Biographies

TILMAN, HAROLD WILLIAM (Bill) 1898-1977
England

explorer, mountaineer and war hero, was born on 14 February 1898 in Liscard, Cheshire, to SugarBroker John Hinkes Tilman (b.1861 d.1936) and Adeline Schwabe Rees (b.1865 m.1890 d.1937).

‘Bill’...

TOASE, AIDAN EDWARD 1918-2009
England

Captain Royal Marines; DSC, was born on15 July 1918 in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He was the eldest son of Canon Edward J Toase, MA; (1889-1965) Rector of Ashill, near Swaffham, Norfolk and of his...

TRAVIS, GEORGE 1844 - 1912
England

official and philatelist, was born at Tetney (Lincs) and baptised on 24 September 1844, the son of Thomas and Mary Travis of Westfield Farm.

He worked for two firms in the City of London, before...

TRENDALL, ALEC FRANCIS 1928 - 2013
England

geologist, was born on 8 December 1928 in Enfield.

In 1932 his family moved to India, where the environment of his first school, in Darjeeling, left a lasting love of mountains. Returning to...

TUCKER, CYRIL JAMES 1911 - 1992
England

bishop, was born in London on 11 November 1911, the son of Henry Calesdine Tucker and Lilian Beatrice, née Ridgewell.

After gaining his degree at St Catherine's College Cambridge in 1933, where he...

TYSSEN, JOHN 1811 - 1893
England

naval officer in charge, was born on 25 December 1811. He passed for lieutenant in 1831 and was promoted to that rank on 20 March 1832. After serving in various ships, he was appointed to the 46...

USSHER, MARY JANE 1870 - 1949
Argentina

Argentine Roman Catholic sister, was born into a Catholic family on 8 November 1870 in Baradero, Buenos Aires. Her parents, William Ussher and Anna née Walsh had earlier emigrated from Ireland. She...

VALLENTIN, ELINOR FRANCES 1873 - 1924
Falkland Islands

botanist, was born on West Falkland on 14 January 1873, to William Wickham BERTRAND and his wife Catherine, née Felton, the third of their ten children.

Elinor's father had been in partnership with...

VALLENTIN, RUPERT EUGENE WHITE 1858 - 1934
England

naturalist, was born on 15 November 1858 at Walthamstow, east London, younger son of Sir James Vallentin, a distiller and a knight sheriff of London (who died when Rupert was only 11 years old),...

VENERONI, ROSA 1866 - 1935
Italy (also Chile)

Italian Roman Catholic sister, was born in Scaldasole, Pavia, Italy on 19 July 1866. We do not have any details of her early education: she learned much of practical Christianity from her parents...

VERNET, LOUIS ÉLIE 1791 - 1871
Germany (also Argentina)

entrepreneur and colonist, was born in Hamburg, Germany on 6 May 1791, son of Jacques Vernet and his second wife, Marie, née Simon; both were of French protestant (Huguenot) origin. Vernet spoke...

VIANA Y ALZAYBAR, FRANCISCO JAVIER de 1763 - 1820
Uruguay

Spanish naval officer, was born in Montevideo on 2 December 1763.

He joined the Cartagena college of midshipmen in 1778 and on graduating he took part in the war against Britain , during which he...

VINSON, MARJORIE (née DOWNS) 1905 - 2000
England

councillor, was born in Liverpool on 21 May 1905, daughter of Ernest Downs and Florence, née Greaves. Her father was a captain with the Lamport & Holt Shipping Line and sailed the South...

VINSON, RICHARD GEORGE (Dick) 1912-1996
England

farmer, was born at Yaxley, Suffolk on 16 December 1912, son of George Vinson and Ellen, née Mortlock. The family were modest East Anglian farmers and the young Vinson went to the local school....

WALDRON, HENRY c 1839 - 1919
England

colonist, was born at Marridge Hill near Ramsbury in Wiltshire, to a family of prosperous sheep-farmers who had been established in the area since the sixteenth century. He was the third and...

WALDRON, JAMES LOVEGROVE 1829 - 1901
England

colonist, was born, like his brother Henry, at Marridge Hill in Wiltshire, the second son of John and Jane Waldron. When he was in his thirties he travelled to Australia, New Zealand and South...

WALLACE, STUART BARRETT b 1954
Falkland Islands

businessman and councillor, was born in Stanley on 21 August 1954, the son of Thomas Edward Barrett Wallace and Alice Mary Wallace, née Biggs.

Wallace had two brothers, James (Jimmy) Hubert Wallace...

WALSH, WILLIAM MASON 1842 - 1908
Ireland

Roman Catholic priest, was born on 27 April 1842 to Edward Walsh and Mary, née Mason, of Ardfinnan, County Waterford. He was ordained on 30 October 1864 for the diocese of Brisbane in Australia. In...

WANNOP, ARTHUR ROBSON 1900 - 1972
England (also Scotland)

authority on hill farming, was born on 1 August 1900 at Little Blencow Farm, Greystoke in Cumberland into a farming family.

His father was Thomas Wannop and his mother Esther Ann Robson. Thomas...

WARNE, PHILIP HARRY b 1929
England

ship's captain, was born in Bath, Somerset on 15 January 1929, the son of Thomas Harry Warne and his wife Annie Edith, née Jordan.

He was educated at the City of Bath Boys' School and the School of...

WATSON, MARY ELEANOR (née HILL) 1904 - 1958
England

midwife, was born in Swindon, Wiltshire on 7 September 1904. Her father was a railway engineer and her mother the headmistress of a private school for girls in Swindon. She trained as a nurse at St...

WATSON, NEIL 1942-2017
Falkland Islands

sportsman and farmer, was born in Stanley on 3 May 1942, the son of William (Ben) Henry Charles Watson (1903-1975, who was born at Moffat Harbour, North Arm) and Hannah Maud Lee (1917-1999, who was...

WATT, NORMAN CHARLES (Nick) 1892 - 1966
Australia

whaling manager, was born on 4 June 1892 in Melbourne, Australia. He was the middle child of Captain Isaiah Watt of Aberdeen, Scotland and Adeline Langford of NSW. When Captain Watt retired from...

WEDDELL, JAMES 1787 - 1834
United States (also Belgium)

sealer and explorer, appears to have been born either in Ostend, Belgium or Massachusetts, the son of an upholsterer by trade, who migrated from his native Lanarkshire to London and his wife Sarah,...

WEERT, SEBALD de c 1560 - 1603
Netherlands

Dutch sea captain. Although one of the earliest European navigators to sight the Falkland Islands, comparatively little is known about de Weert, apart from his role in one of several early...