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Sir Roy Colin Strong, (born 23 August 1935) is an English
art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
, museum
curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
, writer, broadcaster and
landscape design Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and ga ...
er. He has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
in London. Strong was
knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...
in 1982.


Early years

Roy Colin Strong was born at Winchmore Hill,
London Borough of Enfield The London Borough of Enfield () is a London borough in North London. It borders the London boroughs of Barnet to the west, Haringey to the south, and Waltham Forest to the southeast. To the north are the districts of Hertsmere, Welwyn Hat ...
(then in
Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
), the third son of hat manufacturer's commercial traveller George Edward Clement Strong, and Mabel Ada Strong (''née'' Smart). He was raised in "an Enfield terrace sans books, with linoleum 'in shades of unutterable green'", and attended nearby Edmonton County School, a grammar school in
Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...
. Strong graduated with a first class honours degree in history from Queen Mary College,
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...
. He then earned his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
from the Warburg Institute and became a research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research. His passionate interest in the portraiture of
Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...
was sidelined "while he wrote a thesis on ''Elizabethan Court Pageantry'' supervised by the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
scholar, Dame Frances Yates who (he says) restructured and re-formed ... is.. thinking." In 2007 Strong listed his qualifications as DLitt PhD FSA.


Career


National Portrait Gallery

He became assistant keeper of the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1959. In 1967, aged 32, he was appointed its director, a post he held until 1973. He set about transforming its conservative image with a series of extrovert shows, including "600 Cecil Beaton portraits 1928–1968." Dedicated to the culture of the 1960s and 1970s, Sir Roy went on to amuse audiences at the V&A in 1974 with his collection of
fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both side ...
hats, kipper ties and maxi coats. By regularly introducing new exhibitions he doubled attendance. Reflecting on his time as director of the National Portrait Gallery, Strong pinpointed the Beaton exhibition as a turning point in the gallery's history. "The public flocked to the exhibition and its run was extended twice. The queues to get in made national news. The Gallery had arrived", Strong wrote in the catalogue to Beaton Portraits, the more recent exhibition of Beaton that ran at the gallery until 31 May 2004.


Victoria and Albert Museum

In 1973, aged 38, he became the youngest director of the
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
(V&A), London. In his tenure, until 1987, he presided over its '' The Destruction of the Country House'' (1974, with Marcus Binney and John Harris), ''Change and Decay: the future of our churches'' (1977), and ''The Garden: a Celebration of a Thousand Years of British Gardening'' (1979), all of which have been credited with boosting their conservationist agendas. In 1977, following government cuts, he oversaw the closure of the much-lamented Circulation Department of the V&A, which organised tours of the collection around Britain. In 1980, "he was awarded the prestigious Shakespeare Prize by the FVS Foundation of
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
in recognition of his contribution to the arts in the UK." He was awarded The
Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
's President's Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography in 2003.


Television

Among other work for television, in 2008 Strong hosted a six-part TV reality series called '' The Diets That Time Forgot''. He acted as the Director of the fictitious Institute of Physical Culture, where nine volunteers spent 24 days testing three weight loss diets and fitness regimes that were popular in the late
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...
(
William Banting William Banting (''c.'' December 1796 – 16 March 1878) was a notable English undertaker. Formerly obese, he is also known for being the first to popularise a weight loss diet based on limiting the intake of carbohydrates, especially those ...
and his no-sugar diet), the
Edwardian era The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Vic ...
( Horace Fletcher and his chewing diet), and the 'roaring' Twenties (Dr
Lulu Hunt Peters Lulu Hunt Peters (1873–1930) was an American doctor and author who wrote a featured newspaper column entitled ''Diet and Health'', which she followed up with a best-selling book, ''Diet & Health: With Key to the Calories''. She was the first pe ...
and her calorie-counting diet). The weekly series was first aired on 18 March on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
.


Writing

Strong is a notable scholar of Renaissance art, especially English Elizabethan portraiture, on which he has written many books and articles (see bibliography section). His diaries from 1967 to 1987 were published in 1999, as was ''The Spirit of Britain: A Narrative History of the Arts'', a widely acclaimed 700-page popular history of the arts in Britain through two millennia. In 2005, he published ''Coronation: A History of Kingship and the British Monarchy''. He had a monthly column in the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' for much of the 1970s and 1980s, and has written articles for many other magazines and newspapers. In 2000 he wrote ''Gardens Through the Ages'' and is a patron of the
Plantation Garden, Norwich The Plantation Garden is a restored Victorian town garden located off Earlham Road, Norwich, Norfolk. , visitors are asked to pay £2 to visit the garden, which is open daily throughout the year. The garden The Plantation Garden is a restored ...
.


Personal life


Marriage

On 10 September 1971, Strong married 41-year-old theatrical designer
Julia Trevelyan Oman Julia Trevelyan Oman, Lady Strong CBE (11 July 1930 – 10 October 2003) was an English television, theatre, ballet and opera set designer. Biography Julia Trevelyan Oman was born on 11 July 1930 in Kensington, London.Alan Stracha"Obituary: Ju ...
, at Wilmcote church, near
Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
, with a special licence from the
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...
. They enjoyed a belated honeymoon in
Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...
. She died in 2003 of
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of pancr ...
.


Herefordshire

Strong resides in the village of
Much Birch Much Birch is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye. The parish includes the settlements of Kings Thorn, Much Birch and parts of Wormelow. The village extends for about along the A49, a bus ...
in
Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouths ...
. Here, with his wife, he designed one of Britain's largest post-war formal gardens, the Laskett Gardens. In 1995 he and his wife commissioned the artist
Jonathan Myles-Lea Jonathan Myles-Lea (23 January 1969 – 25 August 2021) was an English painter of country houses, historic buildings, and landscapes, typically taking the form of aerial views. Clients have included Charles, Prince of Wales; and the National ...
to paint a portrait of the house and gardens, which was completed the same year. Since 2010 the gardens have been open to the public by appointment, for groups of more than twenty. An offer by Strong to bequeath Laskett Gardens to the
National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
was rejected in 2014 after it was deemed that they fail to "reach the high rung of national and historic importance". Strong later announced plans to have the gardens "destroyed" after his death. He subsequently relented and in 2015 agreed to bequeath the gardens to the horticultural charity "Perennial" (
Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society is a large national charity in the United Kingdom. It currently operates under the working name Perennial. Founded in 1839, Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society is based in Leatherhead, Surrey, and is a registe ...
). After leaving the V&A, Strong published a set of diaries that became notorious for its critical assessments of figures in the art and political worlds. It has been rumoured that he has retained a set for posthumous publication. Jan Moir commented in 2002: "His bitchy, hilarious diaries caused a storm when they were published in 1997 and although he has no plans at present to publish another set, he is keeping a private diary again."


Gardening

Strong subsequently designed gardens for Gianni Versace at Versace's Lake Como villa,
Villa Fontanelle Villa Fontanelle is a villa (sometimes called a palazzo) near Moltrasio on Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy, about from Milan. The four-storey yellow-painted building was built in the first half of the nineteenth century by the eccentric Lord Char ...
, and Versace's Miami house, Casa Casuarina. At Versace's behest, Strong designed an Italian garden at
Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
's residence,
Woodside Woodside may refer to: Places and buildings Australia * Woodside, South Australia, a town * Woodside, Victoria, a town Canada * Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home of William Lyon Mackenzie King *Woodside, Nova Scotia, a neighbo ...
, in Old Windsor, Berkshire.


Anglicanism

A practising
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
, Strong is an altar server at
Hereford Cathedral Hereford Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Hereford in Hereford, England. A place of worship has existed on the site of the present building since the 8th century or earlier. The present building was begun in 1079. ...
, as well as High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary of
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
. In this capacity he attended the funeral service of the Queen Mother in 2002. On 30 May 2007, in the crypt of
St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...
, he delivered the annual Gresham College Special Lecture, entitled "The Beauty of Holiness and its Perils (or what is to happen to 10,000 parish churches?)," which was deeply critical of the status quo. He said: "little case can be made in the twenty-first century for an expensive building to exist for a service once a week or month lasting an hour," and he wanted to "take an axe and hatchet the utterly awful kipper coloured choir stalls and pews, drag them out of the church and burn them," and "letting in the local community" in order to preserve many rural churches in Britain.


Portraits of Roy Strong

The National Portrait Gallery Collection has seventeen portraits of Strong including a photo and a sketch by Cecil Beaton and an oil painting by Bryan Organ. An early bronze bust by Angela Conner is on view at
Chatsworth House Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the Cavendish family since 1549. It stands on the east bank of the ...
, Derbyshire. In 2005, Strong sat for Jon Edgar for a work in terracotta which was exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2013 as part of the ''Sculpture Series Heads – Contributors to British Sculpture''.


Honours

Strong was
knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...
in the
1982 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1982 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...
and was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to culture.


Honorary positions

* Chairman of the Art Department, Arts Council. * Deputy Chairman,
Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Nati ...
. * High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, from 2000. * President, the Garden History Society, 2000–06. * President, the Friends of
Croome Park Croome Court is a mid-18th-century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by extensive landscaped parkland at Croome D'Abitot, near Upton-upon-Severn in south Worcestershire, England. The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown f ...
, from 2008. * Vice-President Plant Heritage Patron Broadway Arts Festival 2015


Bibliography

* ''Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I'' (
Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, London, 1963) * ''
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...
's Triumph'' (Leiden:
Leiden University Press Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city o ...
, and Oxford:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
, 1965), with J. A. van Dorsten. * ''The English Icon'' ( Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 1969) * ''Tudor & Jacobean Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery'' ( Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1969) * ''Nicholas Hilliard'' (
Michael Joseph Ltd Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.V&A Publishing The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and n ...
, London, 1983) * ''Creating Small Gardens'' ( Conran Octopus, London, 1986) * '' Henry Prince of Wales & England's Lost Renaissance'' (
Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
, London, 1986) * ''Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I'' (Thames & Hudson, London, 1987) * ''A Small Garden Designer's Handbook'' (Conran Octopus, London, 1987) * ''Lost Treasures of Britain: Five Centuries of Creation and Destruction'' (
Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquir ...
, London, 1990) * ''The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy: Pageantry, Painting, Iconography, Vol. 1'' ( The Boydell Press, 1990) * ''A Country Life: At Home in the English Countryside'' (illustrated by
Julia Trevelyan Oman Julia Trevelyan Oman, Lady Strong CBE (11 July 1930 – 10 October 2003) was an English television, theatre, ballet and opera set designer. Biography Julia Trevelyan Oman was born on 11 July 1930 in Kensington, London.Alan Stracha"Obituary: Ju ...
) (
St Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
, 1994) * ''William Larkin: Icons of Splendour'' ( Franco Maria Ricci, 1995) * '' Country Life, 1897–1997: The English Arcadia'' (1996) * ''The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy: Pageantry, Painting, Iconography, Vol. 2: Elizabethan'' (The Boydell Press, 1996) * ''The Roy Strong Diaries 1967–1987'' ( Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997) * ''The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy: Pageantry, Painting, Iconography, Vol. 3: Jacobean and Caroline'' (The Boydell Press, 1997) * ''The Story of Britain: A People's History'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998) * ''The Spirit of Britain: A Narrative History of the Arts'' (
Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...
, 1999) * ''The Artist & the Garden'' (
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univers ...
( Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art), 2000) * ''Gardens Through the Ages'' (Conran Octopus, 2000) * ''Feast: A History of Grand Eating'' (Jonathan Cape, 2002) * ''The Laskett: The Story of a Garden'' ( Transworld, 2004) * ''Beaton Portraits'' (with Terence Pepper and Peter Conrad) (Yale University Press, 2004) * ''Coronation: A History of Kingship and the British Monarchy'' (
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...
, 2005) * ''Passions Past and Present'' (
Pimlico Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by Victor ...
, 2005) * ''A Little History of the English Country Church'' (
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 2007) * ''Remaking a Garden: The Laskett Transformed'' ( Frances Lincoln Publishers, 2014) * ''The Roy Strong Diaries 1987–2003'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2017)


Journal articles

*


Archives

A number of institutions hold the papers of Roy Strong. These include the National Portrait Gallery, the
Bodleian Libraries The Bodleian Libraries are a collection of 28 libraries that serve the University of Oxford in England, including the Bodleian Library itself, as well as many other (but not all) central and faculty libraries. As of the 2016–17 year, the librari ...
and the
Paul Mellon Centre The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art is a scholarly centre in London devoted to supporting original research into the history of British Art. It was founded in 1970 and endowed by a gift from Paul Mellon. Since 1996, it has been ...
. The National Portrait Gallery holds Strong's correspondence with colleagues and acquaintances, mostly of a semi-personal nature concerning his personal commitments and achievements. The Bodleian Libraries' holdings of Roy Strong papers include manuscripts of his many books on historical, cultural and artistic subjects; personal diaries, correspondence and material relating to the Laskett garden. The Paul Mellon Centre holds the research material compiled by Strong in the process of writing his publications on Tudor and Stuart art.


References


External links


The Roy Strong Archive
Paul Mellon Centre
Papers of Sir Roy Strong
National Portrait Gallery *
The Laskett Gardens Official Website

Portraits
in the National Portrait Gallery, London
Edmonton County former pupilsJulia Trevelyan Oman Archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection
University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

Roy Strong, ''After She'd Gone,'' The Guardian, 21 October 2006

Alan Strachan, ''Julia Trevelyan Oman, Leading designer for theatre, ballet and opera'' (obituary), The Independent, 13 October 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strong, Roy 1935 births Living people Directors of the National Portrait Gallery, London Directors of the Victoria and Albert Museum English Anglicans English art historians English curators English autobiographers English non-fiction writers English television presenters English landscape and garden designers Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Alumni of the Warburg Institute High Stewards of Westminster Abbey Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Knights Bachelor People from Winchmore Hill English male non-fiction writers Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Country Life (magazine) people