit songs like "Swallowed" and "The Chemicals Between Us," both of which reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. In addition to his musical endeavors, Rossdale has also made his mark in the acting world. He made his film debut in the movie Zoolander in 2001, playing himself. He went on to appear in a variety of roles in films and television series, including Constantine and Criminal Minds. Despite his multiple talents and interests, it is clear that Rossdale's primary passion has always been music.
- Age: 59
- Birthplace: Kilburn, London, England, UK
- Helena Bonham Carter, an enigmatic British actress known for her distinctive roles in both art house productions and blockbuster films. Born on May 26, 1966, in Golders Green, London, England, she hails from a prominent British political family. Her father, Raymond Bonham Carter, was a merchant banker, and her mother, Elena, was a psychotherapist. Bonham Carter's acting career took flight when she was cast in the title role of the television movie A Pattern of Roses at the tender age of sixteen. This led to her breakthrough role as the ingénue Lucy Honeychurch in the film adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, A Room with a View (1985). Her performance garnered critical acclaim and cemented her position in the film industry. Over the years, she has delivered standout performances in a diverse range of films like Fight Club, The King's Speech, and the Harry Potter series, proving her versatility as an actress. Arguably, her most notable collaborations have been with the visionary director Tim Burton. They worked together on several projects such as Planet of the Apes, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Alice in Wonderland. Bonham Carter's eccentric style and ability to portray complex characters resonated with Burton's unconventional storytelling. Off-screen, they shared a romantic relationship and have two children together. Despite their separation, they remain amicable co-parents. Helena Bonham Carter, with her unconventional charm and fearless performances, continues to be an enduring figure in the world of cinema.
- Age: 58
- Birthplace: England, London
- 1Ari - 'Planet Of The Apes'175 Votes
- 2Elizabeth - 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'182 Votes
- 3Jenny The Witch - 'Big Fish'163 Votes
- Alice Eve, with her striking blue eyes of two different colors, is a widely recognized and highly respected English actress. Born in London in 1982 to actor parents, Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughan, she was destined for the limelight from an early age. Raised in an environment that fostered her creative instincts, Eve was introduced to acting through her parent's successful careers in the entertainment industry. These influences shaped her early decision to pursue the field, solidifying her journey into the performing arts. Educated at prestigious institutions like Bedales School, Westminster School, and the Beverly Hills Playhouse, Eve stands as a testament to the importance of combining talent with formal training. Her educational background played a pivotal role in honing her acting skills. The crowning moment of her academic journey came after graduating from Oxford University where she studied English. During her time there, she participated in various student productions, which further fuelled her passion for acting. Eve made her professional acting debut in the television series Hawking in 2004. However, it was her role in the film She's Out of My League in 2010 that catapulted her to international fame. From portraying complex characters in films like Star Trek Into Darkness to challenging roles in television series like Black Mirror, Eve's diverse repertoire showcases her dynamic acting range. Despite her soaring career, Eve remains deeply committed to theater. She has delivered acclaimed performances in both London and Broadway productions, demonstrating the depth and versatility of her talent.
- Age: 43
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
- 1She's Out of My League220 Votes
- 2Starter for 1041 Votes
- 3The Decoy Bride34 Votes
- Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British former politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. An "Orange Book" liberal, Clegg served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017 and has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies. He is Vice-President for Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook.Born in Buckinghamshire, Clegg was educated at the University of Cambridge, the University of Minnesota, and the College of Europe. He served as a journalist for the Financial Times before becoming a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 1999. After his election to the House of Commons in 2005, Clegg served in a variety of leadership roles in the Liberal Democrats, most notably as Spokesperson for Home Affairs, before being elected to succeed Menzies Campbell as party leader in 2007. During his tenure as leader, Clegg asserted that the Liberal Democrats transcended the tradition "left-right" axis and labelled the party as being radical centrist in orientation. He advocated for reduced taxes, electoral reform, cuts on defence spending, and an increased focus on environmental issues. As a result of the 2010 general election, Clegg's Liberal Democrats found themselves with 57 seats in the House of Commons. The Conservative Party, which failed to receive a majority, formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, and Clegg was appointed by David Cameron to serve as his Deputy Prime Minister. In this capacity, he became the first leader of the Liberal Democrats to answer for the Prime Minister's Questions, and used his influence in the position to pass the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. Controversy arose during this time surrounding the Liberal Democrats' decision to abandon to their pledge to oppose increases in tuition fees, which had previously been a key issue that won the party support from students.During the party's time in coalition, the Liberal Democrats saw a significant drop in support, and the 2015 general election left the party with just 8 seats, which resulted in Clegg's ousting as Deputy Prime Minister and his resignation as party leader. In 2016, following a referendum in which a majority supported leaving the European Union, Clegg returned to the Liberal Democrat frontbench, concurrently serving as Spokesperson for Exiting the European Union and for International Trade from July 2016 to June 2017. In the 2017 general election, Clegg was defeated in his constituency of Sheffield Hallam by Jared O'Mara of the Labour Party. In October 2018, it was announced Clegg had been appointed Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook, succeeding Elliot Schrage.
- Age: 58
- Birthplace: Chalfont St Giles, United Kingdom
- Born in London in 1904, Sir Arthur John Gielgud was one of the most significant figures in the British theater scene for over half a century. He belonged to the Terry-Gielgud dynasty, an eminent family steeped in theatrical tradition. Gielgud received his education at Westminster School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. His early roles in plays such as The Importance of Being Earnest and Hamlet, both performed during the late 1920s and early 1930s, solidified his reputation as a powerful stage actor and earned him immediate recognition. Gielgud's multifaceted career extended beyond the confines of the stage. He made notable appearances in film and television, proving his versatility across different mediums. His performances in films like Julius Caesar (1953), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and Arthur (1981) exemplify his wide range. The latter role won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Despite these achievements, Gielgud never abandoned his primary passion for the theater, directing acclaimed productions of classics like The School for Scandal and King Lear. Sir John Gielgud was honored with numerous accolades throughout his illustrious career. In addition to his Academy Award, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 for his services to the performing arts, and later received a BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award. His immense contributions to theater, film, and television left an indelible imprint on the world of entertainment. Gielgud passed away in 2000, but his legacy continues to influence generations of actors and theater enthusiasts worldwide.
- Age: Dec. at 96 (1904-2000)
- Birthplace: South Kensington, London, England, UK
- Lancelot Blackburne (sometimes Blackburn, Blackborne or Blackbourn[e]; 10 December 1658 – 23 March 1743) was an English clergyman, who became Archbishop of York, and – in popular belief – a pirate. He was described by Horace Walpole, in his Memories, as "…Blackbourn, the jolly old Archbishop of York, who had all the manners of a man of quality, though he had been a buccaneer, and was a clergyman; but he retained nothing of his first profession, except his seraglio."
- Age: Dec. at 84 (1658-1743)
- Mika (, born Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr.; 18 August 1983), stylised as MIKA, is an English recording artist and singer-songwriter. After recording his first extended play, Dodgy Holiday, Mika was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2007 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2007. Mika released his first full-length studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion, on Island Records in 2007, which sold more than 5.6 million copies worldwide and helped Mika win a Brit Award—winning Best British Breakthrough act, and receive a Grammy Award nomination. He topped the UK Singles Chart in January 2007 with "Grace Kelly". Two years later Mika released his second extended play, Songs for Sorrow, of which limited edition copies are now sold out worldwide. In 2009 Mika released his second studio album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much. Finishing his worldwide tour, Mika recorded his third album, The Origin of Love, stating it would be "more simplistic pop, less layered than the last one". The album was released internationally on 16 September 2012 and in the UK on 8 October 2012.His latest album, No Place in Heaven, was released 15 June 2015.
- Age: 41
- Birthplace: Lebanon, Beirut
- Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 – July 28, 1994) was a British-American anthropologist who came to public attention with the popular books The Forest People (on the Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire) and The Mountain People (on the Ik people of Uganda), and one of the first anthropologists to work in the field of ethnomusicology.
- Age: Dec. at 69 (1924-1994)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Francis Lewis (March 21, 1713 – December 31, 1802) was a merchant and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New York.
- Age: Dec. at 90 (1713-1803)
- Birthplace: Llangurig, United Kingdom
- General John Burgoyne (24 February 1722 – 4 August 1792) was a British army officer, dramatist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1792. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, most notably during the Portugal Campaign of 1762. John Burgoyne is best known for his role in the American Revolutionary War. He designed an invasion scheme and was appointed to command a force moving south from Canada to split away New England and end the rebellion. Burgoyne advanced from Canada but his slow movement allowed the Americans to concentrate their forces. Instead of coming to his aid according to the overall plan, the British Army in New York City moved south to capture Philadelphia. Surrounded, Burgoyne fought two small battles near Saratoga to break out. Trapped by superior American forces, with no relief in sight, Burgoyne surrendered his entire army of 6,200 men on 17 October 1777. His surrender, says historian Edmund Morgan, "was a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory". He and his officers returned to England; the enlisted men became prisoners of war. Burgoyne came under sharp criticism when he returned to London, and never held another active command. Burgoyne was also an accomplished playwright known for his works such as The Maid of the Oaks and The Heiress, but his plays never reached the fame of his military career. He served as a member of the House of Commons for a number of years, sitting for the seats of Midhurst and Preston.
- Age: Dec. at 70 (1722-1792)
- Birthplace: Sutton, Bedfordshire, England
John Freeman may refer to: John D. Freeman (died 1886), U.S. Representative from Mississippi John Freeman (VC) (1832–1913), British Army soldier, Victoria Cross recipient John Bailey Freeman (1835–1890), Canadian politician John Ripley Freeman (1855–1932), American civil engineer Buck Freeman (John Frank Freeman, 1871–1949), American baseball player John Freeman (poet) (1880–1929), English poet John Freeman (cricketer) (1883–1958), English cricketer John Freeman (Australian politician) (1894–1970), Australian politician John Freeman (baseball) (1901–1958), American baseball player John Freeman (1903–1950), pseudonymous author of essay "Can Socialists Be Happy?", now attributed to George Orwell John Freeman (1915–2014), British politician, broadcaster and television presenter John Freeman (animator) (1916–2010), American character animator for Disney, Marvel Studios and others John M. Freeman (1933–2014), American pediatric neurologist John Freeman (rugby) (1934–2017), Welsh rugby union and professional rugby league footballer John Freeman (editor) (born 1943), British writer and editor John Freeman (diplomat) (born 1951), British diplomat, Governor of Turks and Caicos Islands John Freeman (Wyoming politician) (born 1954), member of the Wyoming House of Representatives John Craig Freeman (born 1959), artist and professor of new media John Freeman (author) (born 1974), American literary critic and former editor of Granta John Freeman, owner of defunct British cabin cruiser company Freeman Cruisers- Age: 110
- Birthplace: United Kingdom
- Nicholas Udall (or Uvedale Udal, Woodall, or other variations) (1504 – 23 December 1556) was an English playwright, cleric, and schoolmaster, the author of Ralph Roister Doister, generally regarded as the first comedy written in the English language.
- Age: Dec. at 52 (1504-1556)
- Birthplace: Southampton, United Kingdom
- Arthur Dee (13 July 1579 – September or October 1651) was a physician and alchemist. He was the eldest son of John Dee by his third wife, Jane, daughter of Bartholomew Fromond of East Cheam, Surrey, and was born at Mortlake on 13 July 1579. He accompanied his father in travels through Germany, Poland, and Bohemia. After his return to England he was placed at Westminster School, 3 May 1592, under the tuition of Edward Grant and Camden. Anthony Wood was informed that he subsequently studied at Oxford, but he took no degree, and his college is unknown. Settling in London with the intention of practising 'physic' (medicine) he exhibited at the door of his house a list of medicines which were said to be certain cures for many diseases. The censors of the College of Physicians summoned him to appear before them; but it is not known with what outcome. Proceeding to Manchester, Dee married Isabella, daughter of Edward Prestwych, justice of the peace. Through the recommendation of James I he was appointed one of the physicians to the Tsar Michael I of Russia. He remained in Russia for about fourteen years, principally at Moscow. There he wrote his Fasciculus Chemicus, a collection of writings on alchemy. Returning to England upon the death of his wife in 1637, Dee became physician to King Charles I. Upon his retirement Arthur Dee resided in Norwich, where he became a friend of Sir Thomas Browne. His relationship to Browne has been little explored, one literary critic speculating of this relationship, Little is known of this son of Dee's; one cannot help but wonder however, how much he may have influenced Browne, who was one of the seventeenth century's greatest literary exponents of the type of occult philosophy in which both the Dee's were immersed. Arthur Dee died in September or October 1651 and was buried in St George's Church, Tombland, Norwich. He had seven sons and six daughters. On his death the bulk of Arthur Dee's alchemical manuscripts and books were bequeathed to Sir Thomas Browne. In the early 20th century Rasputin stole a number of Arthur Dee's translations of his father's writings into Russian. They were later reclaimed by the Romanov family and returned to the Imperial Library in Moscow.
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1579-1651)
Philip Carr-Gomm
Philip Carr-Gomm (born 1952) is an author in the fields of psychology and Druidry, a psychologist, and one of the leaders and Chosen Chief of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.- Age: 73
- Birthplace: Sussex, United Kingdom
- George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devotional lyricists." He was born into an artistic and wealthy family and largely raised in England. He received a good education that led to his admission to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1609. He went there with the intention of becoming a priest, but he became the University's Public Orator and attracted the attention of King James I. He served in the Parliament of England in 1624 and briefly in 1625.After the death of King James, Herbert renewed his interest in ordination. He gave up his secular ambitions in his mid-thirties and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as the rector of the little parish of St Andrew's Church, Lower Bemerton, Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill and providing food and clothing for those in need. Henry Vaughan called him "a most glorious saint and seer". He was never a healthy man and died of consumption at age 39.
- Age: Dec. at 39 (1593-1633)
- Birthplace: Montgomery, United Kingdom
- John Dryden (; 19 August [O.S. 9 August] 1631 – 12 May [O.S. 1 May] 1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668.He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Walter Scott called him "Glorious John".
- Age: Dec. at 68 (1631-1700)
- Birthplace: Aldwincle, United Kingdom
- Benjamin Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours. He is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Fox (c. 1606), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614) and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry. "He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I."Jonson was a classically educated, well-read and cultured man of the English Renaissance with an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and intellectual) whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and the poets of the Jacobean era (1603–1625) and of the Caroline era (1625–1642).
- Age: Dec. at 65 (1572-1637)
- Birthplace: Westminster, London, United Kingdom
- Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014) was a British politician, writer, and diarist. He was a Member of Parliament for 47 years between the 1950 and 2001 general elections and a Cabinet minister in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s. Originally a moderate, he was identified as being on the party's hard left from the early 1980s onward, and was widely seen as a key proponent of democratic socialism within the party.Benn inherited a peerage on his father's death (as 2nd Viscount Stansgate), which prevented him from continuing to serve as an MP. He fought to remain in the House of Commons, and then campaigned for the ability to renounce the title, a campaign which succeeded with the Peerage Act 1963. He was an active member of the Fabian Society and served as Chairman from 1964 to 1965. In the Labour Government from 1964 to 1970, he served first as Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, and later as a "technocratic" Minister of Technology.He served as Chairman of the Labour Party in 1971–72 while in opposition. In the Labour Government of 1974–1979 he returned to the Cabinet, initially as Secretary of State for Industry, and subsequently Secretary of State for Energy. He retained that post when James Callaghan succeeded Wilson as Prime Minister. When the Labour Party was in opposition through the 1980s, he emerged as a prominent figure on the left-wing of the party, and the term "Bennite" came into usage as someone associated with radical left-wing politics. He unsuccessfully challenged Neil Kinnock for the Labour leadership in 1988. Benn was described as "one of the few UK politicians to have become more left-wing after holding ministerial office". After leaving Parliament, Benn was President of the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 until his death in 2014.
- Age: Dec. at 88 (1925-2014)
- Birthplace: Westminster, London, England, UK
- Peter Ustinov was an extraordinary personality in the world of entertainment. Born on April 16, 1921, in London, England, Ustinov's career spanned six decades and encompassed everything from acting to playwriting, directing, and even journalism. He was a student of the prestigious Westminster School, after which he decided to forgo university and dive straight into his burgeoning acting career. Ustinov's talent knew no bounds as he excelled in multiple forms of art. His very first play, titled House of Regrets, debuted when he was just 19 years old, indicating a prodigious talent right from the start. His storied acting career began with smaller parts in British cinema, but he quickly rose to prominence with roles in international films. The pinnacle of his acting career was arguably his portrayals in Spartacus and Topkapi, which garnered him two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. However, acting was not Ustinov's only forte. He was also an acclaimed author and playwright, with plays like The Love of Four Colonels and Romanoff and Juliet. Additionally, he made significant contributions to journalism and was known for his razor-sharp wit and keen observations about human nature. He was also a tireless advocate for children's causes, serving as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF from 1968 until his death in 2004.
- Age: Dec. at 82 (1921-2004)
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
- 1Death on the Nile57 Votes
- 2Spartacus45 Votes
- 3Quo Vadis51 Votes
- Louis Theroux is a writer, actor, director, and producer who is best known for writing "My Scientology Movie" and "Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends." Theroux was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 1996 for "TV Nation."
- Age: 54
- Birthplace: Singapore
- Peter Asher, CBE (born 22 June 1944) is a British guitarist, singer, manager and record producer. He came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of the pop music vocal duo Peter and Gordon before going on to a successful career as a manager and record producer. As of 2018, he tours alongside Jeremy Clyde of Chad and Jeremy in a new duo entitled Peter and Jeremy, where they perform hits from both of their respective catalogues.
- Age: 80
- Birthplace: England, London
George Rose
PoliticianGeorge Rose may refer to: George Rose (politician) (1744–1818), British Member of Parliament, Clerk of the Parliaments and Treasurer of the Navy, 1807–1818 George Henry Rose (1771–1855), his son, British Member of Parliament and Clerk of the Parliaments, 1818–1855 George Rose, co-founder of the Boston, Massachusetts, streetcar company Gore, Rose and Company George Rose (actor) (1920–1988), British actor George Rose (American football) (born 1942), former National Football League cornerback George Rose (businessman), British businessman George Rose (photographer), American photographer George Rose (Medal of Honor) (1880–1932), United States Navy officer George Rose (rugby league) (born 1983), Australian rugby league footballer George Rose (barrister) (1782–1873), barrister and law reporter- Age: Dec. at 73 (1744-1818)
- Birthplace: Brechin, United Kingdom
- Francis Atterbury (6 March 1663 – 22 February 1732) was an English man of letters, politician and bishop. A High Church Tory and Jacobite, he gained patronage under Queen Anne, but was mistrusted by the Hanoverian Whig ministries, and banished for communicating with the Old Pretender. He was a noted wit and a gifted preacher.
- Age: Dec. at 68 (1663-1732)
- Birthplace: Middleton, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
- Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 [O.S. 4 February 1747] – 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism.Bentham defined as the "fundamental axiom" of his philosophy the principle that "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism. He advocated for individual and economic freedoms, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the right to divorce, and (in an unpublished essay) the decriminalising of homosexual acts. He called for the abolition of slavery, of the death penalty, and of physical punishment, including that of children. He has also become known as an early advocate of animal rights. Though strongly in favour of the extension of individual legal rights, he opposed the idea of natural law and natural rights (both of which are considered "divine" or "God-given" in origin), calling them "nonsense upon stilts". Bentham was also a sharp critic of legal fictions. Bentham's students included his secretary and collaborator James Mill, the latter's son, John Stuart Mill, the legal philosopher John Austin, as well as Robert Owen, one of the founders of utopian socialism. He "had considerable influence on the reform of prisons, schools, poor laws, law courts, and Parliament itself."On his death in 1832, Bentham left instructions for his body to be first dissected, and then to be permanently preserved as an "auto-icon" (or self-image), which would be his memorial. This was done, and the auto-icon is now on public display at University College London (UCL). Because of his arguments in favour of the general availability of education, he has been described as the "spiritual founder" of UCL. However, he played only a limited direct part in its foundation.
- Age: Dec. at 84 (1748-1832)
- Birthplace: Spitalfields, London, United Kingdom
- Henry Purcell () (c. 10 September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcell's legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no later native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Benjamin Britten in the 20th century.
- Age: Dec. at 36 (1659-1695)
- Birthplace: Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley (; 1618 – 28 July 1667) was an English poet born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721.- Age: Dec. at 49 (1618-1667)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Gary Frederick Holton (22 September 1953 – 25 October 1985) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and actor from London. He was the frontman of the band Heavy Metal Kids (1972–77), he worked with Casino Steel (1981–84), and played the part of Wayne in the UK television comedy Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983–85). Holton died from an overdose of morphine combined with alcohol in 1985.
- Age: Dec. at 33 (1952-1985)
- Birthplace: England, London
Percy Dearmer
Percival "Percy" Dearmer was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy. A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the public ministry of women and concerned with social justice. Dearmer also had a strong influence on the music of the church and, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, is credited with the revival and spread of traditional and medieval English musical forms.- Age: Dec. at 69 (1867-1936)
- Birthplace: England
James Brandon
JournalistJames Brandon may refer to: James Brandon (footballer) (1867–1934), Scottish footballer James Brandon (journalist) James Brandon (colonel) (1734-1790), Colonel in the North Carolina militia during the American Revolution James Brandon, character in All for Peggy James Rodger Brandon (1927–2015), professor of Asian theater at the University of Hawaii Jamie Brandon (born 1998), Scottish footballer (Heart of Midlothian FC)- Age: 44
- Robert Herrick (baptised 24 August 1591 – buried 15 October 1674) was a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric. He is best known for Hesperides, a book of poems. This includes the carpe diem poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", with the first line "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may".
- Age: Dec. at 83 (1591-1674)
- Birthplace: Cheapside, United Kingdom
- Cyril Jackson may refer to: Cyril Jackson (priest) (1746–1819), Dean of Christ Church, Oxford 1783–1809 Cyril Jackson (astronomer) (1903–1988), South African astronomer Cyril Jackson (educationist) (1863–1924), British educationist
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1746-1819)
- Birthplace: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
- Alexander "Alex" Williams (born 18 October 1967 in London) is an English film animator and cartoonist. He is the son of animator Richard Williams. He has worked on many animated films, and is the author of the Queens Counsel cartoon strip in The Times, for which he was awarded the Cartoon Art Trust Award for Strip Cartooning in October 2017.
- Age: 57
- Birthplace: England, London
- Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian (30 November 1889 – 4 August 1977) was an English electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, won jointly with Sir Charles Sherrington for work on the function of neurons. He provided experimental evidence for the all-or-none law of nerves.
- Age: Dec. at 87 (1889-1977)
- Birthplace: Hampstead, London, England
Roger Norrington
ConductorSir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington (born 16 March 1934) is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington.- Age: 90
- Birthplace: England, Oxford
- Fredric John Warburg (27 November 1898 – 25 May 1981) was a British publisher best known for his association with the author George Orwell. During a career spanning a large part of the 20th century and ending in 1971 Warburg published Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) as well as Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and works by other leading figures such as Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka. Other notable publications included The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa, Pierre Boulle's The Bridge over the River Kwai, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
- Age: Dec. at 82 (1898-1981)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Adam Buxton is an actor who appeared in "Sing 2," "Sing," and "The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer."
- Age: 55
- Birthplace: Hammersmith, London, England, UK
- John Thomas Bigge (8 March 1780 – 22 December 1843) was an English judge and royal commissioner.
- Age: Dec. at 63 (1780-1843)
- Birthplace: England
- Andrew Lloyd Webber, born on March 22, 1948, in Kensington, London, stands as one of the most influential figures in the world of musical theatre. Coming from a musical family, with his father being a composer and his mother a violinist and pianist, Webber's destiny seemed written in the stars. He began composing music at a young age, showcasing an innate talent that would soon garner global recognition. Remarkably, he composed his first suite at age nine, which was followed by a series of other compositions during his early years. Webber's rise to prominence catapulted with the success of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a musical written in collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice. This partnership proved fruitful, yielding iconic productions like Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. However, Webber's magnum opus, The Phantom of the Opera, released in 1986, further cemented his reputation as a leading maestro of musical theater. Over the course of his career, Webber's contributions to the arts have been acknowledged with numerous awards including, but not limited to, the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award. More than just a series of accolades, these recognitions bear testament to Webber's enduring influence on the stage. His innovative approach to storytelling through music has shaped the landscape of modern musical theater, making him a pivotal figure in the industry. The legacy of Andrew Lloyd Webber is marked by a repertoire of timeless masterpieces that continue to captivate audiences worldwide.
- Age: 76
- Birthplace: England, Kensington, London
- 1The Phantom of the Opera416 Votes
- 2Jesus Christ Superstar328 Votes
- 3Evita281 Votes
- Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve (born 24 May 1956) is a British Conservative politician, barrister, Queen's Counsel and a Member of the Privy Council. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield since 1997, and served as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland from May 2010 to July 2014, attending Cabinet. He was sacked as Attorney General by then Prime Minister David Cameron as part of the Cabinet reshuffle of 14 July 2014, and was replaced by Jeremy Wright. Grieve has been a central figure on Brexit and frequently used his legal experience to propose amendments on the issue, his interventions have often been at odds with government policy. Grieve has called for a second referendum on EU membership and has said that he and other Conservative rebels will support a vote of no confidence to bring down a Conservative government, if that is the only way to block the “catastrophic” damage from a bad Brexit. As deadlines have approached, Grieve's threats to bring down the Government have increased. Grieve is facing deselection by his local party after losing a confidence vote by members.Grieve is president of the Franco-British Society. He was awarded the Legion of Honour in 2016. He broadcasts in French on French radio and television.
- Age: 68
- Birthplace: London, England
- The Rev Dr Nevil Maskelyne DD FRS FRSE (6 October 1732 – 9 February 1811) was the fifth British Astronomer Royal. He held the office from 1765 to 1811. He was the first person to scientifically measure the mass of the planet Earth.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1732-1811)
- Birthplace: London, England
- Bruno P. Maddox (born 1969) is a British literary novelist and journalist who is best known for his novel My Little Blue Dress (2001) and for his satirical magazine essays. After graduating from Harvard University in 1992, Maddox began his career reviewing books for The New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post Book World. In early 1996, he was appointed to an editorship at Spy magazine and within a few months he was promoted to editor-in-chief, a position he held until the magazine shut down in 1998. Maddox wrote My Little Blue Dress between 1999 and 2001. Since its publication, he has focused on writing satirical essays for magazines such as GEAR and Travel + Leisure; he also contributes a monthly humor column to Discover magazine called "Blinded by Science", drawing on his early exposure to science and technology. Maddox is likewise a contributing editor to the American edition of The Week magazine.
- Age: 56
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Robert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath. His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but eventually becoming ill and party to jealous intellectual disputes. These issues may have contributed to his relative historical obscurity. He was at one time simultaneously the curator of experiments of the Royal Society and a member of its council, Gresham Professor of Geometry and a Surveyor to the City of London after the Great Fire of London, in which capacity he appears to have performed more than half of all the surveys after the fire. He was also an important architect of his time – though few of his buildings now survive and some of those are generally misattributed – and was instrumental in devising a set of planning controls for London whose influence remains today. Allan Chapman has characterised him as "England's Leonardo".
- Age: Dec. at 67 (1635-1703)
- Birthplace: Freshwater, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom
- Sir John Richard Nicholas Stone (30 August 1913 – 6 December 1991) was an eminent British economist, educated at Westminster School, Cambridge University (Caius and King's), who in 1984 received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for developing an accounting model that could be used to track economic activities on a national and, later, an international scale.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1913-1991)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Stephen Poliakoff (born 1 December 1952) is a British playwright, director and scriptwriter.
- Age: 72
- Birthplace: Holland Park
Kim Philby
SpyHarold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 1912 – 11 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, He was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and in the early stages of the Cold War. Of the five, Philby is believed to have been most successful in providing secret information to the Soviets.Born in British India, Philby was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was recruited by Soviet intelligence in 1934. After leaving Cambridge, Philby worked as a journalist and covered the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of France. In 1940, he began working for MI6. By the end of the Second World War he had become a high-ranking member of the British intelligence service. In 1949, Philby was appointed first secretary to the British Embassy in Washington and served as chief British liaison with American intelligence agencies. During his career as an intelligence officer, he passed large amounts of intelligence to the Soviet Union, including a Anglo-American plot to subvert the communist regime of Albania. He was also responsible for tipping off two other spies under suspicion of espionage, Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, both of whom subsequently fled to Moscow in May 1951. The defections of Maclean and Burgess cast suspicion over Philby, resulting in his resignation from MI6 in July 1951. He was publicly exonerated in 1955, after which he resumed his career in journalism in Beirut. In January 1963, having finally been unmasked as a Soviet agent, Philby defected to Moscow, where he lived out his life until his death in 1988.- Age: Dec. at 76 (1912-1988)
- Birthplace: Ambala, India
Richard Doll
StatisticianSir William Richard Shaboe Doll (28 October 1912 – 24 July 2005) was a British physician who became an epidemiologist in the mid-20th century and made important contributions to that discipline. He was a pioneer in research linking smoking to health problems. With Ernst Wynder, Bradford Hill and Evarts Graham, he was credited with being the first to prove that smoking caused lung cancer and increased the risk of heart disease. (German studies had suggested a link as early as the 1920s but were forgotten or ignored until the 1990s.) He also carried out pioneering work on the relationship between radiation and leukemia as well as that between asbestos and lung cancer, and alcohol and breast cancer. On 28 June 2012 he was the subject of a series on Radio Four called The New Elizabethans, a programme broadcast to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, dealing with 60 public figures from her reign.- Age: Dec. at 92 (1912-2005)
- Birthplace: Hampton, London, London, United Kingdom
- Ruth Maria Kelly (born 9 May 1968) is a former British Labour Party politician, serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton West from 1997 until she stood down in 2010. Previously, she served as the Secretary of State for Transport, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Minister for Women and Equality and Secretary of State for Education and Skills, serving under both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.
- Age: 56
- Birthplace: Limavady, United Kingdom
John Pell
Linguist, MathematicianJohn Pell (1 March 1611 – 12 December 1685) was an English mathematician and political agent abroad.- Age: Dec. at 74 (1611-1685)
- Birthplace: Southwick, England
- Martin Louis Amis FRSL (August 25, 1949 – May 19, 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels Money (1984) and London Fields (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir Experience and was twice listed for the Booker Prize (shortlisted in 1991 for Time's Arrow and longlisted in 2003 for Yellow Dog). Amis served as the Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester from 2007 until 2011. In 2008, The Times named him one of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945. Amis's work centers on the excesses of "late-capitalist" Western society, whose perceived absurdity he often satirized through grotesque caricature; he was portrayed as a master of what The New York Times called "the new unpleasantness".
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1949-2023)
- Birthplace: Swansea, United Kingdom
- Charles Cuthbert Powell Williams, Baron Williams of Elvel, (born 9 February 1933) is a retired business executive and a Labour peer. In his 20s he played first-class cricket while at university and for several seasons afterwards. He is the stepfather of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
- Age: 92
- Birthplace: Oxford, England
- Simon James Holliday Gray (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008) was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to five published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film, and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries.
- Age: Dec. at 71 (1936-2008)
- Birthplace: Hayling Island, England
- Colonel Sir Charles Edward Howard Vincent (31 May 1849 – 7 April 1908), known as Howard Vincent or C. E. Howard Vincent, was a British soldier, barrister, police official and Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1908.
- Age: Dec. at 58 (1849-1908)
- Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1661 – 19 May 1715) was an English poet and statesman.
- Age: Dec. at 54 (1661-1715)
- Birthplace: Horton, United Kingdom
- Anton Rodgers was an English actor who appeared in "Rotten to the Core," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," and "Impromptu."
- Age: Dec. at 74 (1933-2007)
- Birthplace: Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
- Giles Robin Patrick Coren (born 29 July 1969) is a British food writer and television presenter. He has been a restaurant critic for The Times newspaper since 1993, and was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2005. He has co-starred with comedian Sue Perkins in The Supersizers... series and with chef Monica Galetti in the Amazing Hotels - Life Beyond The Lobby series. Coren has been involved in a number of controversies, including breaching a privacy injunction and being accused of anti-Polish sentiment.
- Age: 55
- Birthplace: Paddington, London, England
- Sir Christopher Michael Wren PRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710. The principal creative responsibility for a number of the churches is now more commonly attributed to others in his office, especially Nicholas Hawksmoor. Other notable buildings by Wren include the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and the south front of Hampton Court Palace. The Wren Building, the main building at the College of William and Mary, is attributed to Wren. It is the oldest academic building in continuous use in the United States. Educated in Latin and Aristotelian physics at the University of Oxford, Wren was a notable anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist, as well as an architect. He was a founder of the Royal Society, and his scientific work was highly regarded by Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal.
- Age: Dec. at 90 (1632-1723)
- Birthplace: East Knoyle, United Kingdom
- Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work. Milne served in both World Wars, joining the British Army in World War I, and was a captain of the British Home Guard in World War II.
- Age: Dec. at 74 (1882-1956)
- Birthplace: Hampstead, London, United Kingdom
- Dido, born as Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong on December 25, 1971, in London, England, is a renowned pop singer and songwriter who rose to global prominence in the late 1990s. Her introduction to music was deeply influenced by her brother, Rollo Armstrong, a member of the successful British band Faithless. Dido studied law at the University of London but left after two years to concentrate on her music career. Her strong passion for music led to her recording demos which subsequently caught the attention of her brother's manager, ultimately paving the way for her professional singing career. Dido's debut album, No Angel, released in 1999, became a worldwide sensation with its unique blend of electronic music layered with her soft vocals. The album was recognized as the top-selling album in the UK in 2001, catapulting Dido into the international spotlight. However, it was her single "Thank You" from the same album that truly marked her breakthrough. This song gained increased popularity after it was sampled in rapper Eminem's hit track "Stan." This juxtaposition of genres showcased Dido's versatility as an artist, and "Thank You" went on to become one of her most iconic songs. While Dido's music career continued to thrive with subsequent albums like Life for Rent and Safe Trip Home, she remained a private and low-key figure, avoiding the typical trappings of fame. Her dedication to her craft is evident in her numerous accolades, including several BRIT Awards and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Despite her success, Dido has continuously proven that she is more than just a chart-topping artist. Her love for music and her ability to connect with audiences through her soulful lyrics and melodies have established her as one of the most respected figures in the music industry.
- Age: 53
- Birthplace: England, Kensington, London
- William Daniel Conybeare FRS (7 June 1787 – 12 August 1857), dean of Llandaff, was an English geologist, palaeontologist and clergyman. He is probably best known for his ground-breaking work on marine reptile fossils in the 1820s, including important papers for the Geological Society of London on ichthyosaur anatomy and the first published scientific description of a plesiosaur.
- Age: Dec. at 70 (1787-1857)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Timothy John Winter (born 1960), also known as Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad, is an English Sunni Muslim scholar, researcher, writer and academic. He is the Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College, Aziz Foundation Professor of Islamic Studies at both Cambridge Muslim College and Ebrahim College, Director of Studies (Theology and Religious Studies) at Wolfson College and the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Cambridge University. His work includes publications on Islamic theology and Muslim-Christian relations. In 2003 he was awarded the Pilkington Teaching Prize by Cambridge University and in 2007 he was awarded the King Abdullah I Prize for Islamic Thought for his short booklet Bombing Without Moonlight. He has consistently been included in the "500 Most Influential Muslims" list published annually by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre and was ranked in 2012 as the 50th most influential.
- Age: 65
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey
Field Marshal Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, (17 May 1768 – 29 April 1854), styled Lord Paget between 1784 and 1812 and known as the Earl of Uxbridge between 1812 and 1815, was a British Army officer and politician. After serving as a Member of Parliament for Carnarvon and then for Milborne Port, he took part in the Flanders Campaign and then commanded the cavalry for Sir John Moore's army in Spain during the Peninsular War; his cavalry showed distinct superiority over their French counterparts at the Battle of Sahagún and at the Battle of Benavente, where he defeated the elite chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard. During the Hundred Days he led the charge of the heavy cavalry against Comte d'Erlon's column at the Battle of Waterloo. At the end of the battle he lost part of one leg to a cannonball. In later life he served twice as Master-General of the Ordnance and twice as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.- Age: Dec. at 85 (1768-1854)
- Birthplace: London, England
Charles Wesley
WriterCharles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement, most widely known for writing about 6,500 hymns.Wesley was born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, the son of Anglican cleric and poet Samuel Wesley and his wife Susanna. He was a younger brother of Methodist founder John Wesley and Anglican cleric Samuel Wesley the Younger, and he became the father of musician Samuel Wesley and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley. Wesley was educated at Oxford where his brothers had also studied, and he formed the "Holy Club" among his fellow students in 1729. John Wesley later joined this group, as did George Whitefield. Charles followed his father and brother into the church in 1735, and he travelled with John to Georgia in America, returning a year later. In 1749, he married Sarah Gwynne, daughter of a Welsh gentleman who had been converted to Methodism by Howell Harris. She accompanied the brothers on their evangelistic journeys throughout Britain until Charles ceased to travel in 1765. Despite their closeness, Charles and John did not always agree on questions relating to their beliefs. In particular, Charles was strongly opposed to the idea of a breach with the Church of England into which they had been ordained.- Age: Dec. at 80 (1707-1788)
- Birthplace: Epworth, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
John Montresor
EngineerCaptain John Montresor (22 April 1736 – June 1799) was a British military engineer and cartographer in North America.- Age: Dec. at 63 (1736-1799)
- Birthplace: Gibraltar, United Kingdom, with Dependencies and Territories
Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton
Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, (28 September 1735 – 14 March 1811), styled Earl of Euston between 1747 and 1757, was a British Whig statesman of the Georgian era. He is one of a handful of dukes who have served as Prime Minister. He became Prime Minister in 1768 at the age of 33, leading the supporters of William Pitt, and was the youngest person to have held the office until the appointment of William Pitt the Younger 15 years later. However, he struggled to demonstrate an ability to counter increasing challenges to Britain's global dominance following the nation's victory in the Seven Years' War. He was widely attacked for allowing France to annex Corsica, and stepped down in 1770, handing over power to Lord North.- Age: Dec. at 75 (1735-1811)
- Clemency Burton-Hill (born Clemency Margaret Greatrex Burton-Hill, born 1 July 1981) is an English broadcaster, author, novelist, journalist and violinist. In her early career she also worked as an actress.
- Age: 43
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
- Sir William Rowan Hamilton MRIA (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish mathematician. He made important contributions to optics, classical mechanics and algebra. Although Hamilton was not a physicist–he regarded himself as a pure mathematician–his work was of major importance to physics, particularly his reformulation of Newtonian mechanics, now called Hamiltonian mechanics. This work has proven central to the modern study of classical field theories such as electromagnetism, and to the development of quantum mechanics. In pure mathematics, he is best known as the inventor of quaternions. William Rowan Hamilton's scientific career included the study of geometrical optics, classical mechanics, adaptation of dynamic methods in optical systems, applying quaternion and vector methods to problems in mechanics and in geometry, development of theories of conjugate algebraic couple functions (in which complex numbers are constructed as ordered pairs of real numbers), solvability of polynomial equations and general quintic polynomial solvable by radicals, the analysis on Fluctuating Functions (and the ideas from Fourier analysis), linear operators on quaternions and proving a result for linear operators on the space of quaternions (which is a special case of the general theorem which today is known as the Cayley–Hamilton theorem). Hamilton also invented "icosian calculus", which he used to investigate closed edge paths on a dodecahedron that visit each vertex exactly once.
- Age: Dec. at 60 (1805-1865)
- Birthplace: Dublin, Republic of Ireland
- Matthew Gregory Lewis (9 July 1775 – 14 or 16 May 1818) was an English novelist and dramatist, whose writings are often classified as "Gothic horror". He was frequently referred to as "Monk" Lewis, because of the success of his 1796 Gothic novel, The Monk. He also worked as a diplomat, politician, and an estate owner in Jamaica.
- Age: Dec. at 42 (1775-1818)
- Birthplace: London, England
- William Froude (; 28 November 1810 in Devon – 4 May 1879 in Simonstown, South Africa) was an English engineer, hydrodynamicist and naval architect. He was the first to formulate reliable laws for the resistance that water offers to ships (such as the hull speed equation) and for predicting their stability.
- Age: Dec. at 68 (1810-1879)
- Birthplace: Dartington, United Kingdom
John Eardley Wilmot
JudgeSir John Eardley Wilmot PC SL (16 August 1709 – 5 February 1792), was an English judge, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from 1766 to 1771.- Age: Dec. at 82 (1709-1792)
- Birthplace: Derby, United Kingdom
- Lieutenant-General Sir William Boog Leishman, (, 6 November 1865 – 2 June 1926) was a Scottish pathologist and British Army medical officer. He was Director-General of Army Medical Services from 1923 to 1926.
- Age: Dec. at 60 (1865-1926)
- Birthplace: Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Arthur Middleton (June 26, 1742 – January 1, 1787), of Charleston, South Carolina, was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence. His parents were Henry Middleton and Mary Baker Williams, both of English descent. He was educated in Britain, at Harrow School, Westminster School, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He studied law at the Middle Temple and traveled extensively in Europe where his taste in literature, music, and art was developed and refined. In 1764, Arthur and his bride Mary Izard settled at Middleton Place. Keenly interested in Carolina, Middleton was a more radical thinker than his father, Henry Middleton. He was a leader of the American Party in Carolina and one of the boldest members of the Council of Safety and its Secret Committee. In 1776, Arthur was elected to succeed his father in the Continental Congress and subsequently was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Also in 1776, he and William Henry Drayton designed the Great Seal of South Carolina. Despite the time he spent in England, his attitude toward Loyalists was said to be ruthless. During the American Revolutionary War, Middleton served in the defense of Charleston. After the city's fall to the British in 1780, he was sent as a prisoner of war to St. Augustine, Florida (along with Edward Rutledge and Thomas Heyward Jr.), until exchanged in July the following year. Middleton died on January 1, 1787 at the age of 44 and was buried in the family tomb in the Gardens at Middleton Place. The death notice from the State Gazette of South-Carolina (SC), Jan. 4, 1787, described him as a "tender husband and parent, humane master, steady unshaken patriot, the gentleman, and the scholar." The plantation then passed to Henry, his eldest son, later Governor of South Carolina, U.S. Representative and Minister to Russia. Arthur Middleton was also an ancestor of actor Charles B. Middleton, who played Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon movies of the 1930s. Arthur Middleton's son-in-law was Congressman Daniel Elliott Huger who was the grandfather-in-law of Confederate General Arthur Middleton Manigault who was also a descendant of Henry Middleton. Arthur Middleton's sister, Susannah Middleton, was the great-great-grandmother of Baldur von Schirach, onetime leader of the Hitler Youth and later Governor ("Gauleiter" or "Reichsstatthalter") of the Reichsgau Vienna, who was convicted of "crimes against humanity" at the Nuremberg Trials, through Baldur Von Schirach's mother Emma Middleton Lynah Tillou (1872–1944). The United States Navy ship USS Arthur Middleton (AP-55/APA-25) was named for him.
- Age: Dec. at 44 (1742-1787)
- Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Very few directors made historical films quite like Tom Hooper did. He had the gift of seemingly getting inside the minds of some of the most powerful figures in history and exploring onscreen their struggles, vanities, failures and successes. The British director first gained international acclaim with the biopic, "Elizabeth I" (Channel 4, 2005), a moving portrayal of the later years of the nearly 45-year-long reign of Elizabeth I of England. He also earned critical accolades for directing the award-winning epic miniseries "John Adams" (HBO, 2008), which explored the role of President John Adams in the founding of the United States. His career rose to new heights after he helmed "The King's Speech" (2010), a film that captured the riveting bond between an insecure monarch and the therapist who helped him overcome a debilitating speech impediment. The picture, which received several Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture, helped establish Hooper as an authoritative cinematic voice. By the time he directed the highly anticipated adaptation of "Les Misérables" (2012), Hooper was one of Hollywood's most sought-after directors.
- Age: 52
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
C. W. A. Scott
PilotFlight Lieutenant Charles William Anderson Scott, AFC (13 February 1903 – 15 April 1946) was an English aviator. He won the MacRobertson Air Race, a race from London to Melbourne, in 1934, in a time of 71 hours.- Age: Dec. at 43 (1903-1946)
- Birthplace: Westminster, London, United Kingdom
- Christian Coulson is an English actor who appeared in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "Blood Brothers: Civil War," and "The Hours."
- Age: 46
- Birthplace: Manchester, England, UK
- Tristram Julian William Hunt, (born 31 May 1974) is a British historian, broadcast journalist and former Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central from 2010 to 2017. In January 2017 he announced he would leave the House of Commons in order to take up the post of director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.Hunt is a lecturer in modern British History at Queen Mary University of London. He has written several books and presented history programmes on television. He is a regular writer for The Guardian and The Observer.
- Age: 50
- Birthplace: Cambridge, England
Richard Hakluyt
AuthorRichard Hakluyt (; 1553 – 23 November 1616) was an English writer. He is known for promoting the English colonization of North America through his works, notably Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America (1582) and The Principall Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation (1589–1600). Hakluyt was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. Between 1583 and 1588 he was chaplain and secretary to Sir Edward Stafford, English ambassador at the French court. An ordained priest, Hakluyt held important positions at Bristol Cathedral and Westminster Abbey and was personal chaplain to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, principal Secretary of State to Elizabeth I and James I. He was the chief promoter of a petition to James I for letters patent to colonize Virginia, which were granted to the London Company and Plymouth Company (referred to collectively as the Virginia Company) in 1606. The Hakluyt Society, which publishes scholarly editions of primary records of voyages and travels, was named after him in its 1846 formation.- Age: Dec. at 63 (1553-1616)
- Birthplace: Hereford, United Kingdom
- John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a leading Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1846–1852, and 1865–1866 during the early Victorian era. The third son of the Duke of Bedford, Russell was educated at Westminister and Edinburgh University, and represented various various districts in Commons including the City of London. In 1828 he took a leading role in the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts which discriminated against Protestant dissenters. In 1829 he was a leader in support of Catholic emancipation. He was a prominent leader in passing the Great Reform Act of 1832. It was the first major reform of the representative system in two centuries, and the first step on the road to democracy and away from rule by the aristocracy and landed gentry. He favoured reduction of the property qualifications to vote but never advocated universal suffrage. He served in many high offices over the decades, including home secretary and colonial Secretary under Melbourne; he was leader of the house under Aberdeen; he was foreign secretary under Aberdeen and Palmerston. He was outspoken on many issues, calling for the repeal of the corn laws in 1845, denouncing the revival of Catholic bishoprics in 1850, supporting Italian nationalism, and keeping the nation neutral during the American Civil War. In the 1860s he sympathized with the cause of Poland and Denmark, but took no action as prime minister. Over the years he was closely associated with Palmerston, although there were stormy times as when he helped force Palmerston out as prime minister in 1851, and in revenge Palmerston defeated his government in 1852. Russell often acted before building a consensus among his leadership team. He mishandled the reform movement during the second premiership, and left office only to watch Disraeli carry a strong Reform Bill.On the negative side, he headed a government that failed to deal adequately with the Irish Famine, a disaster which saw the loss of a quarter of Ireland's population. It has been said that his ministry of 1846 to 1852 was the ruin of the Whig party: it never composed a Government again, and his ministry of 1865 to 1866 was very nearly the ruin of the Liberal Party also.
- Age: Dec. at 85 (1792-1878)
- Birthplace: London, England
- Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (December 25, 1957 – November 30, 2023) was an Irish singer and songwriter who was best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Celtic punk band the Pogues. Many of his songs are influenced by Irish nationalism, Irish history, the experiences of the Irish diaspora (particularly in England and the United States), and London life in general.
- Age: Dec. at 65 (1957-2023)
- Birthplace: Pembury, Kent, England
- The provocative productions of this renowned director (once described as a "traditionalist on the cutting edge") have been critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic and include such landmark work as 1966's "Marat/Sade," a 1970 staging of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and his adaptation of "The Mahabarata." The son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Peter Brook began his career with an amateur feature-length film, "The Sentimental Journey" in 1943 and went on to craft training films for the British Army in the last years of WWII. His first professional assignment as a screen director came with an energetic adaptation of "The Beggar's Opera" (1953), starring Laurence Olivier. He earned international acclaim with the 1963 adaptation of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies," about British schoolboys on a deserted island. Brook directed, adapted and edited this black-and-white film that played into his reputation for dealing thematically with story. Brook wrote and directed "Meetings With Remarkable Men" (1979), based on the memoirs of G.I. Gurdjieff and also filmed his condensed, highly theatrical adaptation of Bizet's opera "La Tragedie de Carmen" (1983). Whatever the reaction to his films, Brook was best known for his experimental theatrical productions wherein he explored the relationship between the audience and the stage performance, through the conveyance of realism and the inner truth of the piece. Early in his career, Brook was director of productions for the Royal Opera House, and from 1962, co-director of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. In 1970, he moved to France and co-founded the International Center for Theatre Research, an entity dedicated to experimenting with the medium. Among his many memorable productions were "Faust," for NYC's Metropolitan Opera Company in 1953; a 1955 "Hamlet" staged in Moscow; the musical "Irma La Douce" produced both in London and New York; "Marat/Sade" (1964); and "The Cherry Orchard" in Paris (1981) and New York (1988). More recently, he co-adapted and staged an acclaimed version of "The Mahabarata" (1989) which was released theatrically and later shown on PBS. Brook was also a well-received author, penning a seminal study of theater, "The Empty Space," in 1968 and two memoirs, "The Shifting Point" (1988) and "Threads of Time" (1997). Peter Brook died on July 2, 2022 at the age of 97.
- Age: Dec. at 97 (1925-2022)
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
Edward Saatchi
EntrepreneurEdward Saatchi is an entrepreneur and co-founder of NationalField, a software company that creates enterprise-based private social networks.- Age: 40
- Sir William Hamilton, (13 December 1730 – 6 April 1803), was a British diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800. He studied the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society and recipient of the Copley Medal. His second wife was Emma Hamilton, famed as Horatio Nelson's mistress.
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1731-1803)
- Birthplace: London, England
- Matthias "Matt" Frei (born 26 November 1963) is a British television news journalist and writer, formerly the Washington, D.C. correspondent for Channel 4 News. He is now the channel's Europe editor and an occasional presenter of the evening news.
- Age: 61
- Birthplace: Germany, Essen
George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan
Field Marshal George Charles Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, (16 April 1800 – 10 November 1888), styled Lord Bingham before 1839, was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and British Army officer. He was a ruthless landlord during the Great Famine (Ireland), evicting thousands of his Irish tenants and renting his land to wealthy ranchers. He was one of three men, along with Captain Nolan and Lord Raglan, responsible for the fateful order during the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 that led to the Light Brigade commander, The Earl of Cardigan, leading the Charge of the Light Brigade. Lord Lucan also came up with a solution that allowed Jews to sit in Parliament. He was subsequently promoted to field marshal.- Age: Dec. at 88 (1800-1888)
- Birthplace: London, England
- Imogen Stubbs, Lady Nunn (born 20 February 1961) is an English actress and writer. Her first leading part was in Privileged (1982), followed by A Summer Story. She played Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility (1995). Her first play, We Happy Few, was produced in 2004. In 2008 she joined Reader's Digest as a contributing editor and writer of fiction.
- Age: 64
- Birthplace: Rothbury, England
Thomas Gage
General Thomas Gage (10 March 1718/19 – 2 April 1787) was a British Army general officer and colonial official best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as British commander-in-chief in the early days of the American Revolution. Being born to an aristocratic family in England, he entered military service, seeing action in the French and Indian War, where he served alongside his future opponent George Washington in the 1755 Battle of the Monongahela. After the fall of Montreal in 1760, he was named its military governor. During this time he did not distinguish himself militarily, but proved himself to be a competent administrator. From 1763 to 1775 he served as commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, overseeing the British response to the 1763 Pontiac's Rebellion. In 1774 he was also appointed the military governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, with instructions to implement the Intolerable Acts, punishing Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. His attempts to seize military stores of Patriot militias in April 1775 sparked the Battles of Lexington and Concord, beginning the American Revolutionary War. After the Pyrrhic victory in the June Battle of Bunker Hill, he was replaced by General William Howe in October, 1775, and returned to Great Britain.- Age: Dec. at 68 (1719-1787)
- Birthplace: Firle, England
Thomas George Bonney
Geologist, MountaineerThomas George Bonney (27 July 1833 – 10 December 1923) was an English geologist, president of the Geological Society of London.- Age: Dec. at 90 (1833-1923)
- Birthplace: Rugeley, United Kingdom
Richard Burke Jr.
BarristerRichard Burke (9 February 1758 – 2 August 1794) was a barrister and Member of Parliament in England. He was born in Battersea, the son of Edmund Burke and Jane Mary Nugent. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1780. His father had high hopes for "the Whelp", never to be realized. He was Recorder of Bristol from 1783 until his early death. In 1791 Richard carried out a mission to the Koblenz headquarters of the French émigré army on behalf of his father, who was indulging in private diplomacy. Thereafter he returned to Ireland to become an agent of the Catholic Committee, which attained a small measure towards Catholic Emancipation in the Irish Parliament's "Roman Catholic Relief Act" (1793). In 1794 his father resigned his seat in parliament for Malton, North Yorkshire over the failure to convict Warren Hastings in a parliamentary impeachment. Richard was elected in succession to his father, but fell ill soon afterwards, and died in South Kensington at the early age of thirty-six on 2 August 1794, and was buried in Beaconsfield. The elder Burke suffered grief on a scale described by eyewitnesses as "truly terrific". In the words of his biographer, Edmund's bursts of affliction were of fearful force, so overwhelming indeed as to fright and almost to paralyze those who were around them. The Dictionary of National Biography article describes the grief of the parents as "almost uncontrollable", and his father considered himself ‘marked by the hand of God’ Richard had been a member of The Club since 1782. His contacts with Samuel Johnson were fairly slight, and on one occasion involved a rebuke to the younger man for futile attempts at "smart drollery". No evidence has been found to support the claim that he was married. He should not be confused with his uncle, also named Richard Burke.- Age: Dec. at 36 (1758-1794)
- Birthplace: London, England
- Harold Baily Dixon (1852–1930) was a British chemist. He was also an amateur footballer who appeared for Oxford University in the 1873 FA Cup Final.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1852-1930)
- Birthplace: Marylebone, London, United Kingdom
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, PC, SL (2 March 1705 – 20 March 1793) was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland, before moving to London at the age of 13 to take up a place at Westminster School. He was accepted into Christ Church, Oxford, in May 1723, and graduated four years later. Returning to London from Oxford, he was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn on 23 November 1730, and quickly gained a reputation as an excellent barrister. He became involved in politics in 1742, beginning with his election as a Member of Parliament for Boroughbridge, and appointment as Solicitor General. In the absence of a strong Attorney General, he became the main spokesman for the government in the House of Commons, and was noted for his "great powers of eloquence" and described as "beyond comparison the best speaker" in the House of Commons. With the promotion of Sir Dudley Ryder to Lord Chief Justice in 1754, he became Attorney General, and when Ryder unexpectedly died several months later, he took his place as Chief Justice. As the most powerful British jurist of the century, Mansfield's decisions reflected the Age of Enlightenment and moved the country onto the path to abolishing slavery. He advanced commercial law in ways that helped establish the nation as world leader in industry, finance and trade. He modernised both English law and the English courts system; he speeded up the system for submitting motions and reformed the way judgments were given to reduce expense for the parties. For his work in Carter v Boehm and Pillans v Van Mierop, he has been called the founder of English commercial law. He is perhaps now best known for his judgment in Somersett's Case (1772), where he held that slavery had no basis in common law and had never been established by positive law (legislation) in England, and therefore was not binding in law; this judgement did not, however, end slave trafficking.- Age: Dec. at 88 (1705-1793)
- Birthplace: Scone Palace, United Kingdom
Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 3rd Baronet
ClericSir Jonathan Trelawny, 3rd Baronet (24 March 1650 – 19 July 1721) was a British Bishop of Bristol, Bishop of Exeter and Bishop of Winchester. Trelawny is best known for his role in the events leading up to the Glorious Revolution which are referenced in the Cornish anthem The Song of the Western Men.- Age: Dec. at 71 (1650-1721)
- Birthplace: Pelynt, United Kingdom
- Anna Blundy (born 11 April 1970) is an English novelist and journalist. She was born in London and educated at the City of London School for Girls and Westminster School. Her first book was published in 1998: Every Time We Say Goodbye, a memoir of her father David Blundy, a foreign correspondent killed in El Salvador in 1989. Her series of novels featuring the female war correspondent Faith Zanetti started with The Bad News Bible in 2004. The second in a series, Faith Without Doubt, was published in September 2005. The third in the series, Neat Vodka was published in September 2006 by Little, Brown. Anna Blundy studied Russian at University College, Oxford. She is a columnist for The Times and was its Moscow Bureau Chief during the 1998–99 financial crisis. She has appeared since 2006 on BBC Television's Newsnight Review and its successor The Review Show.
- Age: 54
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Edmund Gunter
MathematicianEdmund Gunter (1581 – 10 December 1626), was an English clergyman, mathematician, geometer and astronomer of Welsh descent. He is best remembered for his mathematical contributions which include the invention of the Gunter's chain, the Gunter's quadrant, and the Gunter's scale. In 1620, he invented the first successful analogue device which he developed to calculate logarithmic tangents.He was mentored in mathematics by Reverend Henry Briggs and eventually became a Gresham Professor of Astronomy, from 1619 until his death.- Age: Dec. at 45 (1581-1626)
William Thomas Brande
ChemistWilliam Thomas Brande FRS FRSE (11 January 1788 – 11 February 1866) was an English chemist.- Age: Dec. at 78 (1788-1866)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox, and 1st Duke of Gordon, (27 February 1818 – 27 September 1903), styled Lord Settrington until 1819 and Earl of March between 1819 and 1860, was a British Conservative politician.
- Age: Dec. at 85 (1818-1903)
- Birthplace: London, England
G. A. Henty
NovelistGeorge Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 – 16 November 1902) was a prolific English novelist and war correspondent. He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include The Dragon & The Raven (1886), For The Temple (1888), Under Drake's Flag (1883) and In Freedom's Cause (1885).- Age: Dec. at 69 (1832-1902)
- Birthplace: Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
- Henry Francis Mount (born 1971) is a British author and journalist, who since 2017 has been editor of The Oldie and is a frequent contributor to the Daily Mail, as well as the Daily Telegraph.
- Age: 54
- William Baliol Brett, 1st Viscount Esher, PC (13 August 1815 – 24 May 1899), known as Sir William Brett between 1868 and 1883, was a British lawyer, judge, and Conservative politician. He was briefly Solicitor-General under Benjamin Disraeli and then served as a justice of the Court of Common Pleas between 1868 and 1876, as a Lord Justice of Appeal between 1876 and 1883 and as Master of the Rolls. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Esher in 1885 and further honoured when he was made Viscount Esher on his retirement in 1897.
- Age: Dec. at 81 (1817-1899)
Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle
Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme, (21 July 1693 – 17 November 1768) was a British Whig statesman, whose official life extended throughout the Whig supremacy of the 18th century. He is commonly known as the Duke of Newcastle. A protégé of Sir Robert Walpole, he served under him for more than twenty years, until 1742. He held power with his brother, Prime Minister Henry Pelham until 1754. He had at this point served as a Secretary of State continuously for thirty years—dominating British foreign policy. After Henry's death the Duke was prime minister six years, in two separate periods. While his first premiership was not particularly notable, Newcastle precipitated the Seven Years' War; his weak diplomacy cost him the premiership. After his second term as Prime Minister, he served for a short while in Lord Rockingham's ministry, before retiring from government. He was most effective as a deputy to a leader of greater ability, such as Walpole, his brother, or Pitt. Few politicians in British history matched his skills and industry in using patronage to maintain power over long stretches of time. His genius appeared as the chief party manager for the Whigs, 1715–1761. He used his energy and his money to select candidates, distribute patronage, and win elections. He was especially influential in the counties of Sussex, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. His greatest triumph came in the 1754 election. Outside the electoral realm, his reputation has suffered. Historian Harry Dickinson says that he became:Notorious for his fussiness and fretfulness, his petty jealousies, his reluctance to accept responsibility for his actions, and his inability to pursue any political objective to his own satisfaction or to the nations profit ... Many modern historians have depicted him as the epitome of unredeemed mediocrity and as a veritable buffoon in office.- Age: Dec. at 75 (1693-1768)
- Birthplace: London, England
John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton
PoliticianJohn Cam Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton, (27 June 1786 – 3 June 1869), known as Sir John Hobhouse, Bt, from 1831 to 1851, was an English politician and diarist.- Age: Dec. at 82 (1786-1869)
- Birthplace: United Kingdom
Richard Bourke
General Sir Richard Bourke, KCB (4 May 1777 – 12 August 1855), was an Irish-born British Army officer who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1831 to 1837. As a lifelong Whig (Liberal), he encouraged the emancipation of convicts and helped bring forward the ending of penal transportation to Australia. In this, he faced strong opposition from the military/conservative establishment and its press. He approved a new settlement on the Yarra River, and named it Melbourne, in honour of the incumbent British prime minister, Lord Melbourne.- Age: Dec. at 78 (1777-1855)
- Birthplace: Dublin, Republic of Ireland
- Henry Aldrich was an English theologian and philosopher.
- Age: Dec. at 63 (1647-1710)
- Birthplace: Westminster, London, United Kingdom
- John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as David Hume, Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Contrary to Cartesian philosophy based on pre-existing concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception. This is now known as empiricism. An example of Locke's belief in empiricism can be seen in his quote, "whatever I write, as soon as I discover it not to be true, my hand shall be the forwardest to throw it into the fire." This shows the ideology of science in his observations in that something must be capable of being tested repeatedly and that nothing is exempt from being disproven. Challenging the work of others, Locke is said to have established the method of introspection, or observing the emotions and behaviours of one's self.
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1632-1704)
- Birthplace: Wrington, United Kingdom
- Sir Henry Thomas Tizard (23 August 1885 – 9 October 1959) was an English chemist, inventor and Rector of Imperial College, who developed the modern "octane rating" used to classify petrol, helped develop radar in World War II, and led the first serious studies of UFOs.
- Age: Dec. at 74 (1885-1959)
- Birthplace: Gillingham, United Kingdom
John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville
John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, 7th Seigneur of Sark, (; 22 April 1690 – 2 January 1763), commonly known by his earlier title Lord Carteret, was a British statesman and Lord President of the Council from 1751 to 1763; he worked extremely closely with the Prime Minister of the country, Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, in order to manage the various factions of the Government. He was Seigneur of Sark from 1715 to 1720 when he sold the fief. He held (in absentia) the office of Bailiff of Jersey from 1715 to 1763.- Age: Dec. at 72 (1690-1763)
- Birthplace: London, England
- John Gould Veitch (19 July 1869 – 3 October 1914) was an English amateur footballer, who played for the Corinthian club in the 1890s. He made one appearance for England playing at inside left in 1894, in which he scored a hat trick. Outside football, he was a member of the Exeter-based Veitch Nurseries business.
- Age: Dec. at 45 (1869-1914)
- Thomas Pinckney (October 23, 1750 – November 2, 1828) was an early American statesman, diplomat, and soldier in both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, achieving the rank of major general. He served as Governor of South Carolina and as the U.S. minister to Great Britain. He was also the Federalist candidate for vice president in the 1796 election. Born into a prominent Charleston, South Carolina family, Pinckney studied in Europe before returning to America. He supported the independence cause and worked as an aide to General Horatio Gates. After the Revolutionary War, Pinckney managed his plantation and won election as Governor of South Carolina, serving from 1787 to 1789. He presided over the state convention which ratified the United States Constitution. In 1792, he accepted President George Washington's appointment to the position of minister to Britain, but was unable to win concessions regarding the impressment of American sailors. He also served as an envoy to Spain and negotiated the Treaty of San Lorenzo, which defined the border between Spain and the United States. Following his diplomatic success in Spain, the Federalists chose Pinckney as John Adams's running mate in the 1796 presidential election. Under the rules then in place, the individual who won the most electoral votes became president, while the individual who won the second most electoral votes became vice president. Although Adams won the presidential election, Democratic-Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson won the second most electoral votes and won election as vice president. After the election, Pinckney served in the United States House of Representatives from 1797 to 1801. His brother, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, was the Federalist vice presidential nominee in 1800 and the party's presidential nominee in 1804 and 1808. During the War of 1812, Pinckney was commissioned as a major general.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1750-1828)
- Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina, USA
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, (14 April 1738 – 30 October 1809) was a British Whig and Tory politician during the late Georgian era. He served as Chancellor of the University of Oxford (1792–1809) and twice as British prime minister, of Great Britain (1783) and then of the United Kingdom (1807–09). The twenty-six years between his two terms as Prime Minister is the longest gap between terms of office of any British prime minister. Portland was known before 1762 by the courtesy title Marquess of Titchfield. He held a title of every degree of British nobility: Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron. He is also a great-great-great-grandfather of Elizabeth II through her maternal grandmother.- Age: Dec. at 71 (1738-1809)
- Birthplace: Nottinghamshire, England
Sir Robert Phillimore, 1st Baronet
JudgeSir Robert Joseph Phillimore, 1st Baronet (5 November 1810 – 4 February 1885), was an English judge and politician. He was the last Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1867 to 1875 bringing an end to an office that had lasted nearly 400 years.- Age: Dec. at 74 (1810-1885)
- Birthplace: London, England
Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester
Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester PC, FRS (14 October 1757 – 8 May 1829) was a British barrister and statesman. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons between 1802 and 1817.- Age: Dec. at 71 (1757-1829)
- Birthplace: Abingdon, United Kingdom
Charles Brookfield
Journalist, Author, ActorCharles Hallam Elton Brookfield (19 May 1857 – 20 October 1913) was a British actor, author, playwright and journalist, including for The Saturday Review. His most famous work for the theatre was The Belle of Mayfair (1906). Brookfield achieved success in a 20-year acting career, including with the company of Squire Bancroft at London's Haymarket Theatre in the 1880s. After he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, in 1898, Brookfield focused on writing plays and musical theatre. In his last years, he was Britain's Examiner of Plays, even though he had been criticised as biased against various playwrights and also for writing a particularly risqué comedy in 1908.- Age: Dec. at 56 (1857-1913)
- Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
- Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne (born 2 July 1954), known as Chris Huhne, is an energy and climate change consultant and formerly a British journalist and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Eastleigh from 2005 to 2013 and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2010 to 2012. From September 2013 to August 2014 he wrote a weekly column for The Guardian.On 3 February 2012, Huhne resigned from the Cabinet when he was charged with perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case. His wife at the time, Vicky Pryce, had claimed that she was driving the car, and accepted the licence penalty points on his behalf so that he could avoid being banned from driving. Huhne denied the charge until the trial began on 4 February 2013 when he changed his plea to guilty, resigned as a member of parliament, and left the Privy Council. He and Pryce were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 11 March to eight months in prison for perverting the course of justice. He served 9 weeks of this sentence at HMP Leyhill before he was released.Huhne had twice stood unsuccessfully for election as Leader of the Liberal Democrats; in 2006 he came second to Sir Menzies Campbell and in 2007 he narrowly lost to Nick Clegg.
- Age: 70
- Birthplace: London, England
Robert Simpson
Robert Wilfred Levick Simpson (2 March 1921 – 21 November 1997) was an English composer and long-serving BBC producer and broadcaster. He is best known for his orchestral and chamber music (particularly those in the key classical forms: 11 symphonies and 15 string quartets), and for his writings on the music of Beethoven, Bruckner, Nielsen and Sibelius. He studied composition under Herbert Howells. Remarkably for a living contemporary composer, a Robert Simpson Society was formed in 1980 by individuals concerned that Simpson's music had been unfairly neglected. The society aims to bring Simpson's music to a wider public by sponsoring recordings and live performances of his work, by issuing a journal and other publications, and by maintaining an archive of material relating to the composer.- Age: Dec. at 76 (1921-1997)
- Birthplace: Leamington Spa, United Kingdom
- Henry Hoare II (1705–1785), known as Henry the Magnificent, was an English banker and garden owner-designer.
- Age: Dec. at 80 (1705-1785)
- Birthplace: United Kingdom
Martin Madan
WriterMartin Madan (1726 – 2 May 1790) was an English barrister, clergyman and writer, known for his contribution to Methodist music, 'The Lock Hospital Collection,' and later controversial views on marriage expressed in his book Thelyphthora.- Age: Dec. at 64 (1726-1790)
- Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the Lake Poets along with William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and England's Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 until his death in 1843. Although his fame has been eclipsed by that of Wordsworth and Coleridge, his verse still enjoys some popularity.
- Age: Dec. at 68 (1774-1843)
- Birthplace: Bristol, United Kingdom
- Mary Nighy is an English nd actress, director who appeared in "Marie Antoinette," "The Lost Prince," and "Tormented."
- Age: 40
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
- Kallistos Ware (born Timothy Richard Ware, 11 September 1934) is an English bishop and theologian of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He has held since 1982 the titular Bishopric of Diokleia in Phrygia (Greek: Διόκλεια Φρυγίας), later made a titular metropolitan bishopric in 2007, under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Metropolitan Kallistos is one of the best-known contemporary Eastern Orthodox hierarchs and theologians. From 1966 to 2001, Metropolitan Kallistos was Spalding Lecturer of Eastern Orthodox Studies at the University of Oxford.
- Age: 90
- Birthplace: Bath, United Kingdom
- A scion of the famous acting family, Corin Redgrave maintained the lowest profile as well as the longest periods of inactivity, compared to his more famous sisters, Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave. Nevertheless, he amassed a respectable list of stage credits as well as numerous key supporting roles in British features. Redgrave's first professional stage work was as director of "The Scarecrow" at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and by the next year, he portrayed Lysander in the Royal Court's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." By 1963, he had crossed the Atlantic to appear on Broadway in a supporting part in "Chips with Everything." Redgrave's feature film work began with a turn as Roper in Fred Zinnemann's "A Man for All Seasons" in 1966. Many of his other film roles were in decidedly British works, such as the remake of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1968), directed by then brother-in-law Tony Richardson, and Sir Richard Attenborough's heralded "Oh, What a Lovely War" (1969).
- Age: Dec. at 70 (1939-2010)
- Birthplace: Marylebone, London, England, UK
- Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, (born 11 March 1932) is a British Conservative politician and journalist. He was a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974 to 1992, and served in the cabinet of Margaret Thatcher from 1981 to 1989. Prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion to Secretary of State for Energy. He was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983, and served until his resignation in October 1989. In both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatcher's policies of privatisation of several key industries. Lawson oversaw the sudden deregulation of financial markets in 1986, commonly referred to as the "Big Bang". Lawson was a backbencher from 1989 until he retired in 1992, and now sits in the House of Lords. He is still active in politics as President of Conservatives for Britain, a campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, and is a prominent critic of the European Union. He is also chairman of the climate change sceptic Global Warming Policy Foundation think tank. He has been an active supporter of the Eurosceptic pressure group Leave Means Leave.Currently, Lawson resides in France. However his application for French residency was refused and he is now selling his French property. He is the father of six children, including Nigella Lawson, a food writer and celebrity cook, Dominic Lawson, a journalist, and Tom Lawson, headmaster of Eastbourne College.
- Age: 92
- Birthplace: Hampstead, London, England
William Hawthorne
Aerospace Engineer, EngineerSir William Rede Hawthorne CBE, FRS, FREng, FIMECHE, FRAES, (22 May 1913 – 16 September 2011) was a British professor of engineering who worked on the development of the jet engine. Bragg-Hawthorne equation is named after him.- Age: Dec. at 98 (1913-2011)
