C F C (Christopher) Hawkes spent his early years in London and Northumberland before attending Winchester College and New College, Oxford.

Born in Birmingham, Hearnshaw went to Walsall and Manchester Grammar Schools before leaving school at 14 years old to be apprenticed to a pharmaceutical chemist for five years.

On 6 April 1841, Miss Selina Shirley of Eatington Hall, Warwickshire, recorded in her diary that she ‘walked in the Garden with Sir William [Heathcote] & promised to become his Wife’.  They were married on 18 May.  This was a second union for Heathcote, whose first wife, Caroline, had died in 1835, after bearing him…

Born in Buckinghamshire, Alec Holland was raised on the Exbury Estate, on the Solent shore, where his father was groom to the de Rothschilds.  His mother died when he was eleven and he was brought up by his father, elder brother and sister-in-law.  Financial help from the Rothschilds enabled him to attend grammar school in…

Edward King was born in Lymington, the son of Richard and Elizabeth King. He was educated at Amsterdam House, Christchurch, before joining the family business in the town, which was an offshoot of his grandfather’s printing business in Yeovil. One member of the family, Charles, had moved to Lymington in 1805, and his nephew, Richard…

Reginald Hooley was a wine merchant from Winchester with a passion for fossil collecting.  He was born in Southampton and began his paleontological career by searching out specimens on the Isle of Wight, eventually discovering a new species of dinosaur.  

Samuel Gordon Hooper, born in Greenwich, was educated at Sherborne School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Wells Theological College. He married Dorothy Masters in 1924. From 1931 to 1949, he served as Vicar of All Saints’ Church, Milford-on-Sea, where he became deeply involved in the local community, contributing to Milford Hospital, the Boys’ Club, Toc H,…

William Hope was born in Derby, the son of Rev William Hope and his wife Hester (neé Williams) and educated at Derby Grammar School before going up to Peterhouse, Cambridge.  He graduated with a BA in 1881, received his MA in 1884 and the following year became Assistant Secretary at the Society of Antiquaries. 

John Horrocks was born in Manchester. A graduate of London University, the title of his thesis for a Doctor of Literature degree was ‘Machiavelli in Tudor Political Opinion & Discussion’. He had a varied career, including a spell as ‘a reporter in the House of Commons’, before joining the staff of University College, Southampton in…

His only publication, much-quoted, was Notes on the topography of Portsmouth, together with historical and statistical information, published in 1913. He was prompted to put his considerable knowledge of the city – acquired as a ‘conveyancing solicitor’ – into print after being asked by the journalist and historian W.G. Gates for help in compiling his…