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Ustinov, Sir Peter

(Encyclopedia)Ustinov, Sir Peter (Alexander) yo͞osˈtənôf [key], 1921–2004, English writer, director, and actor, b. London. A witty, charming, and cosmopolitan man, he debuted on the London stage at 18 and sub...

Watson, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Watson, Sir William, 1858–1935, English poet. His first great success was Wordsworth's Grave (1890), followed by a meditative elegy on Tennyson, Lachrymae Musarum (1892). He is also remembered for s...

Berkeley, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Berkeley, Sir William, 1606–77, colonial governor of Virginia. Appointed governor in 1641, he arrived in Virginia in 1642. Berkeley defeated the Native Americans and the Dutch, extended explorations...

Berlin, Sir Isaiah

(Encyclopedia)Berlin, Sir Isaiah, 1909–97, English political scientist, b. Riga, Latvia (then in Russia). His family moved to St. Petersburg when he was a boy and emigrated to London in 1921. He was educated at O...

Bernard, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Bernard, Sir Francis bûrˈnərd [key], 1712–79, British colonial governor. He was educated at Oxford and was called to the bar in 1737. As colonial governor of New Jersey (1758–60), he did much t...

Besant, Sir Walter

(Encyclopedia)Besant, Sir Walter bĭzăntˈ [key], 1836–1901, English novelist and humanitarian, grad. Christ's College, Cambridge, 1859. He taught at the Royal College of Mauritius from 1861 to 1867. After his r...

Bessemer, Sir Henry

(Encyclopedia)Bessemer, Sir Henry bĕsˈəmər [key], English engineer and inventor, b. Charleton, Hertfordshire. He made experiments to obtain stronger material for gun manufacture and discovered the basic princip...

Betjeman, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Betjeman, Sir John bĕtˈjəmən [key], 1906–84, English poet, b. London. Traditional in rhyme and meter, his verse combined a witty appraisal of the English present with nostalgia for England's pas...

Wentworth, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Wentworth, Sir John, 1737–1820, colonial governor of New Hampshire, b. Portsmouth, N.H. On the forced resignation of his uncle, Benning Wentworth, he was commissioned (Aug., 1766) to succeed him bot...

Hero, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Hero, in Greek mythology, priestess of Aphrodite in Sestos. Her lover, Leander, swam the Hellespont nightly from Abydos to see her. During a storm the light by which she guided him blew out, and he dr...