McEleny won more medals than any other British swimmer at Atlanta in 1996. Paraplegic, she has struggled against ill-health to achieve her sporting success and was the flag bearer for the opening ...

Born in Belfast, Fraser was educated at the Royal Academical Institution and Queen's University, becoming a consultant at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in 1927. Fraser volunteered in ...

The Primary Collection contains more than 12,700 portraits. Of these, over 4,100 are paintings, sculptures and miniatures. In addition, there are over 8,500 light-sensitive works on paper, shown on a ...

Bulgarian-born writer; studied Chemistry in Vienna before emigrating to England in 1938; wrote essays, plays, autobiography and a study of crowds, but made his name with the novel, Die Blendung (1935) ...

Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka, in what is now southeastern Nigeria. He was kidnapped into slavery at the age of eleven and put to work for a number of different masters in America, the West ...

Younghusband's interests lay in problems of the poor, and whilst a full-time lecturer at the London School of Economics (1933-57), she devoted her spare time to the Citizens' Advice Bureaux, care ...

Sir Henry Hobart was an English judge and politician. He trained in the law and was called to the Bar in 1584. Hobart entered Parliament as an MP in 1588. Hobart was Steward of Norwich in 1595, made ...

Jacob Ferdinand Voet was a Flemish painter who made his career in Rome. Little is known of his early life in Antwerp. He arrived in Rome in 1663, probably via France. Voet became a much sought-after ...

Mary Moser trained with her father George Michael Moser, a Swiss engraver, medallist and a leading figure at the St Martin's Lane Academy, as well as the first keeper of the Royal Academy. His ...

Political leader, activist and religious and social reformer. Born in Porbandar, India, Gandhi left for London in 1888 to study law at University College. His first major job was as a legal advisor in ...

As a child, Dr Crotch, the musician and composer, was known as 'the musical phenomenon of Norwich'. He began his professional career as organist of Christ Church, Oxford, at the age of fifteen, and ...

Gerrit van Honthorst was a Dutch painter from Utrecht. He travelled to Italy in 1616, where he copied the naturalism and eccentricities of Caravaggio. Honthorst spent four years painting in Rome after ...