Biographies

E

Eccleshare, Colin Forster (1916–1989). Publisher. Assistant London manager of Cambridge University Press, 1948–63; manager 1963–72.

Eckermann, Johann Peter (1792–1854). German poet and author, associate of Goethe.

Edel, (Joseph) Leon (1907–1997). American literary scholar. The leading expert of his generation on the life and works of Henry James.

Eden, Sir (Robert) Anthony (1897–1977). 1st Earl of Avon. Conservative politician. Prime Minister, 1955–57. Brought down by the American sabotage of the Anglo-French campaign to recover control of the Suez canal.

Eden, Sir William (1849–1915). Father of Anthony Eden.

Eggar, Douglas William (1865–1945). Eton master; senior science master, 1911–20.

Egremont, George O'Brien Wyndham (1751–1837), 3rd Earl of. Patron of Turner and other English painters. As noted by GWL, a prolific sire.

Eichmann, (Karl) Adolf (1906–1962). Leading Nazi, responsible for organising the mass deportation of Jews and other 'undesirables' to extermination camps. After the war he escaped to Argentina and lived there under a false identity until 1960, when he was abducted by Israeli agents and tried in an Israeli court for crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was convicted and hanged.

Eisenhower, Dwight David ('Ike') (1890–1969). American soldier and later politician. Successful general in WWII. President of the USA, 1953–1961.

Elephant Bill – see Williams, J H.

Elgar, Sir Edward William (1857–1934). Leading English composer of the early twentieth century.

Elia – see Lamb, Charles.

Eliot, George: pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1809–1890). Novelist, author of Adam Bede, 1859; The Mill on the Floss, 1860; Silas Marner, 1861; Romola, 1863; Felix Holt, the Radical, 1866; Middlemarch, 1871–72; and Daniel Deronda, 1876.

Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888–1965). American-born, later naturalised British, poet. Married en secondes noces Esmé Valerie Fletcher in 1957.

Elizabeth I (1533–1603). Queen of England (1558–1603).

Elizabeth, of the German Garden—Elizabeth von Arnim, née Marie Annette Beauchamp (1866–1941). Author of Elizabeth and her German Garden (1898). After the death of her first husband, Count von Arnim, she married the second Earl Russell in 1916.

Elliott, Sir Claude Aurelius (1888–1973). Head Master of Eton, 1933–1949. Provost, 1949–1964.

Ellis, (Henry) Havelock (1859–1939). Doctor, sexual psychologist and social reformer. His magnum opus was Studies in the Psychology of Sex (7 vols, 1897–1928). He was a champion of women's rights and of sex education, and in My Life (1939) was forthcoming about his own marital and sexual problems.

Ellmann, Richard (1918–1987). American writer. Particularly known for his books on Irish authors, including Yeats, Joyce and Wilde. His biography of the last won the Pulitzer Prize and is the standard work.

Elton, Oliver (1861–1945). Literary scholar. Professor of English at Liverpool University, 1901–25. Works include A Survey of English Literature (1730–1880) in six volumes. His C E Montague: A Memoir was published in 1929.

Epstein, Sir Jacob (1880–1959). American-born sculptor who worked chiefly in the UK, producing uncompromisingly modern but much-admired works.

Ervine, St John (né John) Greer (1883–1971). Irish author, playwright and critic. Books include: Sir Edward Carson and the Ulster Movement, Parnell, Oscar Wilde: a Present-time Appraisal; and Bernard Shaw: His Life, Work and Friends (1956). The last is mentioned several times by GWL and RH-D.

Esher, Reginald Baliol (1852–1930), 2nd Viscount Esher. Courtier. Edited Queen Victoria's letters, in collaboration with A C Benson. The first three volumes, The Letters of Queen Victoria, 1837–1861, were published in 1907.

Euclid, 'The Father of Geometry'. Greek mathematician of the second or third century BC.

Eugénie, Empress (1826–1920). Marie Eugénie de Guzman y de Porto-carrero (Condesa de Teba, Marquesa de Moya); born Granada 1826; daughter of Cyprien, conde Montijo, duque de Penerauda, and Marie Manuela Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, Scotland. Empress of the French, 1853–1870 as consort of Napoleon III.

Evans, Dame Edith (1888–1976). Actress, whose performance as Lady Bracknell on stage and in the 1952 film of The Importance of Being Earnest remains a benchmark.

Evans, (Thomas) Godfrey (1920–1999). Cricketer, Kent and England. Described by Wisden as 'arguably the best wicket-keeper the game has ever seen', he made 219 dismissals in 91 Test match appearances between 1946 and 1959 and a further 1066 in first-class matches for Kent.

Evelyn, John (1620–1706). Diarist, second only to Pepys among well-known English diarists.

Everard, John. British photographer particularly noted for his pictures of female nudes from the late 1920s until the early 1960s.

Evershed, (Francis) Raymond (1899–1966). First Baron Evershed. Lawyer. Master of the Rolls, 1949–1962; Lord of Appeal in ordinary, 1962–1965.