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Brock, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Brock, Sir Thomas, 1847–1922, English sculptor. One of the leading sculptors under the reign of Victoria, he enjoyed a long and successful career. He became an Academician in 1891 and was knighted i...

Brooke, Sir James

(Encyclopedia)Brooke, Sir James, 1803–68, rajah of Sarawak on Borneo, b. India, of English parents. After active service in Burma (1825–26), he retired (1830) from the army of the East India Company. He sailed ...

Blackstone, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Blackstone, Sir William, 1723–80, English jurist. At first unsuccessful in legal practice, he turned to scholarship and teaching. He became (1758) the first Vinerian professor of law at Oxford, wher...

Bliss, Sir Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Bliss, Sir Arthur, 1891–1975, English composer. Bliss's teachers included Charles Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gustav Holst. He was made Master of the Queen's Musick in 1953. His early work...

Bodley, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Bodley, Sir Thomas, 1545–1613, English scholar and diplomat, organizer of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. He was a Greek scholar and teacher at Oxford, and in 1584 he was elected to Parliament. He s...

Bogarde, Sir Dirk

(Encyclopedia)Bogarde, Sir Dirk dûrk bōˈgärd [key], 1921–99, English film actor, b. Hampstead as Derek Niven Van den Bogaerde. In his early career Bogarde played romantic leads in such films as So Long at the...

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...