February 10th - 19th

10^th February

Events

1306 – Robert the Bruce murders John Cromyn in front of the high alter of Greyfriars Church, in Dumfries.  This would spark the revolution in the Wars of Scottish Independence

1840 – Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gortha

Births

Adelina Patti

1843 – Adelina Patti – Italian-French opera singer.   Patti first in public as a child during 1851, and her last performance was during 1914.

Harold Macmillan in 1959

1894 – Harold Macmillan – politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom, from 1957 to 1963.

Deaths

Ellen Wood

1887 – Ellen Wood (73) – English author

Ellen Wood was born 1814, Worcester as Ellen Price.  1836 she married Henry Wood.

Wood is best known for her 1861 novel East Lynne.  East Lynne was the Victorian best-seller, and its plot is chiefly for its elaborate and implausible, centring on infidelity and double identifies.

Wood’s other books became international bestsellers, having widely read in the United States.  Wood also surpassed the fame of Charles Dickens in Australia.

Ellen Wood grave 
Highgate Cemetery, London 

At the time of her death, Wood, who died of bronchitis and had a value of £36,000 was buried in Highgate Cemetery. 

Pope Pius XI

1939 – Pope Pius XI (81)

Pius XI was born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, Desion, in the province of Milan, 1857.

When the Vatican City was created an independent state in February 1929, Pope Pius, who had been elected Pope since 1922.

Pius took as his papal motto “Pax Christi in Regno Christi” which translated “The Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ”. Pius was the head of the Catholic Church until his death in 1939.

Pope Piux XI grave
Papal Grotto, Saint Peter's Basilica 

Pope Pius XI was buried in Papal Grotto of Saint Peter's Basilica 

11^th February

Events

1938 – The BBC produces the world’s first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of Czech writer Karel Capek’s play R.U.R.  it was this play that first coined the term “robot”

Pope Benedict XVI

2013 – Pope Benedict XVI the Vatican confirmed would resign the papacy due to his advanced age.

Births

Dennis Skinner in 2011

1932 – Dennis Skinner – English miner and politician. 

 Skinner a member of the Labour Party served as Member of Parliament for Bolsover, for 1970 to 2019.   Skinner was one of the longest serving members of the House of Commons and the longest continuously-serving Labour MP.

Deaths

Ernest Jones 

1958 – Ernest Jones (79) – Welsh neurologist and psychoanalyst.

Jones born 1879 in Gowerton the outskirts of Swansea, was the eldest child of Thomas Jones a self-taught colliery engineers and his wife Mary Ann Lewis.  Jones was educated at Swansea Grammar School, Llandovery College and Cardiff University. Jones obtained the Conjoint diplomas LRCP and MRCS during 1900 at University College London.  A year later Jones obtained an M.B. degree and a Membership of the Royal College Physicians in 1903.

Jones took a number of posts in London hospitals, specialising in neurology work. 

1908, Jones first met Sigmund Freud, they became lifelong friends and colleagues. Jones became his official biographer; Jones was the first English-speaking practitioner of psychoanalysis. 

It is Jones’s personal life that he is best remembered for during 1917, Jones married the Welsh musician Morfydd Llwyn Owen.  During the following year, they were holidaying in South Wales, when Owen became ill with acute appendicitis.  William Frederick Brook carried out emergency surgery, after the local surgeon, Wilfred Trotter was not able to carry out the operation.  Owen died from the effects of chloroform poisoning.

In later life, Jones, who after the Second World War relinquished many of his official posts.  Jones became a member of the Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party.  Jones also instrumental in helping the Gower Peninsula in securing the status of Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956.

St. Cadoc's Church,
Cheriton, Gower

Jones who died in London and cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, his ashes were buried at the grave of his oldest children in the churchyard of St. Cadoc’s, Cheriton, Gower.

12^th February

Events

1541 – Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia,

Births

1809 – Charles Darwin – English geologist and theorist and the author of “On the Origin of Species”, 1859.

Louis Renault

1877 – Louis Renault – Charles Darwin, c. 1854, when he was preparing On the Origin of Species for publication

French engineer and businessman and the co-founder of Renault, 1899

 

Deaths

Portrait of Langtry by Frank Miles

1929 – Lillie Langtry (75) – English singer and actress

 Born 1853, Jersey as Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was the daughter of the Very Reverend William Corbet and his wife Emilie Davies.  William was the Rector and Dean of Jersey.  From a young age Emilie was known as Lillie and was nicknamed “The Jersey Lillie”.

 March 1874, aged 20 Lillie married the Irish landowner Edward Langtry, aged 26.  The couple then moved to London taking up residence of 17 Norfolk Street.

 Lillie became the mistress of the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward.  At the time he was married to Princess Alexandra of Denmark.  Lillie was also presented to Queen Victoria.  The liaison was to last from 1877 to 1880, ending when Lillie became pregnant.

1879, Lillie began and affair with the Earl of Shrewsbury also in the same year, there was a short affair with  Prince Louis of Battenberg. 

1881, in need of money, Lillie’s close friend Oscar Wilde suggested to her that she should try the stage.  November 1881 saw Lillie in her first amateur production in a “A Fair Encounter”, at Twickenham Town Hall.  The following month, Lillie made her debut for the London public in “She Stoops to Conquer” at the Haymarket Theatre.  During her stage career, Lillie was friends with William Ewart Gladstone, the British prime minister.

Lillie Langtry grave
St. Saviour Church, 
Jersey

1888, Lillie became a property owner in the United States, purchasing ranches in Lake County, California.  Establishing a winery, which produced red wine.  She sold it in 1906.  Whilst in American, Lillie obtained her American citizenship in 1897.  In the same year, she divorced her husband Edward Langtry.

1899, Lillie married for the second time to Hugo Gerald de Bathe.  During her final year, Lillie resided in Monaco.  Lillie died of pneumonia, and her last request was to be buried in her parent’s tomb at St. Saviour Church, Jersey. 

 

13^th February

Events

Thomas Edison

1880 – Thomas Edison observes Thermionic emission.

 

Dead Sea Scrolls

1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls

 

Births

Randolph Churchill

1849 – Lord Randolph Churchill – English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Father of Winston Spencer-Churchill

Margaretta Scott

 1912 – Margaretta Scott – English actress.  Scott’s career spanned over seventy years, however, is best remembered for her role as Mrs. Pumphrey in All Creatures Great and Small

 

Deaths

Edward Berry

1831 – Edward Berry (62) – English admiral.

Born 1768, was the son of a London merchant.  His mother died, leaving his father to raise 5 daughters and 2 sons.  Berry’s education was provided by his uncle Rev. Titus Berry, in Norwich.  Berry first enter the Navy aged 10 as a volunteer on board the Burford.

Berry was promoted to Lieutenant in 1794, and May 1796 was appointed to HMS Agamemmon.  That November, Berry received the rank of Commander.

During the Battle of Nile, August 1798, Berry was ranked flag captain on board Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson’s ship HMS Vanguard.  After this action, Berry was knighted.

1814, Berry brought a house in Norwich, January 1815, he was awarded with the Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.  During the Battle of Trafalgar, October 1815, Berry was to command the HMS Agamemmon.  Berry who did not marry nor had children, died at Bath, where his is buried in nearby churchyard.  The baronetcy became extinct at the time of his death.

 

14^th February

Events

Portrait Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte
by Jean-Pierre Franque
John Paul Jones painting
by Charles Wilson Peale, 1781

1778 – For the first time, the Untied States flag is recognised by foreign naval vessel, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine-gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones

 

1946 – Bank of England is nationalised   

 

 

Births

1917 portrait of Nina Hamnett painted
by Roger Fry
 (Courtauld Gallery, London)

1890 – Nina Hammett – Welsh-English painter and author.  Hammett who an expect of sailor’s chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia 

 

1890 – Dick Richards – Welsh International footballer

 

Deaths

Lord Talbot by
John Vanderbank

1737 – Charles Talbot, 1^st Baron Talbot (52) – English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Great Britain

James Cook,
portrait by Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, c. 1775, 
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

1779 – James Cook (50) – English captain, cartographer and explorer

Born 1728, in the village of Marton, North Yorkshire.  Cook was the second of eight children, to James Cook, a Scottish farm labourer and his wife Grace Pace.  Cook’s education lasted for five years, having been paid by Thomas Skottowe, his father’s employer.  After school, Cook began to work with his father, who had been promoted as farm manager.

Aged 16, Cook moved 20 miles to the fishing village of Starithes, where he was apprenticed as a shop boy to grocer and haberdasher.  It was here, Starithes where Cook first felt the lure of the sea.

18 months later, Cook, who provided not suited to shop work, travelled to Whitby, where Cook, was introduced to Quakers John and Henry Walker.  They took Cook on as a merchant navy apprentice.  In their small vessels around the English coast.

Cook’s apprenticeship having been complete,  he began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea.  After passing his examinations, in 1752, Cook rose through the Merchant Navy ranks. 

Cook, was posted with HMS Eagle as able seaman and master’s mate.  March 1756 Cook took temporary command of the Cruizer. The following June 1757, Cook passed his master’s examination.

During the Seven Years’ War, Cook took command of a fourth-rate Navy vessel HMS Pembroke serving in North America.  Thew Pembroke took part in the major amphibious assault that captured the Fortress of Louisburg from the French, 1758 and the Siege of Quebec City, 1758.  During the war, Cook demonstrated a talent of surveying and cartography.  During the 1760s aboard the HMS Grenville the coast of Newfoundland was mapped out. 

1768, Cook was commissioned by the Admiralty on a scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean.  The purpose of the voyage was to observe and record the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun.  The expedition ship was the HMS Endeavour, departing England 1768.  Travelling around the Cape Horn and continued westward across the Pacific arriving at Tahiti, 1769.  Endeavour finally arrived back in England 1771.

1771, Cook was promoted to the rank of Commander, the following year, he commissioned on behalf of the Royal Society on a scientific expedition to search the hypothetical Terra Austalis.  Cook took command of the HME Resolution.  Cook became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle, January 1773.  During 1774, on his return from New Zealand, Cook landed at Friendly Islands, Easter Island, Norfolk Island, New Caledonia and Vanutau.

Cook arrived back to England during 1775, where Cook was promoted to post-captain and given an honorary retirement from the Royal Navy.

Cooks, third and finally voyage during 1776, was the attempt to discover the famed Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific around the top of North America.  Cook was again in command of HMS Resolution.

During  1779, Cook returned to Hawaii, where the Resolution was undertaking repairs to a broken mask, at Kealakekua Bay.  Here, tensions rose, after a number of quarrels broke out and a number of Hawaiians took one of the small boats.  The following day, the 14^th, Cook tried to kidnap and ransom the king of Hawari’i Kalani’opu’u, where Cook was killed by one of the villagers.  Cooks’ body, after his body was prepared by the Hawaiians with funerary rituals received for the chiefs and highest elders of the society, was returned to the crew for a formal burial at sea.

15^th February

Events

1921 – Kingdom of Romania establishes its legation in Helsinki, Finland

1923 – Greece was the last European country to adopt the Gregorian calendar

St. George's Chapel,
Windsor Castle

1952 – Funeral of King George VI, who is buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle

Births

Rickman Godlee

1849 – Rickman Godlee – English surgeon and academic.  1884, Godlee was one of the first doctors to surgically remove a brain tumour, forming the modern brain surgery.

Deaths

Herbert Henry Asquith 

1928 – Herbert Henry Asquith (75) – English politician, British Prime Minister.

Born 1852, Morley, West Riding of Yorkshire.  The youngest son of Joseph Dixon Asquith and his wife Emily Williams.  Asquith and his brother were taught by their parents, until his father’s death 1860.  After they were sent to live near their uncle, they were to spend a year at Huddersfield College and then sent as borders to Fulneck School, Leeds.

The boys were then sent to the City of London School.  Whilst a student here, Asquith visited the public gallery of the Houses of Commons, where he honed on his own skills in schools’ debating society. 1869, Asquith won a scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford. 

After graduating from Oxford, Asquith supplemented his income by writing regularly for the The Spectator between 1874 and 1884.  1883, Asquith career as a barrister began, when he was invited to join the chambers of R. S. Wright at the Inner Temple.  Asquith was to prepare a memorandum for the prime minister, W. F. Gladstone.

1892, Asquith who was 39 years old, and had not served as a junior minister accepted the post of Home Secretary when Gladstone and the Liberals returned to office after the July 1892 General Election.

Between 1895 and 1905, the Liberals were out of office after the July 1895 General Election, after narrowing losing against the Conservatives. 1905, after the resignation of the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, who did not seek a dissolution of Parliament and general election.  King Edward VII invited Campbell-Bannerman to form a government.  Asquith, who was a close friend, was appointed Chancellor of Exchequer.

H. H. Asquith's grave
All Saints
Sutton Courtenay

After the death of Campbell-Bannerman, 1908, Asquith succeeded the position of Prime Minister.  A position, at the time of the outbreak of the Frist World War. 1915, Asquith’s government was blamed for the shortage of munitions and the failure of the Gallipoli Campaign.  1916, he formed a coalition government with other parties, but this failed to satisfy the critics, by the end o 1916, Asquith was forced to resign. 

After retiring Asquith filled his time reading, writing, playing a little golf and meeting with friends.   1927, Asquith suffered a number of strokes, and died February 1928.  In accordance with his wishes, he was buried at All Saints, at Sutton Courtenay.

16^th February

Events

Spencer Wilmington by
Godfrey Kneller
c.1710

1742 – Spencer Crompton, Earl of Wilmington becomes the British Prime Minister.

Howard Carter

1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun

Births

June Brown

1927 – June Brown – English actress.  Best known for her role as Dot Cotton in EastEnders

Deaths

Richard Mead

1754 – Richard Mead (80) – English physician.  Mead’s work “A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it”, 1720, was an important piece of work to understand the transmissible diseases

17^th February

Events

1867 – The first ship passes through the Suez Canal

Original 1904 poster 
by
Adolfo Hohenstein

1904 – Madame Butterfly, premieres at La Scala, Milan

Births

1929 – Patricia Routledge – English actress, comedian, broadcaster and singer.  Routledge’s career in entertainment spans more than 70 years, but is best remembered for her role as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances  

Deaths

William Bickerton

1905 – William Bickerton (90) – English-American religious leader, leader in the Latter-Day Saints Movement

Born 1815, Kyloe, Northumberland.  The seventh of eight children, the son of Thomas Bickerton and his wife Isabella Hope.  Thomas immigrated to the United States during 1830 to become a coal miner, finally settling at Pennsylvania.

Bickerton was a Methodist, who covered to the faith of the Latter-Day Saints, by Sidney Rigdon during 1845.   Following the death of the leader of the Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith, 1844 who founded Church of Christ in 1830.  Bickerton claimed the leadership after the 1844 succession crisis.

Bickerton remained the President until July 1880.  Bickerton died during 1905, and is buried at Fairview Cemetery, St. John, Kansas.

18^th February

Events

1885 – Mark Twain’s “Adventure of Huckleberry Finn” is published

1900 – Second Boer War – the Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, at the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg, with 297 casualties 24 officers and 279 men killed with a further 906 wounded 59 officers and 847.  The Battle lasted until 27^th February.

1911 – The first official flight with airmail takes places from Allanhabad, British India (India) to Naini.  6 miles away.  The flight had 6,500 letters.

Births

Portrait of George Henschel
by
Lawrence Alama-Tadema, 1879

1850 – George Henschel – German-English singer-songwriter, pianist and conductor.

1871 – Harry Brearley – English inventor.  Best remembered for his invention of “rustless stell”, later to be known as “stainless steel”

 

Deaths

Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim portrait
by Johan Heinrich Ramberg, 1789

1803 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (84) – German poet and educator.  Ludwig Gleim is associated with the Enlightenment movement

Charles Lewis Tiffany

1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany (90) – American business and the founder of Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany was born 1812, was the son of Comfort Tiffany and Chloe Draper.  His father started a general store.  When Tiffany finished his education aged 15, he helped his father.  His father also owned a cotton-manufacturing company, where Tiffany worked in the office.

1837, Tiffany along with a friend, John B. Young started a small stationery and gift shop, after borrowing $1,000 off Tiffany’s father.  After two years, they were still in business and now selling glassware, porcelain, cutlery, clocks and jewellery.

The business expanded and changed name 1841, to Tiffany, Young and Ellis.  The company was registered under the name of Tiffany and Company, and further branches were opened overseas, Paris 1850 and London 1868.

The company firmly establishing its reputation in 1887, after acquiring and selling some of the French Crown jewels.

Tiffany died 1902 at his home in Manhattan, New York and is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

19^th February

Events

1819 – The South Shetland Islands, Antarctic are discovered by British explorer William Smith and he claims them in the name of King George III.

1836 – Province of South Australia are established after King William IV signs Letters Patent

Ezra Pound photographed in 1913
by Alvin Langdon Coburn

1949 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University for his collection of poems The Pisan Cantos

Births

Portrait of David Garrick by
Thomas Gainsborough

1717 – David Garrick – English actor, playwright and producer.

 

Lydia Thompson in
Bluebeard, 1872

1838 – Lydia Thompson – English dancer, comedian, actress and theatrical producer.

 

Deaths

Elizabeth Carter as Minerva,
godness of wisdom
by John Fayram
painted between 1735 and 1741),
National Portrait Gallery

1806 – Elizabeth Carter (88) – English poet and translator

Born 1717, Deal Kent.  The oldest child of Rev. Nicholas Carter, the perpetual curate of Deal and his wife Margaret Swayne.  Her mother died when Carter was 10.

Carter was one of the Bluestocking Circle.  This was the movement of informal women’s social and education movement, having been formed by Elizabeth Montagu.  Carter earned respect for translating the 2^nd century Stoic philosopher work “Discourses of Epictetus” into English.  Carter also published poems and translated from French and Italian.

Carter, befriended Samuel Johnson, English writer.  Carter edited some of Johnson’s editions of the periodical “The Rambler”

1796, Carter suffered from a dangerous illness, which she never fully recovered from, however, Carter still  exerted herself and visited the poor.  Carter also established and maintained charitable institutions. Carter died at her lodgings in Clarges Street, London.