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Famous People from Bexley
A
Alexander, Frederick
F.M. Alexander (1869-1955), an Australian actor and Inventor of the Alexander
Technique for correcting physical obstacles to fitness and performance. He
lived in Penhill House, Sidcup, for 30 years. Alexander, who began his career
as a Shakespearean orator, developed laryngitis while performing. Determined
to restore the full use of his voice, he carefully watched himself while speaking,
and observed that undue muscular tension accounted for his vocal problem.
He sought a way to eliminate that restriction. Over time, he discovered and
articulated a principle that profoundly influences health and well being:
when neck tension is reduced, the head no longer compresses the spine and
the spine is free to lengthen. Alexander restored his own natural capacity
for ease by changing the way he thought while initiating an action. From this
work on himself and others, he evolved a hands-on teaching method that encourages
all the body's processes to work more efficiently - as an integrated, dynamic
whole.
Aldrich, Ronnie
Ronnie Aldrich (1916-93), wartime bandsman and post war band leader, became
one of Britain’s most popular recording pianists during the 1960s and
70s He was born on 15 February 1916 at Erith, the son of a store manager.
He was called up by the Royal Air Force during World War II. After having
worked with a number of low-level pre-war dance bands. Aldrich’s recording
career began in earnest in 1940 as pianist with the RAF Dance Orchestra, later
to become ‘The Squadronaires’. He eventually became leader of
the band in 1950 and continued to lead it until its disbandment in 1964. (It
was later revived in the 1990s). Aldrich became musical director of Thames
Television, adding this to his radio and recording work. He and his wife
retired to the Isle of Man, where he died aged 77.
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Allison, Malcolm
Malcolm Allison (born 1927) the football player, coach and manager, lived
in the borough and in his early days played for Welling and for Erith and
Belvedere. His promising career as a centre-half was ended prematurely by
a bout of tuberculosis in 1958. Up to that time he was on the books at Charlton
Athletic (1945-51) before joining West Ham United (1951-58) where he scored
10 goals in 238 league appearances. He became a flamboyant and much travelled
coach and manager seldom seen without a wide-brimmed trilby hat and a cigar.
His most successful period is generally considered to be as assistant manager
to Joe Mercer at Manchester City (1965-72), the strongest era in that club’s
history.
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Amos, Valerie (Baroness Amos)
Baroness Amos, of Brondesbury who was created a life peer in 1997, is
one of three black peers in the Lords. She has been Leader on the House of
Lords, 2003/7, and was previously Secretary of State for International
Development from May 2003. She was Chief Executive, Equal Opportunities Commission,
1989-94. Born in Guyana in March 1954, Valerie Ann Amos was educated at Townley
Grammar School for Girls. After university she began her career in local government
in various London boroughs between 1981-9.
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B
Backley, Steve
Steve Backley: Athlete. MBE 1995, OBE 2003. The holder of Olympic, World,
European and Commonwealth medals for the javelin event was born in Sidcup
in February 1969. A member of the Cambridge Harriers, he turned to the javelin
after starting as a cross-country and 800 metres runner. He is the first British
athlete to have won medals in three consecutive Olympics, though he never
managed to win an Olympic gold medal. He has been successful at three Commonwealth
Games and has been European javelin champion four times. His unique record
of success was attained in spite of damaging his vision in an accident while
still at university.
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Blackwood, Algernon
Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951): A writer of fantasy and horror stories, he
wrote the book on which the musical Starlight Express in based. He was born
at Shooters Hill and later lived at Crayford. His career included stints of
farming in Canada, running a hotel and working as a reporter in New York before
moving back to England and beginning to write. His output included 10 books
of short stories, 14 novels and several plays. He also made broadcasts of
his works for radio and television.
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Blake, Quentin
Quentin Saxby Blake CBE, the cartoonist, children’s book author and illustrator of the stories of Roald Dahl, was born in Sidcup in 1932. He was a pupil at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School and sketched his first drawings for Punch magazine when still 16. He took a degree in English Literature at Downing College, Cambridge. After National Service he did a postgraduate teaching diploma followed by life classes at Chelsea Art School. He taught for over 20 years at the Royal College of Art, where after 1989 he was visiting professor. In 1999 he was appointed as the first UK Children’s
Laureate. He gained a reputation for humorous and fantasy illustrations which
have graced over 300 books. In addition to his collaborations with Roald Dahl
and other authors he has written numerous books of his own which have won
many prizes and awards.
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Bush, Kate
Kate Bush, the singer, songwriter, pop artist, producer and filmmaker, was
born Catherine Bush at Bexleyheath in July 1958. She is known for her exceptional
four-octave vocal span and for her strange but haunting songs, always presented
with a lush production style. Her highest chart success came with her first
hit, Wuthering Heights, which was No.1 in the British charts for four weeks
in 1978, and gave her a claim to fame as the first woman to top the UK chart
with a self written song. She has achieved success and critical acclaim for
the albums she has since produced. She studied piano and violin at St Joseph’s
Convent grammar school, Abbey Wood where she was spotted by David Gilmour
of Pink Floyd. She signed a contract with EMI when aged 16.
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Butler, Edward
Edward Butler built the first motorcycle – Butler’s Petrol-Cycle – generally
accepted to be Britain’s first internal combustion-engine vehicle, at
Erith in 1884 two years before Carl Benz built the first motor car in Germany.
Butler took out patents for his engine, which was years ahead of its time,
between 1886-95. He exhibited his plans for the three-wheeled petrol vehicle
at the Stanley Cycle Show. The vehicle was never put into production and the
prototype was broken up for scrap in 1896. The machine used a water-cooled
engine and a float carburettor. Butler’s other designs and inventions
included an exhaust heated fuel vaporiser, a turbine air ejector, and an improved
paraffin vaporiser with automatic temperature control. He was also the author
of many publications about the petrol engine and its workings, which were
well ahead of their time.
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Bruford, Rose
Rose Bruford (1904-84): Founder of the Rose Bruford College of Speech and
Drama. An actress, drama teacher and author, she was a graduate and later
a tutor of the Central School of Speech and Drama. She decided to institute
her own methods of teaching by setting up a drama school of her own, which
she did in 1950 with £600 and the use of an 18th century listed manor
house, Lamorbey House, Sidcup, granted by Kent Education Committee, as Sidcup
was then a Kent Urban District Council. In 2002 a set of modern buildings
was added to the campus. It was the first UK drama school to offer a degree
in acting and it has pioneered degree courses in drama training, including
degrees in European and American Theatre Arts.
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C
Caine, Sir Hall
Hall Caine (1853-1931) the Victorian author of novels, including The Manxman,
The Deemster, The Eternal City etc, lived at Aberleigh Lodge, Upton, Welling.
For a 30-year period after 1890 his novels sold in hundreds of thousands.
His plays were also successful and he was easily the highest paid author of
his day. His friendship with Rossetti in the artist’s final years also
gives him a claim to fame although he was a notorious self-publicist and his
own accounts of his life were sometimes ‘variable’. He lived with
Mary Chandler, a 13-year-old girl, let it be assumed that they were married
(then not illegal), and had a son by her when she was still only 14. They
actually married in 1886 when Mary was 17, although Caine, then aged 33, declared
her age as 23 so as not to offend his chapel-going parents.
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‘Capability’ Brown
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-83), the landscape gardener,
designed gardens at North Cray Place in 1782 and is believed to have advised
on the setting-out of parts of the Danson estate. He acquired his nickname
from his habit of telling potential clients that their gardens had ‘great
capabilities’. Brown was immensely sought after and it is believed he
was responsible for more than 170 gardens and estates. He has been criticised
for destroying the works of previous generations of gardeners by sweeping
away the past to create new landscapes. His vision was of wide, green undulating
lawns with sinuous bands and groups of trees planted to appear natural. In
later life he was appointed head gardener at Hampton Court, though he continued
his private work.
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Castlereagh, Lord
Robert Stewart (1769-1822), 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, known until 1821
by the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh, retired to Loring Hall (later
Wollet Hall), Water Lane, North Cray, where, suffering from depression, he
committed suicide by cutting his throat with a letter opener. Born in Dublin,
he managed Britain’s foreign policy between 1812-22. He planned Napoleon’s
defeat, represented Britain at the Congress of Vienna and attempted to introduce
a system of five major powers managing European affairs, which failed because
of irreconcilable differences between the nations. He was closely involved
with the Irish Act of Union and set the boundary between Canada and the USA.
He simultaneously occupied the posts of Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary
and Leader of the House.
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Champneys, Sir John
Sir John Champneys was City of London Sheriff in 1522 and Lord Mayor in 1534.
He began the building of Hall Place, Bexley, about 1537. The son of Robert
Champneys of Chew, Somerset, he was a member of the Skinners’ Company.
A contemporary chronicler noted that he was blind. He is buried at St Mary
the Virgin, Bexley.
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Cope, Wendy
Wendy Cope, the poet, author and humorist was born at Erith in 1945. Her
parents owned Mitchells of Erith, formerly a large store in the town. In a
BBC Radio 4 poll in 1998 she was the listeners’ choice to succeed Ted
Hughes as Poet Laureate. Educated at Farringtons School, Chislehurst, she
went on to read history at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. Her books of
poetry include Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, 1986, Serious Concerns, 1992,
and If I don’t Know, 2001. She has also edited several anthologies of
comic verse. She has been compared to Philip Larkin because of the bathos
in much on her work, though she shows much more warmth and humanity in her
treatment of ordinary English life.
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Crawford, Michael
Michael Dumbell-Smith, known as Michael Crawford, the actor, was born in
1942 in Salisbury, but after his mother’s re-marriage in 1945 he came
to live in Bexleyheath where his stepfather managed David Greig’s grocery
store. He has worked on radio, television, stage and film. He became a household
name as Frank Spencer in the TV series Some Mothers Do ‘ave ‘em
which ran from 1973-8. He has appeared on the West End and Broadway stage
in musicals such as Phantom of the Opera and Barnum. He was awarded the OBE
and named Variety Club’s Showbusiness Personality of the year. His first
notable public appearance was aged seven as a choirboy at St Paul’s
Cathedral. He played Sammy in a school production of Benjamin Britten’s
Let’s Make an Opera and was later hired by Britten to play the same
role in a professional production at the Scala Theatre in London’s West
End, alternating with another boy.
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