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Son of Lucien Bonaparte. Officer and Deputy of Corsica in the Constituent Assembly.

French politician and diplomat.

King of Holland.

Trained as a lawyer, was a member of the French legislature and accompanied his brother, Napoleon I, on military campaigns. He held diplomatic posts before and after his brother’s coup in 1799, including negotiating the Treaty of Amiens with Britain in 1802. He was made king of Naples by Napoleon in 1806, where he reformed justice, landowning, finance, and education, but in 1808 was ordered by Napoleon to become king of Spain. There his reforms were resisted and he was heavily dependent on French troops and advisers.

Bolívar was active in the Latin-American independence movement from 1808 onwards. Although his military career was not without its failures, he succeeded in driving the Spanish from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador; Upper Peru was named Bolivia in his honour.

Matriculated in 1919 after war service. Was made a Bye-Fellow in 1921.
Fellow of King’s College, 1923-1933.
Professor of Physics (Birkbeck/Manchester/Imperial College), 1933-1974.
Fellow Royal Society, 1933 (Royal Medal, 1940; Copley Medal, 1956; President, 1965-1970).
Nobel Prize for Physics, 1948.
Made an Honorary Fellow in 1948. CH, 1965; OM, 1967; Life peer, 1969.
Awarded some twenty honorary degrees.
Scientific adviser to the British Government (from 1964), and to the Government of India (1947; he was a noted internationalist and humanitarian).
‘A man who had achieved distinction in three separate fields of fundamental research, who made invaluable contributions to the war effort, and who exerted a powerful political influence’ (Bernard Lovell).
‘… that mysterious, intense and haunted visage, which later made Epstein count this Nobel Prizewinner’s bust among his greatest challenges. The tragic mask, however, was highly mobile, alive indeed with intelligence, modesty and friendliness’ (I.A. Richards).

Born in Liverpool and was the son of the late Robert Alexander Bickersteth and Ellen Constance Wilson, of Borwick Lodge, Outgate, Ambleside. Educated at Eton. Admitted as a pensioner at Magdalene College on 7 October 1924. His tutor was A. S. Ramsey.

Italian patriot and military leader.

E. F. Benson Frederic was born at Wellington College. He was the third son of Edward White Benson (1829–1896), headmaster of Wellington College and subsequently archbishop of Canterbury, and his wife, Mary Sidgwick (1841–1918). He was a younger brother of A. C. Benson (Master of Magdalene College, 1915-1925), Mary Eleanor Benson (1863–1890), and Margaret Benson (1865–1916), and an elder brother of Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914). He was educated at Temple Grove School, Sheen, at Marlborough College, and at King's College, Cambridge, where he was exhibitioner (1888) and scholar (1890), and secured first classes in both parts of the classical tripos (1890, 1891).

Worked in Athens for the British School of Archaeology (1892–5) and in Egypt for the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (1895). His first novel, Dodo, was published in 1893. From 1895 to 1918 he lived in London and devoted himself to writing. From 1918 he lived for the greater part of each year at Lamb House, Rye, Sussex, which had been the home of Henry James.

He published at least ninety-three books, excluding collaborations. His writings fall into three groups: novels of social satire, reminiscences, and horror stories.

Benson never married and lived alone in Rye. He was mayor of Rye from 1934 to 1937 and a JP. He was elected an honorary fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1938 and was appointed OBE. He died in University College Hospital, London, on 29 February 1940, and was buried in the Rye cemetery after a funeral conducted by the bishop of Chichester.

The E. F. Benson Society was founded in London in 1984.