Historic Birthdates in July
by Ben Johnson
Our selection of historic birthdates in July, including Diana Princess of Wales, Arthur James Balfour and Cecil Rhodes (pictured above).
For more historic birthdates remember to follow us on Twitter!
1 July. | 1961 | Diana, Princess of Wales, affectionately remembered as the Queen of Hearts, mother of Princes William and Harry. | |
2 July. | 1489 | Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII, burnt at the stake following Mary’s accession to the throne for refusing to return to the old faith. | |
3 July. | 1728 | Robert Adam, Edinburgh University educated, architect and interior designer, who together with his brothers, toured Britain redesigning country houses e.g. Syon Park, Harewood, etc., with an ‘Adamite frippery’. | |
4 July. | 1845 | Thomas Barnado, Dublin born evangelist who founded homes for the destitute children with financial support from the banker Robert Barclay. | |
5 July. | 1853 | Cecil Rhodes, Hertfordshire born colonialist, financier and statesman of Southern Africa, so influential that they named a country after him …Rhodesia, before it was changed to Zimbabwe. | |
6 July. | 1849 | Alfred Kemper, London born mathematician and author of the popular ‘How to Draw a Straight Line’. | |
7 July. | 1940 | Ringo Starr, drummer with the legendary Liverpool pop group The Beatles, and more significantly, the voice of Thomas the Tank Engine. | |
8 July. | 1851 | Sir Arthur John Evans, Oxford educated archaeologist who excavated the Bronze Age city of Knossos in Crete. | |
9 July. | 1901 | Barbara Cartland, Birmingham-born romantic writer responsible for over 600 best-selling books, step grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales. | |
10 July. | 1723 | Sir William Blackstone, English jurist – ‘It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer’. | |
11 July. | 1274 | Robert I, King of Scotland, also known as Robert the Bruce, who seized the throne in 1306 and forced England to recognise Scottish independence in 1328. | |
12 July. | 1730 | Josiah Wedgwood, Staffordshire potter and industrialist who, from his Etruria factory transformed pottery design and manufacture. | |
13 July. | 1811 | George Gilbert Scott, English architect responsible for the Albert Memorial and St. Pancras Station in London. | |
14 July. | 1858 | Emmeline Pankhurst, Manchester born suffragette who was imprisoned in her efforts to gain the vote for British women. | |
15 July. | 1573 | Inigo Jones, London architect whose best known buildings are the Queen’s House in Greenwich and the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall. | |
16 July. | 1723 | Sir Joshua Reynolds, English portrait painter and first president of the Royal Academy. | |
17 July. | 1827 | Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, London born chemist and explosive specialist, co-inventor of cordite, as approved by the British Army. | |
18 July. | 1720 | Reverend Gilbert White, English naturalist who wrote The Natural History and Antiquities of Selbourne. | |
19 July. | 1896 | A J Cronin, graduated in medicine at Glasgow in 1919, went on to use this grounding for writing his Scottish novels Dr Finlay’s Casebook. | |
20 July. | 1889 | John Reith, Scottish engineer and first director general of the BBC, architect of public service broadcasting as we know it …’Auntie’. | |
21 July. | 1934 | Jonathan Miller, London born multi-talented TV, film and theatre director, author, editor, presenter, Research Fellow, curator, etc.. | |
22 July. | 1926 | Bryan Forbes, actor, director and producer, founded Beaver Films with Sir Richard Attenborough in 1959. | |
23 July. | 1886 | Arthur Whitten Brown, Glasgow born aviator, who as navigator with John Alcock made the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in a Vickers-Vimy biplane on 14 June 1919. | |
24 July. | 1929 | Peter Yates, British film director of Summer Holiday, Bullitt and Krull fame. | |
25 July. | 1848 | Arthur James Balfour, statesman and Conservative Prime Minister, as Foreign Secretary 1916-18 his Balfour Declaration promised support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. | |
26 July. | 1856 | George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist who ‘conquered England by his wit’. Nobel prize winner in 1925. | |
27 July. | 1870 | Hilaire Belloc, MP, poet and author, born in France he became a British subject in 1902, best remembered for his nonsensical verse for children. | |
28 July. | 1866 | Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator, the characters that she created remain classics of children’s literature …Peter Rabbit, Samuel Whiskers, Squirrel Nutkin, and friends. | |
29 July. | 1913 | Baron Jo Grimond, St. Andrews born leader of the Liberal Party, thought by some to be ‘The best Prime Minister Britain never had’. | |
30 July. | 1818 | Emily Brontë, novelist, one of the three Bronte sisters, her only novel Wuthering Heights tells a tale of love and revenge set in the remote wilds of her native Yorkshire. | |
31 July. | 1929 | Lynne Reid Banks, London born author, best known for the L-Shaped Room and the children’s book The Indian in the Cupboard. |