Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Attenborough, Sir David Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Attenborough, Sir David Frederick, 1926–, British naturalist and television personality. After serving in the Royal Navy (1947–49), he worked as an editor, then joined the BBC (1952) as a producer...

Motion, Sir Andrew Peter

(Encyclopedia)Motion, Sir Andrew Peter, 1952–, English poet and biographer, poet laureate of England (1999–2009), grad. University College, Oxford (B.A., 1974; M.Litt., 1977). He writes poems that are both lyri...

Muldoon, Sir Robert David

(Encyclopedia)Muldoon, Sir Robert David, 1921–92, New Zealand political leader, prime minister (1975–84). Originally a public accountant, he entered parliament in 1960 as a member of the conservative National p...

Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey

(Encyclopedia)Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey mûrˈkĭsən [key], 1792–1871, British geologist. He served in the Napoleonic Wars but after the peace turned his attention to science. In the 1830s he undertook the i...

Harris, Sir Arthur Travers

(Encyclopedia)Harris, Sir Arthur Travers, 1892–1984, British marshal of the Royal Air Force (RAF). In World War I, he served for a time in German West Africa before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in Franc...

Hawkwood, Sir John de

(Encyclopedia)Hawkwood, Sir John de, d. 1394, English soldier. He fought in the French wars of Edward III and was knighted, although it is not known when or where. With his “white company” of mercenaries, he en...

Haworth, Sir Walter Norman

(Encyclopedia)Haworth, Sir Walter Norman, 1883–1950, British chemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Göttingen, 1911. Haworth held academic posts at Imperial College of Science and Technology in London (1911–12), the Univ. of...

Hooker, Sir William Jackson

(Encyclopedia)Hooker, Sir William Jackson, 1785–1865, English botanist. A leading authority of his time on ferns, he formed a famous herbarium and built up the Glasgow Garden and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew....

Browse by Subject