Biographies

B

Bacon, Francis (1909–1992). Irish painter of works noted for grotesque or nightmarish imagery.

Bagnold, Enid Algerine, Lady Jones (1889–1981). Author and playwright, best known for the 1935 story National Velvet which was filmed by MGM in 1944.

Bailey, Frederick Marshman (1882–1967). Explorer, secret agent, botanical collector and soldier.

Bailey, John Cann (1864–1931). Literary critic. President of the Literary Society. Publications include Dr Johnson and his Circle, 1913. Husband of GWL's aunt Sarah Lyttelton.

Bailey, Trevor Edward (1923–2011). Cricketer. Essex (1946–67) and England (1949–59) all-rounder. Later a cricket commentator and writer.

Baines, Jocelyn Cuthbert (1924–1972). Author, critic and bookseller. The Times, in its obituary notice (15 December 1972), said of Baines's Conrad that it remained a standard work and 'takes its place firmly on the shelf alongside Edel and Quentin Bell.'

Baldwin, Stanley (1867–1947). 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Conservative politician. Prime Minister 1923–24, 1924–29 and 1935–37. Much criticised in the 1940s and 50s for his 1930s policy of appeasing Nazi Germany.

Baldwin, (Arthur) Windham ('Bloggs') (1904–1976). 3rd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. Younger son of Stanley Baldwin and combative defender of his father's reputation.

Balfour, Arthur (1848–1930). Conservative politician. Prime Minister, 1902–05. Later served in senior cabinet posts under Asquith, Lloyd George and Baldwin.

Balzac, Honoré de (1799–1850). French novelist and playwright. Author of a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoleon.

Banck, Victor. Alsace-born French master at Eton College who 'stood no 'ombog' (The Times 24 April 1933) and refused to take off his hat when the German Emperor visited Eton in 1891 ('I vill not lift my 'at to your sacré empereur.')

Bancroft, Sir Squire (1841–1926). Actor-manager. Married (Effie) Marie Wilton (1840–1920) in 1868, and jointly produced and acted in many West End plays until their retirement in 1885.

Bantock, Geoffrey Herman (1914–1997). Academic. Reader in (later Professor of) Education, Leicester, 1954–1975.

Barbauld, Anna Laetitia née Aikin (1743–1825). Poet, essayist, children's author and feminist.

Barham, Richard Harris (1788–1845). Anglican priest. Author of The Ingoldsby Legends under the pen name Thomas Ingoldsby.

Baring, Lady Rose Gwendolen Louisa, née McDonnell (1909–1993). Woman of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth II from 1953.

Baring, Maurice (1874–1945). Novelist. His novel C was published in 1924.

Barnes, Djuna (1892–1982). American writer. Her novel Nightwood became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction by T S Eliot.

Barrie, Sir James Matthew (1860–1937), Scottish novelist and dramatist, creator of Peter Pan.

Barrington, Patrick William Daines Ardglass (1908–1990), 11th Viscount Barrington. Anglo-Irish peer and writer of humorous verse.

Barry, Sir Gerald (1898–1968), Journalist and Director General of the Festival of Britain celebrating the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition.

Barth, Karl (1886–1968). Swiss theologian. Professor of Theology at Basle University, 1935–62. The Times obituary notice said of him, 'He was indeed more than a theologian, for he earned a place in the ranks of the Christian prophets.'

Bartók, Béla Viktor Janós (1881–1945). Hungarian composer. Incorporated elements from Magyar folk music in his works. A modernist in style, without abandoning tonality.

Batchelor, Denzil Stanley (1909–1969). Journalist. Reported on cricket and rugby football for several newspapers, including The Times. Also known for his work as a broadcaster, oenophile and novelist.

Bates, Herbert Ernest (1905–1974). Novelist whose works include the popular The Darling Buds of May and its successors featuring the Larkin family.

Batsford, Sir Brian Caldwell Cook (1910–1991). Conservative MP and publisher.

Battie, Dr William (1703–76). One of the first doctors to specialise in psychiatry. President of the Royal College of Physicians, 1764.

Baxter, Charles (1848–1919). R L Stevenson's legal adviser, business manager, and lifelong friend.

Bayley, John (1925–2015). Literary scholar and writer. Warton Professor of English at Oxford 1974–92. Edited Henry James's The Wings of the Dove and a two-volume selection of James's short stories. Married Iris Murdoch in 1956.

Beachcomber – see Morton, J B.

Beasley-Robinson, Aubrey Claude (1893–1974). Anglican priest. Eton master until 1946. Ordained 1949. Entered the Society of St John the Evangelist, the 'Cowley Fathers', a monastic Anglican order. He continued to attend the biannual dinner for old boys of his house until 1973.

Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy (1904–1980). Photographer and stage designer.

Beatrice, Princess, of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1857–1944). Youngest daughter of Queen Victoria; married Prince Henry of Battenberg in 1885.

Beauclerk, Topham (1739–1780) Son of Lord Sidney Beauclerk; friend of Dr Johnson.

Beckford, William Thomas (1759–1844). Writer and eccentric. Author of Vathek, a fantastic tale of the Arabian Nights sort.

Beddington, Mrs Claude (c. 1880–1962) née Frances Ethel Homan-Mulock. Published her memoirs, All That I Have Met in 1929. In her will she endowed prizes at Eton, Oxford, Cambridge, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music.

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell (1803–1849). English poet and dramatist.

Bedser, Sir Alec Victor (1918–2010). Cricketer; fast bowler for Surrey and England in a career that spanned twenty-one years. Chairman of selectors for the English team, and president of Surrey County Cricket Club.

Beecham, Lady, née Jean (known as Shirley) Hudson (b. 1932). Married Sir Thomas Beecham in 1959.

Beecham, Sir Thomas (1879–1961). Conductor and impresario. Supplanted George Moore as Lady Cunard's lover. Forsook Lady Cunard on his second marriage, in 1943, to Betty Humby.

Beerbohm Tree, Herbert – see Tree, Herbert Beerbohm.

Beerbohm, Elisabeth née Jungmann (died 1959 aged about 62). Secretary, companion and—for a month before he died—wife of Max Beerbohm. Earlier she had been assistant to Robert Birley as educational adviser in Germany, 1947–49, of which Birley said, 'I think she did more than any other person after the war to create a new relationship between England and the liberal forces in German art and literature.' (The Times, 21 January 1959, p 13).

Beerbohm, Sir Max (1872–1956). Critic, essayist, cartoonist and satirist. m, 1956, Elisabeth Jungmann. In Philip Ziegler's biography of Hart-Davis six of the 26 books listed as edited by RH-D were of Max Beerbohm's works.

Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770–1827). German composer.

Behan, Brendan Francis (1923–1964). Irish writer and drinker.

Behn, Aphra (1640–1689). Restoration dramatist. One of the first English professional female writers. Her best-known work is The Rover.

Behrman, Samuel Nathaniel (1893–1973). American author, playwright and screenwriter.

Bell, John (1922–2008). Publisher's editor. Prominent in the Oxford University Press. Co-editor of The Collected Letters of Wilfred Owen (1967).

Bell, (Arthur) Clive Heward (1881–1964). Critic and writer. Member and chronicler of the Bloomsbury group.

Belloc Lowndes, Marie Adelaide (1868–1947). Anglo-French writer. Sister of Hilaire Belloc. Married Frederick Lowndes.

Belloc, (Joseph) Hilaire Pierre René (1870–1953). Anglo-French writer and Liberal MP (1906–10), remembered for his Cautionary Tales.

Benaud, Richard ('Richie') Benaud (1930–2015). Cricketer; all-rounder. Highly successful captain of Australia, 1958–64. Subsequently eminent cricket commentator and writer.

Bennett, (Enoch) Arnold (1867–1931). Novelist, playwright and journalist. His novels include the Clayhanger trilogy and The Old Wives' Tale. His journals were published in four volumes between 1930 and 1933.

Bennett, Joan (1896–1986). Lecturer in English at Cambridge University from 1936 to 1964, and a Life Fellow of Girton.

Bennett, (Henry) Stanley (1889–1972). Bibliographer, Chaucerian. Life Fellow, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (Librarian, 1934–59); Emeritus University Reader in English; Vice-President of the British Academy, 1959–60.

Benson, Arthur Christopher (1862–1925). Teacher and writer. Eton master, 1885–1903. Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1904, and, from 1915 until his death, Master. Joint editor (with the second Viscount Esher) of the first three volumes of The Letters of Queen Victoria (1907). His poems and volumes of essays, such as From a College Window, were famous in his day, and he left one of the longest diaries ever written, some four million words, edited for publication by Percy Lubbock.,

Benson, Edward Frederic (1867–1940). Novelist and biographer. Nowadays principally known for his 'Mapp and Lucia' series of mannered comic novels. Son of Archbishop E W Benson and brother of A C and R H.

Benson, Edward White (1829–1896). Anglican priest. Bishop of Truro, 1877–1882; Archbishop of Canterbury from 1882 until his death. Best remembered for devising the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, an order of service first used in Truro Cathedral on Christmas Eve 1880, much emulated elsewhere, notably at King's College Chapel, Cambridge.

Benson, Robert Hugh (1871–1914). Anglican and later, from 1903, Roman Catholic priest and writer. Son of Archbishop E W Benson and younger brother of A C and E F Benson. Published many popular works of fiction including The Light Invisible (1903), as well as sermons and biographies.

Bentley, Edmund Clerihew (1875–1956). Novelist and inventor of the clerihew, humorous verse on biographical topics, deceptively irregular in form. Author of the seminal English detective novel, Trent's Last Case (1913).

Bentley, Nicolas (né Nicholas) Clerihew (1907–1978). Cartoonist. Son of Edmund Clerihew Bentley. As book illustrator, known for his customary by-ine: 'Nicolas Bentley drew the pictures'. Books for which he drew the pictures include Belloc's New Cautionary Tales, T S Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and the second and third of Lawrence Durrell's 'Antrobus' collections.

Bentley, Richard (1662–1742). Classical scholar. Like A E Housman two centuries later he evinced serious interest in Manilius.,

Berg, Alban Maria Johannes (1885–1935). Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School led by Arnold Schoenberg. Sometimes transcended dodecaphonic dogma to produce music of beauty, but too modern for GWL's tastes.

Berkeley, Anthony. One of the pen-names of Anthony Berkeley Cox (1893–1971), who also wrote as Francis Iles.

Berlin, Sir Isaiah (1909–1997). Described by The Guardian as 'the most famous English academic intellectual of the post-war era, outstanding lecturer, peerless conversationalist and superlative essayist.' Born in Latvia; family moved to England in 1921.

Bernhardt, Sarah (1844–1923). French actress of enormous international celebrity.

Berry, Walter Van Rensselaer (1859–1927). American lawyer and critic. Greatly loved by Edith Wharton.

Besant, Annie Wood (1847–1933). Theosophist, feminist, writer and orator.

Betjeman, John (1906–1984). Poet and broadcaster. Poet Laureate 1972–84. Publications include: Poems: Old Lights for New Chancels, 1940; New Bats in Old Belfries, 1945; Selected Poems, 1948; A Few Late Chrysanthemums, 1954; Summoned by Bells (verse autobiography), 1960; A Nip in the Air, 1974; Prose: Ghastly Good Taste, 1933; Antiquarian Prejudice, 1939; English Cities and Small Towns, 1943.

Bevan, Aneurin (1897–1960). Welsh Labour MP, Minister of Health at the time of the introduction of the National Health Service. Vociferously left-wing in his politics.

Bevin, Ernest (1881–1951) Trade union leader, and Labour politician. Minister of Labour in the coalition government in WWII, and a greatly-admired Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour government.

Birkenhead, Earls of: Frederick Edwin Smith (1872–1930) 1st Earl, Conservative politician and lawyer, known for his wit and diehard Toryism. Lord Chancellor, 1919–22 and Secretary of State for India, 1924–28. His son, the 2nd Earl, Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith (1907–1975) was a historian best known for his controversial biography of Rudyard Kipling which was suppressed by the Kipling family for many years.

Birkett, (William) Norman (1880–1962). 1st Baron Birkett. Lawyer and politician. Liberal MP, 1923–24 and 1929–31. British judge during the Nuremberg trials.

Birley, Sir Robert (1903–1982). Headmaster of Charterhouse, 1935–47; British educational adviser in Germany, 1947–49; Head Master of Eton, 1949–63; visiting Professor at Witwatersrand University, South Africa, 1964–1967; Professor and Head of Department of Social Science and Humanities, City University 1967–1971. Professor of Rhetoric, Gresham College, London 1968–1982. Staunch upholder of human rights and opponent of apartheid.

Birmingham, George A: pen name of Canon James Owen Hannay (1865–1950), Anglican priest and novelist.

Birrell, Augustine (1850–1933). Politician and author. Son of a Baptist minister but in adult life an agnostic, though according to the DNB retaining a deep respect for the Liberal nonconformist tradition of his Liverpool upbringing.

Black Prince: Edward of Woodstock. Prince of Wales (1330–1376). Eldest son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, and father of Richard II.

Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654–1729). Physician and writer. Author of Prince Arthur: an Heroick Poem in Ten Books, which he wrote with the aim of reforming contemporary poetry from the immorality and impiety of the age, for which William III knighted him.

Blackwell, Sir Basil Henry (1889–1984). Bookseller and publisher, a member of the Oxford bookselling dynasty.

Blake, Robert (1599–1657). Sailor. Leading admiral of the Roundheads in the Civil War. As a young man he wanted to follow an academic career but when he stood for a fellowship at Merton College, Oxford he failed to secure election.

Blake, William (1757–1827). Poet, painter and printmaker.

Blakiston, (Hugh) Noel (1905–1984). Archivist and author, prominent figure in the Public Record Office. Catalogued the Eton College library for which undertaking he was made an honorary fellow of the college, the first for more than three centuries.

Blakiston, Cuthbert Harold (1879–1949). Eton master, 1905–25. Headmaster of Lancing College, 1925–34.

Bland, (Hugh) Michael (1874–1956). Eton master, c. 1895–1932.

Bland, Deirdre – see Hart Davis, Deirdre.

Bliss, Sir Arthur Edward Drummond (1891–1975). Composer. Master of the Queen's Musick 1953–75.

Blixen-Finecke, Baroness Karen von, née Karen Dinesen (1885–1962). Danish author also known under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Best known for Out of Africa, her account of living in Kenya, and Babette's Feast, both of which were adapted into films.

Blunden, Edmund Charles (1896–1974). Poet and university lecturer. He served in World War I and published the prose work Undertones of War (1928). His poetry is mainly about rural life. Among his scholarly contributions was the discovery and publication of poems by the 19th century poet John Clare. At the time of RH-D's letters to GWL, Blunden was head of the English department at the University of Hong Kong. He was later Professor of Poetry at Oxford, 1966–68. Publications include biographies of Leigh Hunt and Shelley, and works on Henry Vaughan, John Keats, and Charles Lamb.

Blunt, Wilfrid Jasper Walter (1901–1987). Teacher of art and writer. Art master at Haileybury College, 1923–37. Drawing master at Eton 1938–59. Nephew of Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, and brother of Anthony Blunt, the Soviet agent.

Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen (1840–1922). Poet and writer. He had a long relationship with (among many others) the courtesan Catherine Walters ('Skittles').

Blythe, Colin (1879–1917). Cricketer. Kent and England left arm spinner, regarded as one of the finest bowlers between 1900 and 1914. Killed on active service in WWI.

Boase, Thomas Sherrer Ross (1898–1974). Historian. President of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1947–1968. Vice-Chancellor, 1958–60.

Bodkin, Sir Archibald Henry (1862–1957). Lawyer. Director of Public Prosecutions, 1920–1930, scourge of publishers of such books as Ulysses and The Well of Loneliness.

Bogan, Louise (1897–1970). American poetess and critic.

Boll, Theophilus Ernest Martin (1902–1994). Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Emeritus from 1972. An expert on the novelist May Sinclair.

Bonaparte, Napoleon (1769–1821). French soldier, politician and emperor.

Bonham-Carter, Lady Violet (1887–1969). Author, governor of the BBC, 1941, first woman president of the Liberal Party, 1944. Daughter of H H Asquith.

Bonham-Carter, Mark Raymond (1922–1994). Editor, publisher and politician. Created a life peer in 1986. Son of Violet Bonham-Carter.

Booker, Robert Penrice Lee (1864–1922). Eton master from 1888–1920.

Boothby, Robert John Graham (1900–1986). Baron Boothby. Broadcaster and Conservative politician. His racy private life was known in Establishment circles but not by the public.

Borden, Mary (married names Mary Turner; Mary Spears, Lady Spears; pen name, Bridget Maclagan) (1886–1968). American-born author. Books include Flamingo (1928); The Forbidden Zone (1931); The Techniques of Marriage (1933); Passport for a Girl (1939); Mary of Nazareth (1933); The King of the Jews (1935), For the Record (1950) and Martin Merriedew (1952). Mother of Comfort Hart-Davis.

Bosie – see Douglas, Lord Alfred.

Bott, Josephine (1903–1982). Widow of Alan John Bott (1893–1952) co-founder of the Book Society and Pan Books. Both the Botts became good friends of Hugh Walpole. Josephine Bott wrote a number of books of short stories.

Bourchier, Arthur (1864–1927). Actor, described in his Times obituary as 'one of the last of the old school of actor-managers.' His London theatre was the Strand (now called the Novello). He made early gramophone recordings of excerpts from Macbeth, appeared in a 1913 silent film version, and produced and starred in stage productions of the play.

Bourne, Robert Morice Anthony ('Bobby') (1918–1995). Eton master, 1947–1983. GWL's son-in-law, having married Margaret Rose Lyttelton in 1949. Successful rowing coach.

Bowen, Elizabeth Dorothea Cole (1899–1973). Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer. Published eleven novels between 1927 and 1958.

Bowra, Sir Cecil Maurice (1898–1971). Classical scholar and academic. Warden of Wadham, Oxford, 1938–71; Professor of Poetry 1946–1951; Vice Chancellor 1951–1954.

Bracken, Brendan (1901–1958). Irish-born newspaper publisher, editor and British Conservative politician, believed to be the model for the brash Rex Mottram in Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

Bradbury, Ray Douglas (1920–2012) American writer of science fiction, fantasy, horror and mysteries.

Bradlaugh, Charles (1833–1891). Proponent of atheism; founded the National Secular Society in 1866.

Bradley, Andrew Cecil (1851–1935). Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Published Shakespearean Tragedy in 1904.

Bradman, Sir Donald George (1908–2001). Australian cricketer, and later cricket administrator and writer. Wisden said of him, '…beyond any argument, the greatest batsman who ever lived and the greatest cricketer of the 20th century.'

Brailsford, Henry Noel (1873–1958). Prominent left-wing journalist, author and editor. The Times described him as 'An intellectual crusader … a leading English Socialist intellectual and an author and a journalist of an uncommonly cultivated stamp.'

Brain, Sir (Walter) Russell (1895–1966), 1st Baron Brain. Author, physician and medical statesman.

Brand, Robert Henry (1878–1963). Baron Brand. Merchant banker and public servant.

Bratby, John Randall (1928–1992). Painter and writer; editor-in-chief of Art Quarterly. It was for his generation of young artists that the critic David Sylvester coined the phrase 'Kitchen Sink' to describe the depressing realism of their art.

Braxfield, Robert Macqueen (1722–1799), 1st Baron. Scottish lawyer notorious as a 'hanging judge'. Reactionary in politics and a hard drinker described by Henry Cockburn as 'strong built and dark, with rough eyebrows, powerful eyes, threatening lips, and a low growling voice, he was like a formidable blacksmith. His accent and his dialect were exaggerated Scotch; his language, like his thoughts, short, strong, and conclusive.'

Brearley, Walter (1876–1937). Cricketer. Fast bowler for Lancashire (1902–1921) and England (1905–12).

Brewster, Julia, née von Stockhausen (1847–1895), wife of Henry (Harry) Bennett Brewster (1850–1908), A member of Ethel Smyth's circle. Smyth and the Brewsters had an unusual triangular amatory relationship.

Bridges, Edward Ettingdene (1892–1969), 1st Baron Bridges. Civil servant. Cabinet Secretary, 1938–46, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury 1946–56. Son of the poet Robert Bridges.

Bridges, Robert Seymour (1844–1930). Poet and critic. Poet Laureate, 1913–1930. He wrote The Testament of Beauty (1929) a long philosophical poem. In 1918 he edited and published the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Brien, Alan (1925–2008). Journalist and novelist. Critic, columnist and foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times, Punch, The New Statesman and The Observer.

Briggs, Johnny (1862–1902). Cricketer. Left arm spin bowler for Lancashire (1879–1900) and England (1884–1899).

Briginshaw, Richard William (1908–1992). Baron Briginshaw. Trade union leader. General Secretary of NATSOPA, 1951–74.

Brinton, Hubert (1863–1941). Eton master, 1887–1924.

Bristow, (Walter) Rowley (1882–1947). Consulting Orthopædic Surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital; Professor, Royal College of Surgeons.

Britten, (Edward) Benjamin (1913–1976). Leading British composer of his generation. One of the few composers of the twentieth century (along with Richard Strauss and Giacomo Puccini) to have a substantial body of operas in the regular international repertoire.

Broadbent, Henry (1852–1935). Eton master 1876–1919. Classicist, known for his Plato class for the upper boys. College Librarian 1920–1935.

Brodrick, William St John Fremantle (1856–1942). 1st Earl of Midleton. Secretary of State for India, 1903–05. He was in conflict with the Viceroy (Curzon) over Colonel Younghusband's role in Tibet, and sought to block any honours for Younghusband. Brodrick's brother Colonel Arthur Grenville Brodrick (1868–1934) was a serving soldier from 1884 to 1919.

Brogan, Sir Denis William (1900–1974). Author and historian.

Brontë, Charlotte (1816–1855), novelist.

Brontë, Patrick Branwell (1817–1848). Painter and poet, brother of Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë.

Brook, Norman Craven (1902–1967). Baron Normanbrook. Civil servant. Cabinet Secretary, 1947–62. Head of the Home Civil Service, 1956–62.

Brook, Richard (1880–1969). Anglican priest. Headmaster, Liverpool College, 1919–28; Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, 1940–53.

Brown, Ivor John Carnegie (1891–1974). Author and journalist. London dramatic critic and leader-writer for The Manchester Guardian, 1919–1935; dramatic critic to The Observer, 1929–1954. Publications include A World in Your Ear, 1942; Shakespeare, 1949; Mind Your Language, 1962; Dr Johnson and His World, 1965.

Brown, John ('Estimate') (1715–1766), Anglican priest, author and moralist. published An Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times in 1757.

Browne, Sir Thomas (1605–1682) Author of a range of works covering medicine, religion, science and the esoteric.

Browning Elizabeth, née Barrett (1806–1861). Poet. Wife of Robert Browning.

Browning, Oscar (1837– 1923). Writer, historian, schoolmaster and don. Fellow and tutor, King's College, Cambridge.

Browning, Robert (1812–89). Romantic poet of the Victorian era.

Browning, Robert Wiedeman Barrett ('Pen') (1849–1912). Painter. Only child of Robert and Elizabeth Browning. Married a rich heiress and bought Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, where Robert senior died.

Bruce Lockhart, Sir Robert (1887–1970). Diplomat, author and journalist. Acting Consul-General in Moscow, 1915–1917; arrested by the Bolsheviks and imprisoned in the Kremlin, September, 1918; banker in Central Europe, 1922–1928; editorial staff, Evening Standard, 1929–1937; Foreign Office, 1939–45. Publications include Memoirs of a British Agent, 1932; My Rod My Comfort, 1948; Jan Masaryk, 1951; Giants Cast Long Shadows, 1960.

Brunner, Sir Felix John Morgan (1895–1982). Businessman and politician. President of the Liberal Party 1962–3. Married, 1926, Dorothea Elizabeth Irving, actress and voluntary worker (1904–2003).

Bryher: pen name of Annie Winnifred Ellerman (1894–1983). Novelist, poet, memoirist, and magazine editor.

Bryson, John (1896–1976). Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Balliol College, Oxford, 1940–63.

Buchan, John (1875–1940). 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. Scottish public servant and author, best known for his adventure stories such as The Thirty Nine Steps (1915). Governor General of Canada 1935–40.

Bullock, Sir Alan Louis Charles (1914–2004). Baron Bullock of Leafield. Historian and academic. Master of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, 1960–80; Vice-Chancellor, 1969–73. Books include Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1952); The Liberal Tradition (1956); The Life and Times of Ernest Bevin (1960); The Humanist Tradition in the West (1985); Has History a Future? (1987).

Bülow, Prince Bernhard Heinrich Karl Martin von (1849–1929) Chancellor of the German Empire, 1900–1909.

Burgess, Guy Francis De Moncy (1911–1963). Leading member of the 'Cambridge ring' of Soviet spies that operated in Britain between the middle 1930s and the early 1950s. Fled to Russia in 1951 and lived in unhappy exile for the rest of his life.

Burt, Clive Stuart Saxon (1900–1981). Lawyer. Metropolitan Magistrate, 1958–73.

Butler, Richard Austen ('Rab') (1902–1982). Conservative politician. One of the few politicians to have served in the three posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, but twice passed over for the premiership.

Butler, Samuel (1835–1902). Writer and artist. His novel The Way of All Flesh is a satire on Victorian hypocrisy.

Butterwick, (James) Cyril (1890–1966). Eton master, later a partner and auctioneer at Sotheby's. Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company.

Byrne, Lionel Stanley Rice ('Fuggy') (1863–1948). Eton master, 1889–1924, specialising in modern languages.

Byron, George Gordon (1788–1824). 6th Baron Byron. Poet, prominent exponent of romanticism. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and the incomplete Don Juan.

Byron, Robert (1905–1941). Traveller and writer on art, best known for his The Road to Oxiana (1937) which combines a discourse on Islamic art with entertaining travel writing.

Bywater, Ingram (1840–1914) Classical scholar. Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford (1863), reader in Greek (1883), Regius Professor of Greek (1893–1908). Known for his editions of Greek philosophical works including Aristotle's Poetics (1898).