Today, the name of F.J. Baigent is best known as the co-author with the Rev J.E. Millard (1823-1894) of the monumental History of the Ancient Town and Manor of Basingstoke, published in 1889. Baigent was already a distinguished antiquarian, whilst Millard had only written minor works on the area when, in 1882, he became a…

Of the huge number of guidebooks for walkers published over the years, An Historical Account of Winchester, with Descriptive Walks published in 1817 by Charles Ball set a standard rarely bettered. His firm objective was to improve on previous attempts to recount the history and antiquities of Winchester, which he regarded as ‘little better than…

Winifred was born in south-west Surrey. Her father, David, was described in the 1881 census return as an ‘Australian merchant’. He was a native of Tasmania and by the late 19th century had amassed a sufficient fortune to be ‘living on his own means.’ In 1914 he purchased Longstock House, to the north of Stockbridge,…

Educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was the son of Dr Samuel Birch, Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum, where he too worked between 1864 and 1907 in the Department of Manuscripts.

Marjorie Chandler was a significant member of the Milford-on-Sea Historical Record Society. She was born in Leamington Spa, the oldest of six children of Frederick Augustus, a jeweller, and Alice Sarah (née Roberts). She studied at Leamington High School and Cambridge University, ‘graduating’ in 1919 with first class honours in Natural Sciences. (Cambridge did not…

Oswald Guy Stanhope Crawford, often known as Ogs, was a towering figure in archaeology in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also an author, editor, photographer, Marxist social critic and a cat mimic.

Ernest was born in Breslau in eastern Germany. His family, described as ‘professional and academic … with a liberal tradition’, came to England as refugees in 1935. He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and the Leys School in Cambridge, where the family initially settled, and soon become proficient in English.

Annie was born in Paddington and appears to have resided for most of her life in this part of London. Her death was recorded in Hampstead. She never married. Nothing has been discovered about her education or what stimulated her interest in history, beyond noting that at some point she was awarded a BSc. In…

G.H. Blore was a student (1882-89) and schoolmaster (1902-1930) at Winchester College. Much of his historical research and writing came after his retirement from the College in 1930. He was an inaugural member of the Friends of Winchester Cathedral (FOWC) in 1931 and editor of the annual Winchester Cathedral Record from 1935 until he handed…

Apart from the fact that he was the Clerk to the Chapter of Winchester Cathedral during the Civil War, and his wife is buried in the chancel of St John’s church in the Soke, virtually nothing is known of John Chase. Yet he is one of the heroes of the world of archives, for minimising…