People in History: 1800s

Popularised the Christmas tree in Britain		Prince Albert
Salford publican and boatman, 1838–90: awarded the Albert Medal for rescuing over 50 people from drowning in the River Irwell (then highly polluted); a pub beside the river was named in his honour in 1981 (but may never re–open after floods in 2015)		Mark Addy
Britain's first woman doctor (1865) and first woman Mayor (1908)		Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Engineer and businessman, born Newcastle–upon–Tyne 1810: founded a factory on Scotswood Road, Elswick, which is mentioned in the song Blaydon Races		William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong
Built Cragside, a country house at Rothbury, which was the first house in the world to be lit by electricity
Donated Jesmond Dene (a wooded gorge) to the people of Newcastle
Founded what would become Newcastle University
Headmaster of Rugby School, 1828–42		Thomas Arnold
German–born US businessman, 1763–1848: made his fortune originally in a fur trade monopoly, building it by smuggling opium into China and investing in real estate in or around New York City; the USA's first multi–millionaire businessman		John Jacob Astor
Born Nancy Witcher Langhorne in Danville, Virginia, 1879; married the great–great–grandson of the above		Nancy Astor
President of the USA for one day, in 1849 (according to a well–known urban myth) because Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on the Sabbath		David Atchison
English settler in Australia, credited with introducing rabbits (for shooting) 1859		Thomas Austin
Stage name of Jeanne Louise Beaudon, a French can–can dancer made famous by the paintings of Henri de Toulouse–Lautrec in the 1890s		Jane Avril
Irish philanthropist: came to London in 1866, aged 20, to study medicine; founded his first "ragged school" in 1867, and the East End Mission (Home) for Destitute Children in 1870; began "boarding out" children (fostering) in 1887		Dr. Thomas John Barnardo
Engineer responsible for London's sewer system (19th century)		Joseph Bazalgette
Surgeon on board HMS Victory; reported Nelson's death and last words		Sir William Beatty
English philosopher, 1748–1832: asked in his will for his body to be dissected as part of a public anatomy lecture; his skeleton (stuffed out with hay and dressed in his clothes) is on public display at University College London		Jeremy Bentham
Former Jacobin leader, later a Marshal in Napoleon's army, elected by the Swedish parliament as heir–presumptive (Crown Prince) to the childless King Charles XIII, in order to maintain peace with Napoleon; on Charles's death in 1818 he became King Charles XIV John of Sweden (and Norway), and founder of the royal house that still rules Sweden two hundred years later		Jean (later Jean–Baptiste Jules) Bernadotte
Governor of New South Wales, 1805–8, deposed by the Rum Rebellion		William Bligh
Crossed the gorge below Niagara Falls on a tightrope, initially in 1859, subsequently several more times – blindfolded, in a sack, pushing a wheel–barrow, on stilts, carrying his manager on his back, and once sitting down midway to cook and eat an omelette (real name Jean–Francois Gravelet)		Charles Blondin
Daughter of Ada Lovelace (and thus grand–daughter of Lord Byron): married a famous poet, and was known by his surname; they founded a racehorse stud together (Crabbet Arabian Stud); she gave her name to a Stradivari violin that she owned for some time, and sold in the 1890s – said to be one of the best–preserved examples still in existence		Lady (Anne) Blunt
South American soldier and liberator (1783–1830): born in Caracas, played an instrumental role in the establishment of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia as sovereign states independent of Spanish rule		Simon Bolivar
Devised a system of reading and writing for use by the blind, in 1824, by adapting an unsuccessful system developed in Napoleon's army, for silent communication at night		Louis Braille
Queen Victoria's most famous ghillie		John Brown
US abolitionist, 1800–59: stormed the US Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859, in an unsuccessful attempt to start an armed slave riot; hanged six weeks later for treason, murder, and conspiracy to rebel; described by Abraham Lincoln as a "misguided fanatic"; still remembered today, in a popular song that originated among Union troops in the ensuing Civil War		John Brown
The archetypical 'Regency dandy', whose name became a byword for fashion and elegance: an associate of the Prince Regent (the future King George IV) – but alienated him in 1813 by asking his friend Lord Alvanley "Who's your fat friend?" when the Prince 'blanked' him and another host of the Masquerade Ball		George 'Beau' Brummell
Foreign Secretary and future Prime Minister: injured in the thigh in a duel with the War Secretary, Lord Castlereagh, in 1809		George Canning
US multi–millionaire and philanthropist: born in Dunfermline, 1835, son of a poor weaver; family emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1848; owned what is now the Pullman Company; sold his steel business for $250m in 1901; funded over 3,000 libraries throughout the English–speaking world, as well as numerous educational institutions and a prize for heroism. A medal for children's literature was established in his name, 17 years after his death in 1919 (not by him)		Andrew Carnegie
Manchester–based cotton mill owner, and MP for Stockport (1841–7): champion of free trade, and leader of the Anti–Corn Law League		Richard Cobden
Succeeded Warren Hastings as Governor–General of India		Lord Cornwallis
Tennessee backwoodsman, served under Andrew Jackson in the war against the Creek Indians 1813–4; served on the Tennessee State Legislature 1821–4; Democratic Congressman 1827–31 and 1833–5; killed at The Alamo in the War of Texan Independence, 1836		David (Davy) Crockett
Became a national (and international) heroine in 1838, aged 22, when she and her father William (keeper of the Longstone Lighthouse) rescued the crew of the paddle steamer (SS) Forfarshire off the Farne islands		Grace Darling
French engineer: built the Suez Canal but failed to build the Panama Canal		Ferdinand de Lesseps
Known to Oscar Wilde as 'Bosie' (from 'Boysie', his mother's nickname for him); the addressee of a long letter written by Wilde from Reading Gaol, published posthumously in 1905 as De Profundis		Lord Alfred Douglas
Father of the above, sued by Wilde for libel in 1895 after accusing Wilde of "posing as a somdomite" (sic); more famous today for his public endorsement of the rules governing boxing in 1867		John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry
French army officer, falsely accused of betraying military secrets to Germany, in 1894; defended by Emile Zola; exonerated in 1906		Alfred Dreyfus
Hostess of what Elizabeth Longford described as "the most famous ball in history", held in Brussels on 15 June 1815 and attended by the Duke of Wellington and most of his senior officers – all of whom, including her husband, would have to leave to fight in the Battle of Quatre Bras, which occurred on the following day (two days before Waterloo)		(Charlotte), Duchess of Richmond
French courtesan, 1824–47: lover of several prominent men, including the writer Alexandre Dumas fils; inspired his novel and play La Dame aux Camélias (a.k.a. Camille), which was adapted by Verdi into the opera La Traviata; died of tuberculosis aged 23		Marie Duplessis
Patented more than 1000 inventions including the microphone and the phonograph		Thomas Alva Edison
Surveyor General of India, 1830–43		Sir George Everest
Captain of HMS Beagle during Darwin's famous voyage; governor of New Zealand, 1843–5; appointed Meteorologist to the Board of Trade in 1854, and thus effectively founder of the Meteorological Office; the shipping forecast area Finisterre was renamed for him in 2002		Robert FitzRoy
Canadian railway engineer (1827–1915): after missing a train in Ireland, in 1876, because the timetable confused a.m. and p.m, proposed a worldwide system of time zones, based on the Greenwich meridian; his proposals were essentially adopted at a conference in Washington DC in 1884		Sir Sandford Fleming
Statesman and orator, 1749–1806; became an MP aged 19; Britain's first Foreign Secretary; campaigned against slavery, supported the American and French revolutions		Charles James Fox
Prison reformer and Quaker, born Norwich 1780; wrote a treatise with her brother, 1817; died 1845		Elizabeth Fry
Cousin of Charles Darwin: invented the term eugenics to refer to the improvement of the human population through a statistical understanding of heredity used to encourage good breeding		Sir Francis Galton
Italian nationalist general: gave his name to a biscuit and a style of beard		Giuseppe Garibaldi
Described (by Wikipedia) as "the most popular entertainer of the Regency era": he expanded the role of Clown in the harlequinade, establishing the name Joey and the whiteface make–up as standard		Joseph Grimaldi
Chief Commissioner of Works, Palace of Westminster, 1858, after whom Big Ben is named		Sir Benjamin Hall
Mistress of Nelson (from 1798 until his death in 1805), and the mother of his two daughters (one of whom died in infancy); muse of painter George Romney		Emma, Lady Hamilton
Founder of the Scottish Labour Party, and the first Labour MP		James Keir Hardie
Foundling 'Wild Boy' of Nuremburg (died 1833)		Kaspar Hauser
Originator of the Penny Post (1840)		Rowland Hill
British radical speaker and agitator: a pioneer of working–class radicalism, an important influence on the Chartist movement, and an advocate of parliamentary reform and the repeal of the Corn Laws; was speaking on the condition of the poor and electoral reform at Peterloo (1819), when the peaceful crowd was fired on by the Military; sat in Parliament from 1830–3, and presented the first petition in support of women's suffrage in 1832		Henry 'Orator' Hunt
British property developer (1829–1904): developed Merton Park (now in the London Borough of Merton) as a garden suburb; endowed a horticultural institute, which still bears his name; but his name is best known through a formula for compost, developed at the institute in the 1930s and released into the public domain		John Innes
Boer War General, the inspiration for Buchan's Richard Hannay		William Ironside
French textile manufacturer, invented (1804) a punched–card system for programming designs on a carpet loom		Joseph Marie Jacquard
Said to be England's last professional jester; also known as Lord Flame; dancing master to the gentry of Gawsworth, Cheshire; died in 1773 and was buried in a wood that now bears his name		Samuel 'Maggoty' Johnson
Irish actress, mistress of William IV; had ten children with him, 1794–1807, from one of whom David Cameron is descended		Dorothea Jordan
South African soldier and statesman; led the Boers to victory in the First Boer War (1881); still depicted on South African coins		Paul Kruger
Married to the future Lord Melbourne, 1805–28; had a passionate affair with Lord Byron, which caused a major scandal in 1812; described both the marriage and the affair in lurid fashion in a Gothic novel, Glenarvon (1816)		Lady Caroline Lamb
Socialite and actress, born in 1853 on the island of Jersey and nicknamed 'the Jersey Lily': known for her relationships with members of the aristocracy, including the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), the Earl of Shrewsbury, and Prince Louis of Battenberg (father of Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma)		Lillie Langtry
Grocer, merchant and baronet, born in Glasgow in 1838: challenged five times for the America's Cup, in his yachts named Shamrock (Shamrock to Shamrock V); also donated trophies to various sporting contests, including an international football tournament played in Turin in 1909 and 1911 – sometimes referred to as the first World Cup		Sir Thomas Lipton
Historian, poet, essayist; MP for Edinburgh; Lord Melbourne's Secretary for War (1839)		Thomas Babington Macauley
Born Prussia; expelled from Prussia and France for increasing radicalism; settled in London; founded the International Working Men's Association (1864) which later became the First International; died in 1883		Karl Marx
Co–founder of Punch (1841), and one of its joint founding editors; also compiled an influential survey of the London poor, published in 1851 as London Labour and the London Poor		Henry Mayhew
English road builder, 1717–1810, blinded by smallpox aged six – known as "Blind Jack"		John Metcalf
Austrian statesman and diplomat who chaired the Congress of Vienna, 1814–5		Klemens von Metternich
Developed an informal method of nursery education based on her experiences with mentally handicapped children; appointed director of a school for the mentally retarded (Rome, 1896)		Maria Montessori
American portrait painter and designer, best known for a means of long–distance communication developed 1832		Samuel Morse
American physician, imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln		Samuel Mudd
Scottish born US naturalist (1838–1914): instrumental in the establishment of the Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks		John Muir
Created Duke of Bronte by the King of Naples in 1799; married Mrs. Frances (Fanny) Nesbit, a widow		Horatio Nelson
Carried a pet baby owl, called Athena, in her pocket (just before she went to the Crimea)		Florence Nightingale
Illegitimate son of the Irish–born Governor of Chile, and later Viceroy of Peru: freed Chile from Spanish rule (Chilean War of Independence 1810–26)		Bernardo O'Higgins
Future prime minister, made a famous speech in Parliament 1850 when Foreign Secretary, defending his decision to send gunboats to Greece in support of Don Pacifico		Lord Palmerston
Gentleman farmer, born at Park End, near Caldbeck, Cumberland, probably in 1776; died in 1854 and is buried in Caldbeck churchyard; remembered through a popular song, written by his friend John Woodcock Graves (1795–1886) and published (in edited form) in 1866		John Peel
First found fame when he foiled an alleged plot to assassinate president–elect Abraham Lincoln on the way to his inauguration (1861); took on the search for the James–Younger gang (led by Jesse James) as a personal vendetta, in 1874, after his company was engaged by the Adams Express Company but dropped when he failed to catch them		Allan Pinkerton
Adapted Samuel Taylor's shorthand system, 1837, to the one commonly in use today		Isaac Pitman
Invented the International Load Line for ships (1876)		Samuel Plimsoll
French politician and philosopher, 1809–65: the first person to declare himself an anarchist; sometimes referred to as 'the father of anarchism'; asserted that "Property is theft"		Pierre–Joseph Proudhon
US engineer and industrialist: designed and manufactured a much–improved railway carriage, after spending a night on a train through New York state in the 1850s; introduced the President – a "hotel on wheels", including the first dining car – in 1867		George Pullman
Founder of Singapore (1819) for the British East India Company; previously played an important role in the capture of Java from the Dutch (1811); also founded the Royal Zoological Society (which runs London Zoo, a.k.a. Regent's Park Zoo) in 1826		Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
Keswick parson, instrumental in the founding of the National Trust; encouraged Beatrix Potter to publish		Canon H. D. Rawnsley
English–born South African financier (1853–1902), ruling spirit of the British South Africa Company; subject of a series of angry protests in South Africa and elsewhere, beginning in 2015, demanding the removal of memorials to him – including a statue at Oriel College, Oxford – and the raising of awareness of the implications of colonialism, including representation of 'black voices' (Wikipedia's quotes)		Cecil Rhodes
German–born financier (1777–1836): supplied coin to British troops during the Napoleonic wars and founded the banking dynasty that bears his name		Nathan Mayer Rothschild
Manchester cotton manufacturer, and the city's first multi–millionaire: following his death in 1888, his widow endowed a library in his name on Deansgate, which opened on 1 January 1900		John Rylands
Jamaican businesswoman who provided sustenance and care for British soldiers at the battlefront during the Crimean War		Mary Seacole
US Union general of the Civil War, given the middle name of a native American chief (some say it was originally his only given name, but became his middle name after he was given a more conventional first name aged 9 or 10)		William Tecumseh Sherman
Born 1841 in Denbigh, Flintshire, illegitimate son of John Rowlands (an alcoholic) and Elizabeth Parry (aged 19); lived in St. Asaph workhouse from age 5 to 15; went to the USA in 1859 to seek a new life, taking the name of a wealthy trader who befriended him; fought in the US Civil War, then became a journalist; sent to Africa in 1869 by the New York Herald, to find Livingstone		Henry Morton Stanley
Helen Keller's teacher and long–term companion (1886–1936) – herself visually impaired		Anne Sullivan
Heir to a lucrative baronetcy, disappeared at sea off South America in 1854, and was presumed dead; in 1866, after his mother posted advertisements asking for information about him, a butcher from Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, named Thomas Castro, claimed to be him; but in a celebrated legal case, the court decided otherwise		Roger Tichborne
Founder of the modern German navy – 1896–1916		Alfred von Tirpitz
English teetotaller, said to have coined the word 'teetotal' in 1833		Richard Turner
American financier who made a fortune in railways and endowed a university in Nashville, Tennessee, which bears his name (1873)		Cornelius Vanderbilt
Polish countess who became the mistress of Napoleon in order to influence his actions towards her homeland – subject of a 1937 biopic, sometimes known by her name, starring Greta Garbo and Charles Boyer		Marie Walewska
US civil rights leader, 1856–1915, middle name Taliaferro; subject of a 1983 biography, entitled The Wizard of Tuskegee – a soubriquet that stuck		Booker T. Washington
Engineer, born Stockport in 1803, went into business in 1833 manufacturing machine tools; devised what would become the British standard for screw threads; made a large bequest to Manchester University, as a result of which an art gallery (among other things) was named in his honour		Sir Joseph Whitworth
Dermatologist who brought Cleopatra's Needle to London at his own expense (1877–8)		James Erasmus Wilson
Polish occultist who invented Esperanto in 1887		Dr. Ludovic Zamenhof

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People in History: 1800s