sir

Definition of sir in Turkish Turkish dictionary: Tunceli yöresine özgü, "sac sırımı" da denilen bir tür hamur yemeği
SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) f. Tok, kanmış, doymuş
SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Sarımsak
SİR'ET: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Geyik
SİR'ET: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Nefis
SİR'ET: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Kadınlar
SİR'ET: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Koyun
sir george cayley: insan taşıyan ilk planörü yapan, ingiliz mucit
MU'SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Fakir kimse
TA'SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) (C.: Ta'sirât) (Usr. dan) Güçleştirme
TE'SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) İşleme, dokuma, iz bırakma
TE'SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) İçe işleme
TE'SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Kederlenme.(Esbaba te'sir-i hakiki verilmemiş. Vahdet ve celâl öyle ister. Lâkin mülk cihetinde esbab dest-i kudrete perde olmuştur. İzzet ve azamet öyle ister. Tâ, nazar-ı zâhirde, dest-i kudret mülk cihetindeki umûr-u hasise ile mübaşir görülmesin. M.)(Kevn ve vücud sahasında durup, ahval-i âleme dikkat eden adam, hadsî bir sür'atle anlar ki: Te'sir ve fâiliyet lâtif, nurani, mücerred olan ş
TE'SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Bir şeyde eser ve nişane bırakma
TE'SİR: (Osmanlı Dönemi) Vasıfları ve halleri değiştirme

English - English

Definition of sir in English English dictionary: The titular prefix given to a knight or baronet; An address to a military superior
Yes sir.; to address somebody using sir
Please don't sir me!.; A man of a higher rank or position; An address to any male, especially if his name or proper address is unknown
Excuse me, sir, could you tell me where the nearest bookstore is?.; {n} a word or respect used to men, title, man; {i} title used before the name of a baronet or knight; Latin, senex; Spanish, señor; Italian, signor; French, sieur; Norman, sire; English, sir According to some, Greek anax is connected with Sir; on the analogy of em-mi (eiui) = Latin sum; ampereV = Latin semper; upoV = Latin sapa Sir (a clerical address) Clergymen had at one time Sir prefixed to their name This is not the Sir of knighthood, but merely a translation of the university word dominus given to graduates, as “Dominus Hugh Evans,” etc; single isomorphous replacement Measurements are taken from a "native" protein and one "derivative" where some additional atoms have been incorporated into the lattice; A man of social authority and dignity; a lord; a master; a gentleman; in this sense usually spelled sire; A respectful title, used in addressing a man, without being prefixed to his name; used especially in speaking to elders or superiors; sometimes, also, used in the way of emphatic formality; An English rendering of the LAtin Dominus, the academical title of a bachelor of arts; formerly colloquially, and sometimes contemptuously, applied to the clergy; Sustained Information Rate; Speaker Independent Recognition; Shuttle Imaging Radar; a title used before the name of knight or baronet; Honda abbreviation for Sport Induction Racing SiR models are the top of line in Japan Once in awhile, a select number of SiR's make it to N America; term of address for a man; Styrene-isoprene rubber; politeness People sometimes say sir as a very formal and polite way of addressing a man whose name they do not know or a man of superior rank. For example, a shop assistant might address a male customer as sir. Excuse me sir, but would you mind telling me what sort of car that is? Good afternoon to you, sir; A title prefixed to the Christian name of a knight or a baronet; You use the expression Dear sir at the beginning of a formal letter or a business letter when you are writing to a man. You use Dear sirs when you are writing to an organization. Dear Sir, Your letter of the 9th October has been referred to us. Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach. Abbott Sir John Joseph Caldwell Ahmad Khan Sir Sayyid Allbutt Sir Thomas Clifford Alma Tadema Sir Lawrence Amis Sir Kingsley William Andros Sir Edmund Arkwright Sir Richard Ashton Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Attenborough Sir David Frederick Ayckbourn Sir Alan Ayer Sir Alfred Jules Banerjea Sir Surendranath Banks Sir Joseph Bannister Sir Roger Gilbert Banting Sir Frederick Grant Barrie Sir James Matthew Bartlett Sir Frederic Charles Barton Sir Derek Harold Richard Bax Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bayliss Sir William Maddock Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beecham Sir Thomas Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Bentham Sir Samuel Berkeley Sir William Berlin Sir Isaiah Bessemer Sir Henry Betjeman Sir John Bing Sir Rudolf Birtwistle Sir Harrison Paul Black Sir James Whyte Blackstone Sir William Bliss Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bogarde Sir Dirk Borden Sir Frederick William Borden Sir Robert Laird Bowman Sir William Bragg Sir William Henry Brook Sir Peter Stephen Paul Browne Sir Thomas Brunel Sir Marc Isambard Burne Jones Sir Edward Coley Burnet Sir Frank Macfarlane Burt Sir Cyril Lodowic Burton Sir Richard Francis Campbell Bannerman Sir Henry Carteret Sir George Cartier Sir George Étienne Baronet Casement Sir Roger David Cayley Sir George Chain Sir Ernst Boris Chamberlain Sir Joseph Austen Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Cheke Sir John Cheyne Sir William Watson Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Clinton Sir Henry Cockburn Sir Alexander James Edmund 10th Baronet Coke Sir Edward Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Connery Sir Sean Corrigan Sir Dominic John Cotton Sir Robert Bruce Coward Sir Noë l Peirce Craig Sir James Henry Cripps Sir Richard Stafford Crowe Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Cunard Sir Samuel 1st Baronet Currie Sir Arthur William Davenant Sir William Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Davis Sir Colin Rex Davy Sir Humphry De Havilland Sir Geoffrey Dewar Sir James Dilke Sir Charles Wentworth 2nd Baronet Dolin Sir Anton Douglas Sir James Drake Sir Francis Dummett Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Elgar Sir Edward William Empson Sir William Epstein Sir Jacob Etherege Sir George Evans Sir Arthur John Evans Pritchard Sir Edward Evan Fairbairn Sir William Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fleming Sir Alexander Fortescue Sir John Frazer Sir James George Frobisher Sir Martin Frost Sir David Paradine Galt Sir Alexander Tilloch Galton Sir Francis Galway Sir James Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gilbert Sir Humphrey Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Golding Sir William Gerald Gollancz Sir Victor Gorges Sir Ferdinando Gosse Sir Edmund Grenfell Sir Wilfred Thomason Grey Sir Edward 3rd Baronet Grierson Sir George Abraham Grove Sir George Guinness de Cuffe Sir Alec Gull Sir William Withey Guthrie Sir William Tyrone Haggard Sir Henry Rider Hale Sir Matthew Haley Sir William John Hall Sir James Hall Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Harden Sir Arthur Harris Sir Arthur Travers 1st Baronet Harrison Sir Rex Hawkins Sir John Heath Sir Edward Richard George Helpmann Sir Robert Murray Hicks Sir John Richard Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hitchcock Sir Alfred Hopkins Sir Anthony Hopkins Sir Frederick Gowland Hoyle Sir Fred Hughes Sir Samuel Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Iqbal Sir Muhammad Irving Sir Henry Jameson Sir Leander Starr Jeans Sir James Hopwood Jeffreys Sir Harold John Sir Elton Hercules Johnson Sir William 1st Baronet Jones Sir William Kendrew Sir John Cowdery Korda Sir Alexander Krebs Sir Hans Adolf LaFontaine Sir Louis Hippolyte Baronet Landseer Sir Edwin Henry Laurier Sir Wilfrid Lean Sir David Liddell Hart Sir Basil Henry Lipton Sir Thomas Johnstone Littleton Sir Thomas Lovell Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lyell Sir Charles Macdonald Sir John Alexander Mackenzie Sir Alexander Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie Sir James MacMillan Sir Kenneth Maine Sir Henry James Sumner Malory Sir Thomas Mandeville Sir John Maxim Sir Hiram Stevens McCartney Sir James Paul McKellen Sir Ian Murray Medawar Sir Peter Brian Menzies Sir Robert Gordon Millais Sir John Everett Morgan Sir Henry Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald 6th Baronet Murray Sir James Augustus Henry Naipaul Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Newton Sir Isaac Nolan Sir Sidney Nurse Sir Paul M. Osler Sir William Paget Sir James Parsons Sir Charles Algernon Peel Sir Robert 2nd Baronet Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petty Sir William Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Pinero Sir Arthur Wing Pollock Sir Frederick 3rd Baronet Popper Sir Karl Raimund Poynings Sir Edward Pride Sir Thomas Pringle Sir John Pritchett Sir Victor Sawdon Quiller Couch Sir Arthur Thomas Raeburn Sir Henry Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Raleigh Sir Walter Raman Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Rattigan Sir Terence Mervyn Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore Reed Sir Carol Reynolds Sir Joshua Richardson Sir Ralph David Roberts Sir Charles George Douglas Ross Sir Ronald Ross Sir William David Ryle Sir Martin Sabine Sir Edward Scott Sir Peter Markham Scott Sir Walter 1st Baronet Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Sherrington Sir Charles Scott Sidney Sir Philip Siemens Sir Charles William Simpson Sir James Young Soane Sir John Solti Sir Georg Sopwith Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Spender Sir Stephen Harold Stanley Sir Henry Morton Steele Sir Richard Stephen Sir James Fitzjames 1st Baronet Stephen Sir Leslie Stirling Sir James Frazer Stoppard Sir Tom Suckling Sir John Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Swan Sir Joseph Wilson Taylor Sir Geoffrey Ingram Temple Sir William Tenniel Sir John Thomson Sir Joseph John Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tree Sir Herbert Draper Beerbohm Tutu Sir Desmond Mpilo Tylor Sir Edward Burnett Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Van Dyck Sir Anthony Vanbrugh Sir John Vane Sir Henry Sir Henry Vane the Younger Wallace William Sir Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Walpole Sir Hugh Seymour Walsingham Sir Francis Walton Sir William Turner Watson Watt Sir Robert Alexander Welensky Sir Roy Whittle Sir Frank Whitworth Sir Joseph Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wren Sir Christopher Wright Sir Almroth Edward Sir Thomas Younghusband Sir Francis Edward Bulwer Sir William Henry Lytton Earle Douglas Home Sir Alec Hoare Sir Samuel John Gurney 2nd Baronet; This is the form that must be returned to the college of your choice by a specified date, usually at the beginning of May It confirms your intent to register at the college and reserves a spot for you; Screening Information Request; Latin, senex; Spanish, seÃ±or; Italian, signor; French, sicur; Norman, sire; English, sir According to some, Greek is connected with Sir; on the analogy of = Latin sum; = Latin semper; = Latin sapa Sir (a clerical address) Clergymen had at one time Sir prefixed to their name This is not the Sir of knighthood, but merely a translation of the university word dominus given to graduates, as “Dominus Hugh Evans,” etc; – Senior Institutional Representative; Technologies for the automated conversion of speech to accurate and meaningful textual information, typically ASCII It typically accepts input from callers to voice processors where callers are using rotary dial instead of DTMF phones SIR products have deliberately limited vocabularies, but are increasing due to the vast installed base of non-DTMF phones; term of address for a man a title used before the name of knight or baronet; = See Self-Insured Retention; thought, (verb) to think; The title for a Knight; Sir is the title used in front of the name of a knight or baronet. She introduced me to Sir Tobias and Lady Clarke; {i} mister, title of respect for a man; term used to formally address a man; gentleman
Sir David's long-beaked echidna: A species of long-beaked echidna, scientific name Zaglossus attenboroughi
sir-reverence: Used apologetically when something offensive is mentioned
sir-reverence: excrement
Sir A J Ayer: born Oct. 29, 1910, London, Eng. died June 27, 1989, London British philosopher. He taught at University College London (1946-59) and later at Oxford (1959-78). He gained international notice in 1936 with the publication of his first book, Language, Truth and Logic, a manifesto of logical positivism that drew on the ideas of the Vienna Circle and the tradition of British empiricism as represented by David Hume and Bertrand Russell. He is also remembered for his contributions to epistemology and his writings on the history of Anglo-American philosophy (See also analytic philosophy). His other works include The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940), The Problem of Knowledge (1956), The Origins of Pragmatism (1968), Russell and Moore (1971), The Central Questions of Philosophy (1973), and Wittgenstein (1985)
Sir Alan Ayckbourn: born April 12, 1939, London, Eng. British playwright. He began acting with the Stephen Joseph Co. in Scarborough, Yorkshire, where he also wrote his earliest plays under the pseudonym Roland Allen (1959-61). Most of his plays premiered at the company's theatre, where he was artistic director beginning in 1970. He has written over 50 plays, mostly farces and comedies that deal with marital and class conflicts, including Relatively Speaking (1967), Absurd Person Singular (1972), the trilogy The Norman Conquests (1973), Intimate Exchanges (1982), and Communicating Doors (1995)
Sir Aldo Castellani: {i} (1877-1971) Italian physician and bacteriologist
Sir Alec Douglas-Home: orig. Alexander Frederick later Baron Home (of the Hirsel of Coldstream) born July 2, 1903, London, Eng. died Oct. 9, 1995, The Hirsel, Coldstream, Berwickshire, Scot. British statesman. A member of the House of Commons (1931-45 and 1950-51), he entered the House of Lords after inheriting the earldom of Home (1951). He served as minister of state for Scotland (1951-55), leader of the House of Lords (1957-60), and foreign secretary (1960-63) before succeeding Harold Macmillan as prime minister in 1963, relinquishing his hereditary titles. He was unable to improve the British balance-of-payments situation and antagonized Conservatives by supporting legislation against price-fixing, but gained U.S. approval as a result of his anti-Communism. After his government fell in 1964, he became Conservative opposition spokesman on foreign affairs and later again foreign secretary (1970-74). In 1974 he was created a life peer
Sir Alec Guinness: a British actor in films and in the theatre, whose best-known films are The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Star Wars (1977) (1914- 2000). born April 2, 1914, London, Eng. died Aug. 5, 2000, Midhurst, West Sussex British actor. He made his stage debut in 1934. His reputation soared after 1936, when he joined the Old Vic company and starred in plays by William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, and Anton Chekhov. A versatile actor, he won the praise of New York critics and audiences in Shakespearean roles and in T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party (1946). His many films include comedies such as Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Captain's Paradise (1953), and Our Man in Havana (1959) as well as dramas such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, Academy Award) and Tunes of Glory (1960). He won a new generation of fans in three Star Wars films (1977, 1980, 1983)
Sir Alexander 10th Baronet Cockburn: born Dec. 24, 1802 died Nov. 21, 1880, London, Eng. British jurist. In his early career he earned a high reputation in trials and as a reporter of cases. He served in the House of Commons (1847-56), as attorney general (1851-56), and as chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas (1856-59) before being appointed to the Queen's Bench (1859-74). He served on the panel that decided the Alabama claims and finally served as lord chief justice of England (1874-80). He is best known for his tests of obscenity (to be obscene, the material in question had to be proved to "deprave and corrupt" those exposed to it) and insanity (to be insane, a criminal defendant had to be proved unwitting of the "nature and quality" of his criminal act or incapable of recognizing it as wrong)
Sir Alexander Fleming: a British scientist who discovered penicillin, a substance that is used as a medicine to destroy bacteria (=very small living things related to plants, some of which cause disease) (1881-1955). born Aug. 6, 1881, Lochfield, Ayr, Scot. died March 11, 1955, London, Eng. Scottish bacteriologist. While serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I, he conducted research on antibacterial substances that would be nontoxic to humans. In 1928 he inadvertently discovered penicillin when he noticed that a mold contaminating a bacterial culture was inhibiting the bacteria's growth. He shared a 1945 Nobel Prize with Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Walter Florey, who both carried Fleming's basic discovery further in isolating, purifying, testing, and producing penicillin in quantity
Sir Alexander James Edmund 10th Baronet Cockburn: born Dec. 24, 1802 died Nov. 21, 1880, London, Eng. British jurist. In his early career he earned a high reputation in trials and as a reporter of cases. He served in the House of Commons (1847-56), as attorney general (1851-56), and as chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas (1856-59) before being appointed to the Queen's Bench (1859-74). He served on the panel that decided the Alabama claims and finally served as lord chief justice of England (1874-80). He is best known for his tests of obscenity (to be obscene, the material in question had to be proved to "deprave and corrupt" those exposed to it) and insanity (to be insane, a criminal defendant had to be proved unwitting of the "nature and quality" of his criminal act or incapable of recognizing it as wrong)
Sir Alexander Korda: orig. Sándor Laszlo Kellner born Sept. 16, 1893, Pusztatúrpásztó, Hung. died Jan. 23, 1956, London, Eng. Hungarian-born British film director and producer. He worked as a journalist in Budapest, where he founded a film magazine and, in 1917, became manager of the Corvin movie studio. He left Hungary in 1919 to make several films in Berlin, then went to Hollywood, where he directed movies such as The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927). After moving to England in 1931, he founded London Film Productions. He helped develop Britain's film industry, directing and producing successful films such as The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Catherine the Great (1934), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935), and Rembrandt (1936), and producing The Third Man (1949), Summertime (1955), and Richard III (1955). In 1942 he received the first British knighthood conferred on someone in the film industry
Sir Alexander Mackenzie: born 1755?, Stornoway, Lewis and Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scot. died March 11, 1820, near Pitlochry, Perth Scottish-born Canadian explorer. Immigrating to Canada as a young man, he entered a fur-trading firm in 1779. In 1788 he set up a trading post, Fort Chipewyan, on Lake Athabasca. From there he began an expedition (1789) that followed the Mackenzie River from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. In 1793 he journeyed from Fort Chipewyan through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast, thereby becoming the first European to complete a transcontinental crossing north of Mexico
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt: born Sept. 6, 1817, London, Eng. died Sept. 19, 1893, Montreal, Que., Can. British-Canadian statesman. He immigrated to Lower Canada (later Quebec) in 1835 and worked for the British-American Land Co., serving as high commissioner from 1844 to 1855. He entered politics in 1849 as an independent member for Sherbrooke county in the legislature of the united province of Canada. He resigned from the legislature in 1850 but was reelected for Sherbrooke town in 1853. He maintained that seat and remained leader of the English-speaking minority until 1872. As finance minister (1858-62, 1864-67), he advocated federation; following the creation of the Dominion of Canada, he became the first finance minister of the Dominion government (1867-68). After retiring from Parliament in 1872, he advocated Canadian independence. From 1880 to 1883 he served as the first Canadian high commissioner in London
Sir Alf Ramsey: an English football player and team manager, who was the manager of the English national team that won the World Cup in 1966 (1922-99)
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell: born Aug. 31, 1913, Oldland Common, Gloucestershire, Eng. British radio astronomer. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, worked for the Air Ministry during World War II, and lectured at the University of Manchester after the war. He built the first giant radio telescope (1957) at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester; with a bowl diameter of 250 ft (76 m), the instrument is used for astronomical research and spacecraft tracking and communication
Sir Alfred Hitchcock: a British film director who made films in the UK and then in Hollywood for almost 50 years. He made thrillers (=films that tell exciting stories about crime and murder) such as The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963). He is famous for his use of suspense (=a feeling of fear and excitement that you have when you expect that something bad is going to happen) . People sometimes use the word "Hitchcockian" to describe a story or situation in which there is a lot of suspense (1899-1980). born Aug. 13, 1899, London, Eng. died April 29, 1980, Bel Air, Calif., U.S. British-born film director. He worked in the London office of a U.S. film company from 1920 and was promoted to director in 1925. His film The Lodger (1926) concerned an ordinary person caught in extraordinary events, a theme that was to recur in many of his films. Fascinated with voyeurism and crime, he proved himself a master of suspense with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934; remade 1956), The 39 Steps (1935), and The Lady Vanishes (1938). His first U.S. film, Rebecca (1940), was a tense psychological drama. His virtuosity was evident in his later films Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), and Frenzy (1972)
Sir Alfred Jules Ayer: born Oct. 29, 1910, London, Eng. died June 27, 1989, London British philosopher. He taught at University College London (1946-59) and later at Oxford (1959-78). He gained international notice in 1936 with the publication of his first book, Language, Truth and Logic, a manifesto of logical positivism that drew on the ideas of the Vienna Circle and the tradition of British empiricism as represented by David Hume and Bertrand Russell. He is also remembered for his contributions to epistemology and his writings on the history of Anglo-American philosophy (See also analytic philosophy). His other works include The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940), The Problem of Knowledge (1956), The Origins of Pragmatism (1968), Russell and Moore (1971), The Central Questions of Philosophy (1973), and Wittgenstein (1985)
Sir Almroth Edward Wright: born Aug. 10, 1861, Middleton Tyas, Yorkshire, Eng. died April 30, 1947, Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire British bacteriologist and immunologist. While teaching at the Army Medical School in Netley (from 1892), he developed a typhoid immunization that used killed typhoid bacilli. It made Britain the only country with troops immunized against typhoid at the start of World War I, the first war in which fewer British soldiers died of infection than from trauma. He also developed vaccines against enteric tuberculosis and pneumonia. He was well known for advancing autogenous vaccines (vaccines prepared from a patient's own bacteria)
Sir Anthony Eden: a British politician in the Conservative Party, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957. He gave up this position after the Suez Crisis, when British military forces failed in an attempt to get back control of the Suez Canal from Egypt (1897-1977)
Sir Anthony Hopkins: born Dec. 31, 1937, Port Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales British actor. He joined London's National Theatre in 1965, where he starred in Shakespearean roles. A subtle actor able to convey volcanic emotion with a small gesture, he made an acclaimed Broadway debut in Equus (1974). Hopkins stayed on in the U.S. for films such as The Elephant Man (1980) and television productions such as The Bunker (1981, Emmy Award). At the National Theatre he triumphed in King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra. He won an Oscar for his chilling performance as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), a role he played in two sequels. He also starred in Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993), and Amistad (1997)
Sir Anthony Van Dyck: He soon came under the influence of Peter Paul Rubens, for his early works are painted in Rubens's Baroque style, though with darker and warmer colour, more abrupt chiaroscuro, and more angular figures. He was a master in the Antwerp artists' guild by 19, at which time he was also working with Rubens. He spent over five years in Italy (1621-27); on his return, he received many commissions for altarpieces and portraits. He also executed works on mythological subjects and was a fine draftsman and etcher, but he is chiefly known for his portraits, in which he idealized his models without sacrificing their individuality. In Britain in 1632, he was appointed court painter by Charles I. He gained a comfortable income from the many portraits he painted in Britain, and his life matched his clients' in luxury. His influence was pervasive and lasting; Flemish, Dutch, and German portraitists imitated his style and technique, and the 18th-century English portraitists, especially Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, were deeply indebted to him
Sir Anthony Van Dyck: Van Dyck, Sir Anthony. a Flemish painter who lived for some time in England, and painted portraits of the British king Charles I and his family (1599-1641). v. born March 22, 1599, Antwerp, Belg. died Dec. 9, 1641, London, Eng. Flemish painter. Son of a well-to-do silk merchant, he was apprenticed to an Antwerp painter at
Sir Anthony Vandyck: {f} (1599-1641) Flemish portrait and religious painter and etcher
Sir Anton Dolin: orig. Sydney F.P.C. Healey-Kay born July 27, 1904, Slinfold, Sussex, Eng. died Nov. 25, 1983, Paris, Fr. British dancer and choreographer. In 1921 he joined the Ballets Russes, where he created leading roles as a soloist. In the 1930s and 1940s he helped form several ballet companies; in 1949 he and his partner Alicia Markova founded the forerunner of London's Festival Ballet, of which he was artistic director and premier dancer until 1961. He created leading roles in Le Train bleu, Job, and Bluebeard, choreographed works such as Capriccioso (1940), The Romantic Age (1942), and Variations for Four (1957), and wrote several books on dance
Sir Arnold Bax: born Nov. 8, 1883, London, Eng. died Oct. 3, 1953, Cork, County Cork, Ire. British composer. Born into a wealthy family, he was free to compose throughout his life and consequently wrote prolifically. His early works, influenced by the poetry of William Butler Yeats, frequently evoke Celtic legend. His compositions include seven symphonies, the orchestral works Spring Fire (1913), November Woods (1917), and Tintagel (1919), piano sonatas, string quartets, and numerous vocal works
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax: born Nov. 8, 1883, London, Eng. died Oct. 3, 1953, Cork, County Cork, Ire. British composer. Born into a wealthy family, he was free to compose throughout his life and consequently wrote prolifically. His early works, influenced by the poetry of William Butler Yeats, frequently evoke Celtic legend. His compositions include seven symphonies, the orchestral works Spring Fire (1913), November Woods (1917), and Tintagel (1919), piano sonatas, string quartets, and numerous vocal works
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax: {i} Arnold Bax (1883-1953), English composer
Sir Arthur Bliss: born Aug. 2, 1891, London, Eng. died March 27, 1975, London British composer. He studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Though he was compositionally adventurous at first, he later adopted a conservative, Romantic style. His works include A Colour Symphony (1922), Pastoral (1928), the choral symphony Morning Heroes (1930), Music for Strings (1936), and the ballets Checkmate (1937) and Miracle in the Gorbals (1944)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: a British doctor and writer who is famous for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr Watson (1859-1930). Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur. born May 22, 1859, Edinburgh, Scot. died July 7, 1930, Crowborough, Sussex, Eng. Scottish writer. He became a doctor and practiced until 1891, studying with Dr. Joseph Bell, who was the model for his fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle was knighted for his medical work in the second South African War and his public defense of the war. Holmes first appeared in "A Study in Scarlet" (1887). Collections of Holmes stories began with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). Tiring of Holmes, Conan Doyle devised his death in 1893, only to be forced by public demand to restore him to life. His other Holmes novels include The Sign of Four (1890), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), and The Valley of Fear (1915). His historical romances include The White Company (1890). Late in life, Conan Doyle devoted himself to spiritualism
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss: born Aug. 2, 1891, London, Eng. died March 27, 1975, London British composer. He studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Though he was compositionally adventurous at first, he later adopted a conservative, Romantic style. His works include A Colour Symphony (1922), Pastoral (1928), the choral symphony Morning Heroes (1930), Music for Strings (1936), and the ballets Checkmate (1937) and Miracle in the Gorbals (1944)
Sir Arthur Evans: born July 8, 1851, Nash Mills, Hertfordshire, Eng. died July 11, 1941, Youlbury, near Oxford, Oxfordshire British archaeologist. Son of the archaeologist Sir John Evans, he served as a curator (1884-1908) at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. Beginning in 1899 he devoted several decades to excavating the ruins of the ancient city of Knossos in Crete, uncovering evidence of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that he named Minoan. His work, one of archaeology's major achievements, greatly advanced the study of European and eastern Mediterranean prehistory. He published his definitive account in The Palace of Minos, 4 vol. (1921-36)
Sir Arthur Harden: born Oct. 12, 1865, Manchester, Eng. died June 17, 1940, Bourne, Buckinghamshire British biochemist. His more than 20 years of study of sugar fermentation advanced knowledge of metabolic processes in all living forms. In 1929 he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Hans von Euler-Chelpin. He also produced pioneering studies of bacterial enzymes and metabolism. He was knighted in 1936
Sir Arthur John Evans: born July 8, 1851, Nash Mills, Hertfordshire, Eng. died July 11, 1941, Youlbury, near Oxford, Oxfordshire British archaeologist. Son of the archaeologist Sir John Evans, he served as a curator (1884-1908) at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. Beginning in 1899 he devoted several decades to excavating the ruins of the ancient city of Knossos in Crete, uncovering evidence of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that he named Minoan. His work, one of archaeology's major achievements, greatly advanced the study of European and eastern Mediterranean prehistory. He published his definitive account in The Palace of Minos, 4 vol. (1921-36)
Sir Arthur John Gielgud: born April 14, 1904, London, Eng. died May 21, 2000, near Aylesbury British actor and director. He made his London debut in 1921 and joined the Old Vic company in 1929, becoming widely acclaimed for a series of Shakespearean performances, notably Hamlet and Richard II, and also excelling in plays such as The School for Scandal, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Seagull, and Tiny Alice. He directed several repertory seasons in the 1940s and toured the world with the solo recital Ages of Man (1958-59). He appeared in many films, including Arthur (1981, Academy Award) and Shine (1996)
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch: born Nov. 21, 1863, Bodmin, Cornwall, Eng. died May 12, 1944, Fowey, Cornwall English poet, novelist, and anthologist. Educated at Oxford, he worked as a journalist and editor in London before settling in his native Cornwall. He taught at Cambridge from 1912. He is noted for compiling The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (1900; revised 1939) and The Oxford Book of Ballads (1910). His works, written in a clear and apparently effortless style, include many novels and short stories, verse, and criticism, including On the Art of Writing (1916) and On the Art of Reading (1920)
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan: born May 13, 1842, London, Eng. died Nov. 22, 1900, London British composer. He attended the Royal Academy and the Leipzig Conservatory, then supported himself by teaching, playing organ, and composing for provincial festivals. His music for The Tempest (1861) achieved great success and was followed by his Irish Symphony (1866) and songs such as "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord." In 1871 he first collaborated in comic opera with playwright W.S. Gilbert, and in 1875 their Trial by Jury became a hit, setting the course for both their careers. Their collaboration continued with The Sorceror (1877), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), Patience (1881), Iolanthe (1882), Princess Ida (1883), The Mikado (1885), Ruddigore (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), The Gondoliers (1889), and others, many of which would continue to delight international audiences for more than a century
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington: born Dec. 28, 1882, Kendal, Westmorland, Eng. died Nov. 22, 1944, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire British astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. At the University of Cambridge he won every mathematical honour. He was chief assistant at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (1906-13); in 1914 he became director of the Cambridge observatory. Religious and pacifistic, he declared that the world's meaning could not be discovered by science. His greatest contributions were in astrophysics, where his studies included stellar structure, subatomic sources of stellar energy, white dwarf stars, and diffuse matter in interstellar space. His philosophical ideas led him to believe that unifying quantum theory and general relativity would permit the calculation of certain universal constants
Sir Arthur Sullivan: {i} Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), English operettas composer who worked together with the librettist William Gilbert on a well-known series of comic operettas
Sir Arthur Sullivan: Gilbert and Sullivan. born May 13, 1842, London, Eng. died Nov. 22, 1900, London British composer. He attended the Royal Academy and the Leipzig Conservatory, then supported himself by teaching, playing organ, and composing for provincial festivals. His music for The Tempest (1861) achieved great success and was followed by his Irish Symphony (1866) and songs such as "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord." In 1871 he first collaborated in comic opera with playwright W.S. Gilbert, and in 1875 their Trial by Jury became a hit, setting the course for both their careers. Their collaboration continued with The Sorceror (1877), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), Patience (1881), Iolanthe (1882), Princess Ida (1883), The Mikado (1885), Ruddigore (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), The Gondoliers (1889), and others, many of which would continue to delight international audiences for more than a century
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch: born Nov. 21, 1863, Bodmin, Cornwall, Eng. died May 12, 1944, Fowey, Cornwall English poet, novelist, and anthologist. Educated at Oxford, he worked as a journalist and editor in London before settling in his native Cornwall. He taught at Cambridge from 1912. He is noted for compiling The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900 (1900; revised 1939) and The Oxford Book of Ballads (1910). His works, written in a clear and apparently effortless style, include many novels and short stories, verse, and criticism, including On the Art of Writing (1916) and On the Art of Reading (1920)
Sir Arthur Travers 1st Baronet Harris: born April 13, 1892, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Eng. died April 5, 1984, Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire British air officer. He served in World War I and after the war in various posts in the Royal Air Force (RAF). Nicknamed Bomber Harris, as air marshal and commander of the RAF bomber command (1942), he developed the saturation technique of mass bombing (concentrating clouds of bombers in a giant raid on a single city) that was applied with destructive effect on Germany in World War II
Sir Arthur Whitten Brown: Alcock and Brown
Sir Arthur William Currie: born Dec. 5, 1875, Napperton, Ont., Can. died Nov. 30, 1933, Montreal, Que. Canadian military leader. He was a businessman in Victoria, B.C., before enlisting in the militia. Given command of a battalion in 1914, he won distinction in several battles of World War I; within three years he was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of the four divisions of the Canadian Corps. After the war he served as the first general in the Canadian army. In 1920 he became principal and vice chancellor of McGill University
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero: born May 24, 1855, London, Eng. died Nov. 23, 1934, London British playwright. He entered the theatrical world as an actor with Henry Irving's theatre company. His first play, 200 a Year, was produced in 1877. He wrote a series of successful farces such as The Magistrate (1885) before turning to dramas of social issues. The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893), the first of his plays depicting women confronting their situation in society, established his reputation, and he followed it with works such as The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith (1895) and Trelawny of the "Wells" (1898), becoming the most successful playwright of his time
Sir Austen Chamberlain: born Oct. 16, 1863, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Eng. died March 16, 1937, London British statesman. Son of Joseph Chamberlain and half brother of Neville Chamberlain, he entered the House of Commons in 1892. He held a variety of posts, including chancellor of the Exchequer (1903-05, 1919-21) and secretary of state for India (1915-17). As foreign secretary (1924-29), he helped bring about the Locarno Pact, intended to secure peace in western Europe. For that accomplishment, he shared the 1925 Nobel Prize for Peace with Charles Dawes
Sir Barnes Neville Wallis: born Sept. 26, 1887, Ripley, Derbyshire, Eng. died Oct. 30, 1979, Leatherhead, Surrey British aeronautical designer and military engineer. He invented the innovative "dambuster" bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force to destroy the Möhne and Eder dams in Germany's industrial Ruhr area, producing heavy floods that slowed industrial production. He also invented the 12,000-lb (5,400 kg) "Tallboy" and the 22,000-lb (10,000 kg) "Grand Slam" bombs and was responsible for the bombs that destroyed the German warship Tirpitz, V-rocket sites, and much of Germany's railway system. In 1971 he designed an aircraft that could fly five times the speed of sound
Sir Barnes Wallis: born Sept. 26, 1887, Ripley, Derbyshire, Eng. died Oct. 30, 1979, Leatherhead, Surrey British aeronautical designer and military engineer. He invented the innovative "dambuster" bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force to destroy the Möhne and Eder dams in Germany's industrial Ruhr area, producing heavy floods that slowed industrial production. He also invented the 12,000-lb (5,400 kg) "Tallboy" and the 22,000-lb (10,000 kg) "Grand Slam" bombs and was responsible for the bombs that destroyed the German warship Tirpitz, V-rocket sites, and much of Germany's railway system. In 1971 he designed an aircraft that could fly five times the speed of sound
Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart: born Oct. 31, 1895, Paris, France died Jan. 29, 1970, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, Eng. British military historian and strategist. He left Cambridge University to join the British army at the outbreak of World War I and retired as a captain in 1927. He was an early advocate of air power and mechanized tank warfare. He wrote for London newspapers from 1925 to 1945. His writings on strategy, which emphasized the elements of mobility and surprise, were more influential in Germany than in France or England; his "expanding torrent" theory of attack became the basis for German blitzkrieg warfare in 1939-41. The author of more than 30 books, he was knighted in 1966
Sir Basil Liddell Hart: born Oct. 31, 1895, Paris, France died Jan. 29, 1970, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, Eng. British military historian and strategist. He left Cambridge University to join the British army at the outbreak of World War I and retired as a captain in 1927. He was an early advocate of air power and mechanized tank warfare. He wrote for London newspapers from 1925 to 1945. His writings on strategy, which emphasized the elements of mobility and surprise, were more influential in Germany than in France or England; his "expanding torrent" theory of attack became the basis for German blitzkrieg warfare in 1939-41. The author of more than 30 books, he was knighted in 1966
Sir Basil Spence: a British architect, who designed Coventry Cathedral (1907-76)
Sir Bernard Lovell: born Aug. 31, 1913, Oldland Common, Gloucestershire, Eng. British radio astronomer. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, worked for the Air Ministry during World War II, and lectured at the University of Manchester after the war. He built the first giant radio telescope (1957) at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester; with a bowl diameter of 250 ft (76 m), the instrument is used for astronomical research and spacecraft tracking and communication
Sir Carol Reed: a British film director, whose films include The Third Man (1949), Our Man in Havana (1959), and the musical film Oliver! (1968) (1906-76). born Dec. 30, 1906, London, Eng. died April 25, 1976, London British film director. He made his stage debut as an actor in 1924 and as a director in 1927, staging Edgar Wallace's detective thrillers. He began directing films in 1935, winning praise for The Stars Look Down (1939), Night Train (1940), and the wartime semidocumentary The True Glory (1945). Noted for his technical mastery of the suspense-thriller genre, he had great success with Odd Man Out (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948), and the classic The Third Man (1949). His later films include The Key (1958), Our Man in Havana (1959), and Oliver! (1968, Academy Award). He was the first British film director to be knighted
Sir Cecil Beaton: a British photographer and designer for fashion, theatre, and film. He is famous for his pictures of famous and wealthy people (1904-80). born Jan. 14, 1904, London, Eng. died Jan. 18, 1980, Broadchalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire British photographer and designer. When he received his first camera at age 11, he began making portraits of his sisters. In the 1920s he became staff photographer at Vanity Fair and Vogue. In Beaton's exotic and bizarre portraits, the sitter is only one element of an overall decorative composition dominated by flamboyant backgrounds. His photographs of the siege of Britain were published in Winged Squadrons (1942). After the war he designed costumes and stage sets, including those for the movies Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964)
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton: born Jan. 14, 1904, London, Eng. died Jan. 18, 1980, Broadchalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire British photographer and designer. When he received his first camera at age 11, he began making portraits of his sisters. In the 1920s he became staff photographer at Vanity Fair and Vogue. In Beaton's exotic and bizarre portraits, the sitter is only one element of an overall decorative composition dominated by flamboyant backgrounds. His photographs of the siege of Britain were published in Winged Squadrons (1942). After the war he designed costumes and stage sets, including those for the movies Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964)
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman: v. born Nov. 7, 1888, Trichinopoly, India died Nov. 21, 1970, Bangalore Indian physicist influential in the growth of science in India. He received a Nobel Prize in 1930 for discovering that when light passes through a transparent material, some of the light that emerges at a right angle to the original beam is of other frequencies (Raman frequencies) characteristic of the material. He contributed to the building up of nearly every Indian research institution in his time, founded a scholarly physics journal and an academy of sciences, and trained hundreds of students
Sir Charles (Charlie) Chaplin: a British film actor and director who worked mainly in the US in humorous silent films (=films made with no sound) during the 1920s (1889-1977)
Sir Charles Algernon Parsons: born June 13, 1854, London, Eng. died Feb. 11, 1931, Kingston Harbour, Jam. British mechanical engineer. He began work at the Armstrong engineering works in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1877 and formed his own company to manufacture turbines and other heavy machinery in 1889. He developed the multiple-stage turbine in 1884 and had introduced it in power plants to generate electricity by 1891. Modern steam and nuclear power plants still use turbines of this type to turn their generators. He demonstrated his marine turbine in Turbinia, a vessel that attained a speed of over 34 knots in 1897; Parsons turbines made high-speed ocean liners possible
Sir Charles G D Roberts: born Jan. 10, 1860, Douglas, N.B. died Nov. 26, 1943, Toronto, Ont., Can. Canadian poet. At first a teacher and editor, he became a journalist in New York City and lived in London before settling in Toronto. His best-known poems are simple descriptive lyrics about the scenery and rural life of Nova Scotia and his native New Brunswick. He published some 12 verse volumes, including In Divers Tones (1887) and The Vagrant of Time (1927). His prose includes short stories that display his intimate knowledge of the Canadian woods, including Earth's Enigmas (1896) and Red Fox (1905). He is remembered as the first writer to express national feeling after the confederation of 1867
Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts: born Jan. 10, 1860, Douglas, N.B. died Nov. 26, 1943, Toronto, Ont., Can. Canadian poet. At first a teacher and editor, he became a journalist in New York City and lived in London before settling in Toronto. His best-known poems are simple descriptive lyrics about the scenery and rural life of Nova Scotia and his native New Brunswick. He published some 12 verse volumes, including In Divers Tones (1887) and The Vagrant of Time (1927). His prose includes short stories that display his intimate knowledge of the Canadian woods, including Earth's Enigmas (1896) and Red Fox (1905). He is remembered as the first writer to express national feeling after the confederation of 1867
Sir Charles Guthrie: British Chief of Staff
Sir Charles Lyell: born Nov. 14, 1797, Kinnordy, Forfarshire, Scot. died Feb. 22, 1875, London, Eng. Scottish geologist. While studying law at the University of Oxford, he became interested in geology and later met such notable geologists as Alexander von Humboldt and Georges Cuvier. Lyell came to believe that there were natural (as opposed to supernatural) explanations for all geologic phenomena, a position he supported with many examples in his three-volume Principles of Geology (1830-33). A recognized leader in his field, he gained the friendship of other well-known men of science, including the Herschel family and Charles Darwin, whose Origin of Species (1859) persuaded Lyell to accept evolution. Lyell was largely responsible for the general acceptance of the concept of uniformitarianism in geology
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington: born Nov. 27, 1857, London, Eng. died March 4, 1952, Eastbourne, Sussex English physiologist. By studying animals whose cerebral cortexes had been removed, he showed that reflexes are integrated activities of the total organism, not based on isolated "reflex arcs." Sherrington's law states that when one set of muscles is stimulated, muscles opposing their action are inhibited. He showed that the role of proprioception in reflexes that maintain upright posture against gravity is independent of cerebral function and skin sensation. His work influenced the development of brain surgery and treatment of nervous disorders, and he coined the terms neuron and synapse. His classic work is The Integrative Action of the Nervous System (1906). In 1932 he shared a Nobel Prize with Edgar Adrian (1889-1977)
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin: Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) English-born USA comedy and film star
Sir Charles Wentworth 2nd Baronet Dilke: born Sept. 4, 1843, London, Eng. died Jan. 26, 1911, London British politician. He was elected to Parliament in 1868, first as an extremist then as a moderate. In 1882 he became a member of William E. Gladstone's cabinet and was seen as a future prime minister. He was ruined at the height of his career when he was cited as a corespondent in a sensational divorce suit in 1886. Dilke denied the woman's story, and the accumulated evidence showed that much of it was a fabrication. He returned to the House of Commons (1892-1911), where he promoted progressive labor legislation and gained a reputation as a military expert
Sir Charles William Siemens: orig. Karl Wilhelm Siemens born April 4, 1823, Lenthe, Prussia died Nov. 19, 1883, London, Eng. German-born British engineer and inventor. He immigrated to Britain in 1844. In 1861 he patented the open-hearth furnace (see open-hearth process), which was soon being widely used in steelmaking and eventually replaced the earlier Bessemer process. He also made a reputation and a fortune in the steel cable and telegraph industries and was a principal in the company that laid the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable (1866). His three brothers were also eminent engineers and industrialists (see Siemens AG)
Sir Christopher Wren: an English architect who built many churches in London, including Saint Paul's Cathedral, and other buildings in the UK, such as the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford (1632-1723). born Oct. 20, 1632, East Knoyle, Wiltshire, Eng. died Feb. 25, 1723, London British architect, astronomer, and geometrician. He taught astronomy at Gresham College, London (1657-61) and Oxford (1661-73), and did not turn to architecture until 1662, when he was engaged to design the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford. Though Classical in form, the theatre was roofed with novel wood trusses that were the product of Wren's scholarly and empirical approach. As King's Surveyor of Works (1669-1718), he had a hand in the rebuilding of more than 50 churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Meanwhile, he was evolving designs for Saint Paul's Cathedral, a work that occupied him until its completion in 1710. Other works, generally in the English Baroque style, include the classical Trinity College library, Cambridge (1676-84), additions to Hampton Court (begun 1689), and Greenwich Hospital (begun 1696). Wren was buried in Saint Paul's; nearby is the famous inscription: "Reader, if you seek a monument, look around
Sir Colin Davis: born Sept. 5, 1927, Weybridge, Surrey, Eng. British conductor. Self-taught as a conductor, he first earned acclaim with a 1958 production of Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio. His reputation was established when he filled in for Otto Klemperer the next year. He was music director of Covent Garden (1971-86) and principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony (1983-92); he was appointed principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1995. He has a special affinity for the music of Hector Berlioz and Jean Sibelius
Sir Colin Rex Davis: born Sept. 5, 1927, Weybridge, Surrey, Eng. British conductor. Self-taught as a conductor, he first earned acclaim with a 1958 production of Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio. His reputation was established when he filled in for Otto Klemperer the next year. He was music director of Covent Garden (1971-86) and principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony (1983-92); he was appointed principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1995. He has a special affinity for the music of Hector Berlioz and Jean Sibelius
Sir Compton Mackenzie: born Jan. 17, 1883, West Hartlepool, Durham, Eng. died Nov. 30, 1972, Edinburgh, Scot. British novelist and playwright. Educated at Oxford University, he gave up legal studies to finish his first play, The Gentleman in Grey (1906). During World War I he directed the Aegean Intelligence Service in Syria; when he wrote about those experiences in Greek Memories (1932), he was prosecuted under Britain's Official Secrets Act. He founded Gramophone magazine in 1923 and edited it until 1962. He served as rector of Glasgow University (1931-34) and as literary critic for the London Daily Mail; his more than 100 novels, plays, and biographies include 10 volumes of memoirs
Sir Cyril Burt: born March 3, 1883, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, Eng. died Oct. 10, 1971, London British psychologist. He taught at the University of London (1924-50), becoming known for his pioneering work in educational psychology, especially mental testing and statistical analysis. His studies of human intelligence convinced him that intelligence was primarily inherited. Subsequent examination indicated that he had fabricated some of the data, though some of his earlier work remained unaffected by this revelation. His books, which were very popular in England and went through many editions, include The Factors of the Mind (1940), The Backward Child (1961), The Young Delinquent (1965), and The Gifted Child (1975)
Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt: born March 3, 1883, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, Eng. died Oct. 10, 1971, London British psychologist. He taught at the University of London (1924-50), becoming known for his pioneering work in educational psychology, especially mental testing and statistical analysis. His studies of human intelligence convinced him that intelligence was primarily inherited. Subsequent examination indicated that he had fabricated some of the data, though some of his earlier work remained unaffected by this revelation. His books, which were very popular in England and went through many editions, include The Factors of the Mind (1940), The Backward Child (1961), The Young Delinquent (1965), and The Gifted Child (1975)
Sir David Attenborough: born May 8, 1926, London, Eng. British television writer. For the BBC, which he joined in 1952, he originated the series Zoo Quest (1954-64). As controller of BBC-2 (1965-68) and director of programs (1968-72), he helped produce The Forsyte Saga, The Ascent of Man, and Civilisation. As an independent producer, he made innovative educational programs such as Life on Earth (1979) and The Living Planet (1984). He was knighted in 1985
Sir David Frederick Attenborough: born May 8, 1926, London, Eng. British television writer. For the BBC, which he joined in 1952, he originated the series Zoo Quest (1954-64). As controller of BBC-2 (1965-68) and director of programs (1968-72), he helped produce The Forsyte Saga, The Ascent of Man, and Civilisation. As an independent producer, he made innovative educational programs such as Life on Earth (1979) and The Living Planet (1984). He was knighted in 1985
Sir David Frost: born April 7, 1939, Tenterden, Kent, Eng. British television producer. He worked in television from 1961 and hosted several programs in the U.S. and Britain, including That Was the Week That Was (1962-63) and The Frost Reports (1966-67). He conducted interviews with world leaders on The David Frost Show (1969-72), winning two Emmy Awards. He was a cofounder of London Weekend Television and in 1983 of Britain's TV-AM
Sir David Lean: a British film director who made many well-known films, such as Brief Encounter (1945), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Dr Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984) (1908-91). born March 25, 1908, Croydon, Surrey, Eng. died April 16, 1991, London British film director. He worked at Gaumont Studios from 1928, becoming head film editor. He codirected In Which We Serve (1942) with Noë l Coward and was sole director of Coward's Blithe Spirit (1945) and Brief Encounter (1945). He directed film adaptations of Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). Lean won wide acclaim for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, Academy Award) and later for Lawrence of Arabia (1962, Academy Award), Dr. Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984). His literate, epic productions featured spectacular cinematography and stunning locales
Sir David Paradine Frost: born April 7, 1939, Tenterden, Kent, Eng. British television producer. He worked in television from 1961 and hosted several programs in the U.S. and Britain, including That Was the Week That Was (1962-63) and The Frost Reports (1966-67). He conducted interviews with world leaders on The David Frost Show (1969-72), winning two Emmy Awards. He was a cofounder of London Weekend Television and in 1983 of Britain's TV-AM
Sir Derek H R Barton: born Sept. 8, 1918, Gravesend, Kent, Eng. died March 16, 1998, College Station, Texas, U.S. British chemist. Unsatisfied in his father's carpentry business, he entered London's Imperial College and received his doctorate in 1942. His studies revealed that organic molecules have a preferred three-dimensional form from which their chemical properties can be inferred. This research earned him the 1969 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, shared with Odd Hassel of Norway
Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton: born Sept. 8, 1918, Gravesend, Kent, Eng. died March 16, 1998, College Station, Texas, U.S. British chemist. Unsatisfied in his father's carpentry business, he entered London's Imperial College and received his doctorate in 1942. His studies revealed that organic molecules have a preferred three-dimensional form from which their chemical properties can be inferred. This research earned him the 1969 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, shared with Odd Hassel of Norway
Sir Desmond Mpilo Tutu: born Oct. 7, 1931, Klerksdorp, S.Af. South African Anglican cleric. He studied theology at the University of South Africa and King's College, London. He became an Anglican priest in 1961 and bishop of Lesotho in 1976. In 1978 he became general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and an eloquent and outspoken advocate for the rights of black South Africans. He emphasized nonviolent protest and encouraged other countries to apply economic pressure to South Africa. In 1984 he received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in opposing apartheid. In 1986 he was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town and titular head of South Africa's 1.6-million-member Anglican Church. He retired from the primacy in 1996 and became chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, charged with hearing evidence of human-rights violations under white rule. Since 1988 he has been chancellor of the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, S.Af
Sir Desmond Tutu: born Oct. 7, 1931, Klerksdorp, S.Af. South African Anglican cleric. He studied theology at the University of South Africa and King's College, London. He became an Anglican priest in 1961 and bishop of Lesotho in 1976. In 1978 he became general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and an eloquent and outspoken advocate for the rights of black South Africans. He emphasized nonviolent protest and encouraged other countries to apply economic pressure to South Africa. In 1984 he received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his role in opposing apartheid. In 1986 he was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town and titular head of South Africa's 1.6-million-member Anglican Church. He retired from the primacy in 1996 and became chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, charged with hearing evidence of human-rights violations under white rule. Since 1988 he has been chancellor of the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, S.Af
Sir Dirk Bogarde: orig. Derek Niven van den Bogaerde born March 28, 1921, London, Eng. died May 8, 1999, London British actor. The son of a Dutch-born art critic, he made his stage debut in 1939 and won a film contract from the Rank studios after World War II. After appearing for a decade mainly in light comedies such as Doctor in the House (1953), he began demonstrating his acting range in serious films such as The Doctor's Dilemma (1958), The Servant (1963), Darling (1965), and Providence (1977)
Sir Dominic John Corrigan: born Dec. 1, 1802, Dublin, Ire. died Feb. 1, 1880, Dublin Irish physician. He wrote several reports on heart diseases; his paper on aortic insufficiency (1832) is the classic description. He also produced well-known studies on cirrhosis of the lung (1838), aortitis as a cause of angina pectoris (1837), and mitral stenosis (1838). Eponyms such as Corrigan's respiration (shallow breathing in fever) and Corrigan's pulse (a jerking pulse beat) came into general use as a result of his investigations
Sir Donald Bradman: an Australian cricketer, one of the best batsmen ever to have played (1908-2001)
Sir E E Evans-Pritchard: born Sept. 21, 1902, Crowborough, Sussex, Eng. died Sept. 11, 1973, Oxford, Oxfordshire British social anthropologist. The most influential British social anthropologist since Bronisaw Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard succeeded the latter at Oxford University (1946), where he served as mentor to a generation of students. His studies of African systems of belief, witchcraft, religion, politics, and oral tradition remain foundational to the study of African societies and non-Western systems of thought. Among his major works are Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937), The Nuer (1940), and (with Meyer Fortes) African Political Systems (1940)
Sir Edmund Andros: born Dec. 6, 1637, London, Eng. died Feb. 24, 1714, London English colonial administrator in North America. Appointed governor of New York and New Jersey in 1674, he was recalled in 1681 following complaints from colonists. He returned in 1686 as governor of the Dominion of New England, a kind of supercolony imposed by Britain. His interference in local government aroused sharp resentment among the colonists, and in 1688 they revolted and imprisoned him. Andros was recalled to England but returned as governor of Virginia (1692) and Maryland (1693-94)
Sir Edmund Gosse: born Sept. 21, 1849, London, Eng. died May 16, 1928, London British literary historian and critic. He worked principally as a librarian and translator (of Henrik Ibsen's plays, among many other works). He wrote the literary histories 18th Century Literature (1889) and Modern English Literature (1897), as well as biographies of Thomas Gray, John Donne, Ibsen, and others, and introduced many works by continental European writers to English readers. Many of his critical essays were collected in French Profiles (1905), and his autobiography, Father and Son (1907), has been much admired
Sir Edmund Hillary: a New Zealand mountain climber who was the first person, with Sherpa Tenzing, to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1953. He also travelled by land to the South Pole in 1958 (1919- ). born July 20, 1919, Auckland, N.Z. New Zealand mountain climber and explorer. Hillary was a professional beekeeper but enjoyed climbing in the New Zealand Alps. In 1951 he joined a New Zealand party to the central Himalayas and then went on to help in a reconnaissance of the southern flank of Everest. In 1953, as a member of the British Everest expedition, he and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit on May
Sir Edmund Hillary: The achievement brought Hillary worldwide fame and he was knighted that same year. In 1958 he participated in the first crossing of Antarctica by vehicle. From the 1960s he has helped build schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary: born July 20, 1919, Auckland, N.Z. New Zealand mountain climber and explorer. Hillary was a professional beekeeper but enjoyed climbing in the New Zealand Alps. In 1951 he joined a New Zealand party to the central Himalayas and then went on to help in a reconnaissance of the southern flank of Everest. In 1953, as a member of the British Everest expedition, he and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit on May
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary: The achievement brought Hillary worldwide fame and he was knighted that same year. In 1958 he participated in the first crossing of Antarctica by vehicle. From the 1960s he has helped build schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people
Sir Edward 3rd Baronet Grey: born April 25, 1862, London, Eng. died Sept. 7, 1933, Fallodon, near Embleton, Northumberland British statesman. A relative of Earl Grey, he entered Parliament as a Liberal (1885) and became foreign secretary in 1905. During the Moroccan crises (1905, 1911), he supported France against Germany, but with equivocations that caused diplomatic confusion. After the assassination of Francis Ferdinand (1914), Grey proposed that Austria-Hungary obtain satisfaction from Serbia by occupying Belgrade. When all peace moves failed, he maneuvered a divided British cabinet into World War I, about which he commented, "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime." He was responsible for the secret Treaty of London (1915)
Sir Edward Burne-Jones: born Aug. 28, 1833, Birmingham, Eng. died June 17, 1898, London British painter, illustrator, and designer. At Oxford he met his future collaborator, William Morris. In 1856 he became apprenticed to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His paintings portray the romantic medieval imagery favoured by the Pre-Raphaelites, and he drew inspiration from the elongated, melancholy figures of Fra Filippo Lippi and Sandro Botticelli. He first achieved great success in 1877 with an exhibition of paintings including The Beguiling of Merlin (1873-77). He was a founding member of Morris & Co. (1861), notably as a designer of stained glass and tapestries, and he executed 87 designs for the Kelmscott Press edition of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896), considered one the world's finest printed books. His work had great influence on the French Symbolist movement, and his revival of the ideal of the artist-craftsman influenced the development of 20th-century industrial design
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor: born Oct. 2, 1832, London, Eng. died Jan. 2, 1917, Wellington, Somerset British anthropologist, often called the founder of cultural anthropology. He taught at Oxford University (1884-1909), where he became the first professor of anthropology. His Primitive Culture, 2 vol. (1871), influenced by Charles Darwin, developed the theory of an evolutionary relationship between what he called primitive and modern cultures, stressing the cultural achievements that marked the progression of all humanity from a "savage" to a "civilized" state. At a time when there was still controversy over whether all human races belonged to a single species, Tylor was a powerful advocate of the unity of all humankind. He was instrumental in establishing anthropology as an academic discipline. See also animism; sociocultural evolution
Sir Edward Coke: born Feb. 1, 1552, Mileham, Norfolk, Eng. died Sept. 3, 1634, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire British jurist and politician. He became a lawyer in 1578 and was made solicitor general in 1592. His advance to the position of attorney general (1594) frustrated his great rival, Francis Bacon. As attorney general, he conducted several famous treason trials, prosecuting Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton (1600-01); Sir Walter Raleigh (1603); and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators (1605). Named chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1606, Coke earned the ire of James I by declaring that the king's proclamation could not change the law (1610). He upset church leaders by limiting the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts. Appointed chief justice of the King's Bench by James I (1613), he remained unswayed; he hinted at scandal in high places and defied a royal injunction in a case involving ecclesiastical privileges. He was dismissed in 1616, partly through Bacon's efforts. In 1620 he reentered Parliament (he had served in 1589), where he denounced interference with Parliament's liberties (1621) until he was imprisoned. In 1628 he helped frame the Petition of Right, a charter of liberties; this defense of the supremacy of the common law over royal prerogative had a profound influence on the English law and constitution. On his death his papers were seized by Charles I. His Reports (1600-15), taken together, are a monumental compendium of English common law, and his Institutes of the Lawes of England (4 vol., 1628-44) is an important treatise
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones: born Aug. 28, 1833, Birmingham, Eng. died June 17, 1898, London British painter, illustrator, and designer. At Oxford he met his future collaborator, William Morris. In 1856 he became apprenticed to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His paintings portray the romantic medieval imagery favoured by the Pre-Raphaelites, and he drew inspiration from the elongated, melancholy figures of Fra Filippo Lippi and Sandro Botticelli. He first achieved great success in 1877 with an exhibition of paintings including The Beguiling of Merlin (1873-77). He was a founding member of Morris & Co. (1861), notably as a designer of stained glass and tapestries, and he executed 87 designs for the Kelmscott Press edition of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896), considered one the world's finest printed books. His work had great influence on the French Symbolist movement, and his revival of the ideal of the artist-craftsman influenced the development of 20th-century industrial design
Sir Edward Elgar: a British composer of classical music, famous for his Enigma Variations and Cello Concerto. He also wrote the music for the patriotic song Land of Hope and Glory (1857-1934). born June 2, 1857, Broadheath, Worcestershire, Eng. died Feb. 23, 1934, Worcester, Worcestershire British composer. Son of a piano tuner, he became proficient on violin and organ. His Enigma Variations (1896) brought him fame; he followed it with the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900), which many consider his masterpiece. He composed in the orchestral idiom of late 19th-century Romanticism characterized by bold tunes, striking colour effects, and mastery of large forms stimulating a renaissance of English music. His principal works include the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901-07), two symphonies (1908, 1911), concertos for violin (1910) and cello (1919), and the tone poems Cockaigne (1901) and Falstaff (1913)
Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard: born Sept. 21, 1902, Crowborough, Sussex, Eng. died Sept. 11, 1973, Oxford, Oxfordshire British social anthropologist. The most influential British social anthropologist since Bronisaw Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Evans-Pritchard succeeded the latter at Oxford University (1946), where he served as mentor to a generation of students. His studies of African systems of belief, witchcraft, religion, politics, and oral tradition remain foundational to the study of African societies and non-Western systems of thought. Among his major works are Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937), The Nuer (1940), and (with Meyer Fortes) African Political Systems (1940)
Sir Edward Heath: a British politician in the Conservative Party, who was Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974. He disagreed with Margaret Thatcher, who followed him as Conservative leader, and supported the European Union and the idea of a single European currency (=system of money) (1916-). born July 9, 1916, Broadstairs, Kent, Eng. British politician, prime minister of Britain (1970-74). He held various government positions after being elected to Parliament in 1950, and after the Conservative defeat in 1964 he became a major opposition figure. As prime minister, he faced the crisis of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, over which he imposed direct British rule in 1972, and won French acceptance of British entry into the European Economic Community. Unable to cope with Britain's mounting economic problems, chiefly rising inflation and unemployment and crippling labor strikes, he was succeeded by Harold Wilson in 1974 and replaced as party leader by Margaret Thatcher in 1975
Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie: born Jan. 17, 1883, West Hartlepool, Durham, Eng. died Nov. 30, 1972, Edinburgh, Scot. British novelist and playwright. Educated at Oxford University, he gave up legal studies to finish his first play, The Gentleman in Grey (1906). During World War I he directed the Aegean Intelligence Service in Syria; when he wrote about those experiences in Greek Memories (1932), he was prosecuted under Britain's Official Secrets Act. He founded Gramophone magazine in 1923 and edited it until 1962. He served as rector of Glasgow University (1931-34) and as literary critic for the London Daily Mail; his more than 100 novels, plays, and biographies include 10 volumes of memoirs
Sir Edward Poynings: born 1459, Southwark?, near London, Eng. died October 1521, Westenhanger, Kent English soldier and administrator. A supporter of Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), he served as the king's lord deputy of Ireland (1494-95), where he enacted legislative measures ("Poynings' Laws") that applied all English public laws to Ireland and required every act of the Irish parliament to be approved by the king and privy council
Sir Edward Richard George Heath: born July 9, 1916, Broadstairs, Kent, Eng. British politician, prime minister of Britain (1970-74). He held various government positions after being elected to Parliament in 1950, and after the Conservative defeat in 1964 he became a major opposition figure. As prime minister, he faced the crisis of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, over which he imposed direct British rule in 1972, and won French acceptance of British entry into the European Economic Community. Unable to cope with Britain's mounting economic problems, chiefly rising inflation and unemployment and crippling labor strikes, he was succeeded by Harold Wilson in 1974 and replaced as party leader by Margaret Thatcher in 1975
Sir Edward Sabine: born Oct. 14, 1788, Dublin, Ire. died June 26, 1883, East Sheen, Surrey, Eng. British astronomer and geodesist. He accompanied the expeditions of John Ross (1818) and William Parry (1819) in search of the Northwest Passage. In 1821 he began experiments to determine the Earth's shape more precisely by observing the motion of a pendulum. He thereafter devoted most of his efforts to researches on terrestrial magnetism, overseeing the establishment of magnetic observatories throughout the world. In 1852 he discovered that the periodic variation of sunspots is correlated with certain changes in magnetic disturbances. He was president of London's Royal Society (1861-71). Knighted in 1869, he was promoted to the rank of general in 1870
Sir Edward William Elgar: born June 2, 1857, Broadheath, Worcestershire, Eng. died Feb. 23, 1934, Worcester, Worcestershire British composer. Son of a piano tuner, he became proficient on violin and organ. His Enigma Variations (1896) brought him fame; he followed it with the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900), which many consider his masterpiece. He composed in the orchestral idiom of late 19th-century Romanticism characterized by bold tunes, striking colour effects, and mastery of large forms stimulating a renaissance of English music. His principal works include the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901-07), two symphonies (1908, 1911), concertos for violin (1910) and cello (1919), and the tone poems Cockaigne (1901) and Falstaff (1913)
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer: born March 7, 1802, London, Eng. died Oct. 1, 1873, London British painter and sculptor. He studied with his father, an engraver and writer, and at the Royal Academy. He specialized in animals and developed great skill in depicting animal anatomy; he sometimes humanized his animal subjects to the point of sentimentality or moralizing (e.g., Dignity and Impudence, 1839). He achieved great professional and social success and was a favourite painter of Queen Victoria. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1831 and knighted in 1850. As a sculptor, he is best known for his bronze lions at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square (unveiled 1867)
Sir Edwin L Lutyens: born March 29, 1869, London, Eng. died Jan. 1, 1944, London British architect. His design for a house at Munstead Wood, Godalming, Surrey (1896), created for Gertrude Jekyll, established his reputation. In the series of country houses he subsequently designed, many in collaboration with Jekyll, Lutyens adapted past styles to contemporary domestic life in delightful and original ways. For the new Indian capital at Delhi, he devised a plan based on a series of hexagons separated by broad avenues; his most important building there, the Viceroy's House (1912-30), combined aspects of Classical architecture with Indian motifs. After World War I he became architect to the Imperial War Graves Commission, for which he designed the Cenotaph in London (1919-20) and other memorials
Sir Edwin Landseer: born March 7, 1802, London, Eng. died Oct. 1, 1873, London British painter and sculptor. He studied with his father, an engraver and writer, and at the Royal Academy. He specialized in animals and developed great skill in depicting animal anatomy; he sometimes humanized his animal subjects to the point of sentimentality or moralizing (e.g., Dignity and Impudence, 1839). He achieved great professional and social success and was a favourite painter of Queen Victoria. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1831 and knighted in 1850. As a sculptor, he is best known for his bronze lions at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square (unveiled 1867)
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens: born March 29, 1869, London, Eng. died Jan. 1, 1944, London British architect. His design for a house at Munstead Wood, Godalming, Surrey (1896), created for Gertrude Jekyll, established his reputation. In the series of country houses he subsequently designed, many in collaboration with Jekyll, Lutyens adapted past styles to contemporary domestic life in delightful and original ways. For the new Indian capital at Delhi, he devised a plan based on a series of hexagons separated by broad avenues; his most important building there, the Viceroy's House (1912-30), combined aspects of Classical architecture with Indian motifs. After World War I he became architect to the Imperial War Graves Commission, for which he designed the Cenotaph in London (1919-20) and other memorials
Sir Elton Hercules John: orig. Reginald Kenneth Dwight born March 25, 1947, Pinner, Middlesex, Eng. British rock singer, pianist, and songwriter. He played piano by ear as a child, winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at age
Sir Elton Hercules John: In the late 1960s he began a successful partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin (b. 1950) that would produce hit albums such as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and songs such as "Rocket Man," "Bennie and the Jets," and "Philadelphia Freedom." The two returned with more hits in the early 1980s, including "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues." In 1997 John performed a new version of "Candle in the Wind" (1973) at the funeral of his friend Diana, princess of Wales; his recording immediately became the best-selling single of all time
Sir Elton John: orig. Reginald Kenneth Dwight born March 25, 1947, Pinner, Middlesex, Eng. British rock singer, pianist, and songwriter. He played piano by ear as a child, winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at age
Sir Elton John: In the late 1960s he began a successful partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin (b. 1950) that would produce hit albums such as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and songs such as "Rocket Man," "Bennie and the Jets," and "Philadelphia Freedom." The two returned with more hits in the early 1980s, including "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues." In 1997 John performed a new version of "Candle in the Wind" (1973) at the funeral of his friend Diana, princess of Wales; his recording immediately became the best-selling single of all time
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton: born , Feb. 15, 1874, Kilkea, County Kildare, Ire. died Jan. 5, 1922, Grytviken, South Georgia British explorer. In 1901 he joined Robert Falcon Scott's expedition to the Antarctic. He returned to Antarctica in 1908 and led a sledging party to within 97 mi (156 km) of the pole. In 1914 he led the British Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which planned to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. His expedition ship Endurance was caught in pack ice and drifted for 10 months before being crushed. Shackleton and his crew drifted on ice floes for another five months until they reached Elephant Island. He and five others sailed 800 mi (1,300 km) to South Georgia Island to get help, then he led four relief expeditions to rescue his men. Shackleton died on South Georgia at the outset of another Antarctic expedition
Sir Ernst Boris Chain: born June 19, 1906, Berlin, Ger. died Aug. 12, 1979, Ire. German-born British biochemist. With Howard Walter Florey he isolated and purified penicillin and performed the first clinical trials of the antibiotic. For their pioneering work, Chain, Florey, and Alexander Fleming shared a 1945 Nobel Prize. In addition to his work on antibiotics, Chain studied snake venoms, the spreading factor (an enzyme that aids the dispersal of fluids in tissue), and insulin. He was knighted in 1969
Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Crowe: born July 30, 1864, Leipzig, Ger. died April 28, 1925, Swanage, Dorset, Eng. British diplomat. In the years before World War I he strongly urged an anti-German policy, arguing in a 1907 memorandum that Germany aimed at the domination of Europe, that concessions would only increase its appetite for power, and that the entente with France must not be abandoned. On July 25, 1914, he urged a show of force by the British navy to forestall war, and when war began a few days later he induced the government to seize German vessels in British ports. He served as permanent undersecretary of state for foreign affairs (1920-25)
Sir Eyre Crowe: born July 30, 1864, Leipzig, Ger. died April 28, 1925, Swanage, Dorset, Eng. British diplomat. In the years before World War I he strongly urged an anti-German policy, arguing in a 1907 memorandum that Germany aimed at the domination of Europe, that concessions would only increase its appetite for power, and that the entente with France must not be abandoned. On July 25, 1914, he urged a show of force by the British navy to forestall war, and when war began a few days later he induced the government to seize German vessels in British ports. He served as permanent undersecretary of state for foreign affairs (1920-25)
Sir Ferdinando Gorges: born 1566?, probably at Wraxall, Somerset, Eng. died 1647, Long Ashton, Gloucestershire British colonist. After a military career, he sought royal grants to establish settlements in North America. Believing that colonizing should be a royal endeavour, he obtained a grant in 1620 to all the land in North America between the 40th and 48th parallels. His plan to distribute the land as manors and fiefs to aristocratic members of a Council of New England was thwarted by the development of self-governing English colonies at Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, which received their charters directly from the crown. He received the charter for Maine in 1639 but was unable to effect his plan
Sir Flinders Petrie: born June 3, 1853, Charlton, near Greenwich, London, Eng. died July 28, 1942, Jerusalem British archaeologist who made valuable contributions to the techniques of excavation and dating. During excavations in Egypt in the mid 1880s Petrie developed a sequence dating method, based on a comparison of potsherds at various levels, that made possible the reconstruction of ancient history from material remains. His excavations, together with those of Heinrich Schliemann at Troy, marked the beginning of the examination of successive levels of a site, rather than the previously haphazard digging. Petrie made many important discoveries in Egypt and Palestine. His Methods and Aims in Archaeology (1904) was the definitive work of its time. He taught at the University of London (1892-1933)
Sir Frances Drake: (1540-1596) English explorer and navigator who plundered Spanish merchant vessels in South America, first Englishman to sail around the world
Sir Francis Bacon: an English politician, philosopher, and writer (1561-1626)
Sir Francis Beaufort: {i} (1774-1857) British admiral and hydrographer in the British Royal Navy, creator of the Beaufort scale
Sir Francis Drake: an English sailor and explorer, who was the first Englishman to sail around the world, and was one of the leaders of the English navy when it defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588 (1540-96). born 1540-43, Devonshire, Eng. died Jan. 28, 1596, at sea, off Puerto Bello, Panama English admiral, the most renowned seaman of the Elizabethan Age. Son of a tenant farmer, he went to sea at age 13 to escape his family's poverty. He gained a reputation as an outstanding seaman and became wealthy through raids against Spanish colonies. In 1577 he was commissioned by Elizabeth I to lead an expedition to South America and beyond. He set sail with five ships, but ultimately only his flagship, the Golden Hind, made its way through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific and up the coast of South and North America; he then turned south to anchor off modern San Francisco, claiming the area for Elizabeth. He sailed westward to the Philippines and around the Cape of Good Hope, and returned to Plymouth, Eng., in 1580 laden with treasure, the first captain ever to sail his own ship around the world and the first Englishman to sail the Pacific, Indian, and South Atlantic oceans. In 1581 he was knighted and made mayor of Plymouth. Appointed vice admiral (1588), he played a crucial role in defeating the Spanish Armada and became England's hero, achieving a popularity unequaled until Horatio Nelson's time more than 200 years later. On his last voyage, to the West Indies, he succumbed to fever and was buried at sea
Sir Francis Edward Younghusband: born May 31, 1863, Murree, India died July 31, 1942, Lytchett Minster, Dorset, England British army officer and explorer. He forced the conclusion of the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty (1904) that gained Britain long-sought trade concessions. His two initial attempts to negotiate trade and frontier issues with Tibet failed despite British military action; he then marched to Lhasa with British troops and forced the conclusion of a trade treaty, though the Dalai Lama, Tibet's leader, had fled. See also amban
Sir Francis Galton: born Feb. 16, 1822, near Sparkbrook, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Eng. died Jan. 17, 1911, Grayshott House, Haslemere, Surrey British explorer, anthropologist, and eugenicist. Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, studied medicine at Cambridge University but never took a degree. As a young man he traveled widely in Europe and Africa, making useful contributions in zoology and geography. He was among the first to recognize the implications of Darwin's theory of evolution, eventually coining the word eugenics to denote the science of planned human betterment through selective mating. His aim was the creation not of an aristocratic elite but of a population consisting entirely of superior men and women. He also wrote important works on human intelligence, fingerprinting, applied statistics, twins, blood transfusions, criminality, meteorology, and measurement
Sir Francis Walsingham: born 1532, probably Footscray, Kent, Eng. died April 6, 1590, London English statesman and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I (1573-90). A member of Parliament from 1563, he became ambassador to the French court (1570-73) and established friendly relations between France and England. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1573 and became secretary of state to Elizabeth I. Although not allowed to pursue an independent policy, he faithfully executed Elizabeth's foreign policy. He proved invaluable in uncovering conspiracies by Catholics against Elizabeth's life, including the plots by Francis Throckmorton (1583) and Anthony Babington (1586) to free Mary, Queen of Scots
Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet: born Sept. 3, 1899, Traralgon, Vic., Austl. died Aug. 31, 1985, Melbourne, Vic. Australian physician and virologist. Burnet received his medical degree from the University of Melbourne. He later discovered a method for identifying bacteria by the viruses (bacteriophages) that attack them, and he shared a 1960 Nobel Prize with Peter Medawar for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance to tissue transplants. He was knighted in 1951
Sir Frank Whittle: born June 1, 1907, Coventry, Warwickshire, Eng. died Aug. 8, 1996, Columbia, Md., U.S. British aviation engineer and pilot who invented the jet engine. He obtained his first patent for a turbojet engine in 1930, and in 1936 he cofounded Power Jets Ltd. The outbreak of World War II spurred the British government to support Whittle's work, and the first jet-powered aircraft took off in 1941. He was knighted in 1948 and awarded the Order of Merit in 1986
Sir Fred Hoyle: born June 24, 1915, Bingley, Yorkshire, Eng. died Aug. 20, 2001, Bournemouth, Dorset British mathematician and astronomer. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he became a lecturer in 1945. Within the framework of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, Hoyle formulated a mathematical basis for the steady-state theory of the universe, making the expansion of the universe and the creation of matter interdependent. Controversy about the theory grew in the late 1950s and early '60s. New observations of distant galaxies and other phenomena supported the big-bang model and weakened the steady-state theory, which has since generally fallen out of favour. Though forced to alter some of his conclusions, Hoyle persistently tried to make his theory consistent with new evidence. He is known also for his popular science works and fiction
Sir Frederic C Bartlett: born Oct. 20, 1886, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, Eng. died Sept. 30, 1969, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire British psychologist best known for his studies of memory. The first professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge (1931-52), he also directed the university's psychological laboratory. His major work, Remembering (1932), described memories not as direct recollections but rather as mental reconstructions coloured by cultural attitudes and personal habits
Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett: born Oct. 20, 1886, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, Eng. died Sept. 30, 1969, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire British psychologist best known for his studies of memory. The first professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge (1931-52), he also directed the university's psychological laboratory. His major work, Remembering (1932), described memories not as direct recollections but rather as mental reconstructions coloured by cultural attitudes and personal habits
Sir Frederick 3rd Baronet Pollock: born Dec. 10, 1845, London, Eng. died Jan. 18, 1937, London British legal scholar. He taught at the University of Oxford (1883-1903) and was made a king's counsel in 1920. He was noted for his History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (1895; written with Frederic W. Maitland) and several standard textbooks. He maintained a 60-year correspondence with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; the Holmes-Pollock Letters were published in 1941
Sir Frederick Ashton: born Sept. 17, 1904, Guayaquil, Ecua. died Aug. 18, 1988, Sussex, Eng. Principal choreographer and director of England's Royal Ballet. After creating ballets from 1925 for the Ballet Club (later Ballet Rambert), he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (later Royal Ballet) in 1933, becoming principal choreographer, assistant director (1953-63), and director (1963-70). At least 30 of his works remain in its repertoire, including Façade (1931), Symphonic Variations (1946), and Birthday Offering (1956). He also choreographed for companies such as the Royal Danish Ballet (Romeo and Juliet, 1955) and the New York City Ballet (Illuminations, 1950)
Sir Frederick Borden: born May 14, 1847, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia died Jan. 6, 1917, Canning, Nova Scotia, Can. Canadian politician. After studying at Harvard University, he returned to Nova Scotia to practice medicine. In 1874 he was elected as a Liberal Party member to the House of Commons, where he served almost continuously until 1911. As minister of militia and defense (1896-1911), he improved the training of the armed services and helped create a Canadian navy
Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins: born June 20, 1861, Eastbourne, East Sussex, Eng. died May 16, 1947, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire British biochemist. He discovered the amino acid tryptophan (1901) and showed that it and certain others are essential in the diet and cannot be made in the body from other substances. For his discovery of vitamins, he shared a 1929 Nobel Prize with Christiaan Eijkman. He demonstrated that working muscles accumulate lactic acid and isolated the tripeptide (see peptide) glutathione (1922) and showed that it is vital to utilization of oxygen by cells. He was knighted in 1925
Sir Frederick Grant Banting: born Nov. 14, 1891, Alliston, Ont., Can. died Feb. 21, 1941, Nfd. Canadian physician. He taught at the University of Toronto from 1923. With Charles Best, he was the first to obtain a pancreatic extract of insulin (1921), which, in the laboratory of J.J.R. Macleod, they isolated in a form effective against diabetes. Banting and Macleod received a 1923 Nobel Prize for the discovery of insulin; Banting voluntarily shared his portion of the prize with Best
Sir Frederick Grant Banting: {i} (1891-1941) Canadian physiologist who shared the 1923 Nobel prize for medicine and physiology with John James Macleod for the discovery of insulin
Sir Frederick William Borden: born May 14, 1847, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia died Jan. 6, 1917, Canning, Nova Scotia, Can. Canadian politician. After studying at Harvard University, he returned to Nova Scotia to practice medicine. In 1874 he was elected as a Liberal Party member to the House of Commons, where he served almost continuously until 1911. As minister of militia and defense (1896-1911), he improved the training of the armed services and helped create a Canadian navy
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton: born Sept. 17, 1904, Guayaquil, Ecua. died Aug. 18, 1988, Sussex, Eng. Principal choreographer and director of England's Royal Ballet. After creating ballets from 1925 for the Ballet Club (later Ballet Rambert), he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (later Royal Ballet) in 1933, becoming principal choreographer, assistant director (1953-63), and director (1963-70). At least 30 of his works remain in its repertoire, including Façade (1931), Symphonic Variations (1946), and Birthday Offering (1956). He also choreographed for companies such as the Royal Danish Ballet (Romeo and Juliet, 1955) and the New York City Ballet (Illuminations, 1950)
Sir Galahad: in old stories, one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, who was very honest and morally good, and who found the Holy Grail. The name Sir Galahad is sometimes used to mean a man who behaves in a morally good and generous way
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. a long English poem written in the 14th century by an unknown poet. It is about Gawain, a brave knight in the time of King Arthur, and his adventures with a mysterious green knight. Arthurian Legend
Sir Geoffrey De Havilland: born July 27, 1882, Haslemere, Surrey, Eng. died May 21, 1965, Watford, Hertfordshire British aircraft designer and manufacturer. In 1910 he built and flew an airplane with a 50-horsepower engine. He formed his own company in 1920 and built the commercially successful two-seater Moth. In World War II the twin-engined Mosquito was the company's most successful product. After the war he pioneered the manufacture of jet-propelled airplanes with his Comet passenger jet and Vampire and Venom jet fighters
Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor: born March 7, 1886, London, Eng. died June 27, 1975, Cambridge British physicist. He taught at Cambridge University from 1911 to 1952. He made important discoveries in fluid mechanics, as well as significant contributions to the theory of the elastostatic stress and displacement fields created by dislocating solids, the quantum theory of radiation, and the interference and diffraction of photons
Sir Georg Solti: a British conductor, born in Hungary, who was the musical director of many important orchestras and had a very energetic style as a conductor (1912-97). orig. György Stern Solti born Oct. 21, 1912, Budapest, Hung. died Sept. 5, 1997, Antibes, France Hungarian-born British conductor. After making his piano debut at age 12, he studied piano with Béla Bartók and composition with Zoltán Kodály. He was Arturo Toscanini's assistant at Salzburg (1936-37). In Switzerland when World War II broke out, he returned to piano, winning the 1942 Geneva International Competition. He led the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (1945-52), and then he moved to Frankfurt (1952-61). As director of Covent Garden (1961-71), he made the first complete recording of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle (1958-65), which remains one of the celebrated recordings of all time. Under Solti (1969-91), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra won extraordinary praise and success
Sir George Abraham Grierson: born Jan. 7, 1851, County Dublin, Ire. died March 9, 1941, Camberley, Surrey, Eng. Anglo-Irish civil servant and linguist. While holding a succession of British government posts in Bengal (1873-98), Grierson carried out pioneering research on South Asian, particularly Indo-Aryan, languages. In 1898 he began work on the 19-volume Linguistic Survey of India and spent the next 30 years publishing data on hundreds of languages and dialects. His work was of enormous value; nevertheless, his hypothetical linguistic constructs such as "Rajasthani," "Bihari," and "Lahnda" misled most nonspecialists
Sir George Carteret: born 1610, probably Jersey, Channel Islands, Eng. died January 1680, New Jersey British politician and colonial proprietor. His naval exploits and service as lieutenant governor of the Channel Island of Jersey won him a knighthood (1644) and baronetcy (1645). After the 1660 Restoration he became a powerful administrator and legislator. In 1663 he became one of eight original proprietors granted the area of Carolina; in 1664 he received half of New Jersey, named for his birthplace. The other owner sold out to the Quakers in 1674. With the Quakers, Carteret agreed to divide the colony. After Carteret's death, his heirs sold the remaining portion to the Quakers
Sir George Cayley: born Dec. 27, 1773, Scarborough, Yorkshire, Eng. died Dec. 15, 1857, Brompton, Yorkshire British pioneer of aerial navigation and founder of the science of aerodynamics. By 1799 he had established the basic configuration of the modern airplane. He built his first model glider in 1804, and in 1809 he published his groundbreaking aerodynamic research. Further research into the effects of streamlining, stability, and wing design led to his construction of the first full-size glider, which flew briefly in 1853. Cayley also invented the caterpillar tractor (1825) and founded a polytechnic school in London (1839)
Sir George Etherege: born 1635, Maidenhead, Berkshire, Eng.? died May 10, 1692 British playwright. He is remembered as the creator of the Restoration comedy of manners. His first comedy, Love in a Tub (1664), was an immediate success and was novel in its lively exploitation of contemporary manners. He also wrote She Wou'd if She Cou'd (1668) and the popular The Man of Mode (1676). Though his own plays ceased to be performed after the 18th century, his style of comedy was adopted by later playwrights and persisted into modern times
Sir George Grove: born Aug. 13, 1820, London, Eng. died May 28, 1900, London British musicologist. He was trained as a civil engineer, and he erected lighthouses in Jamaica and Bermuda. He became secretary of the Crystal Palace in 1852, and he would write program notes for its concerts for 40 years. His extensive contributions to William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible led to his establishing the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1865. He served as editor of Macmillan's Magazine (1868-83). In 1873 he began work on his four-volume Dictionary of Music and Musicians; expanded to 20 volumes in subsequent editions, it is today the world's foremost music encyclopedia. He served as first director of the Royal College of Music (1883-92), an institution he was largely responsible for placing on a firm professional and physical foundation
Sir H Rider Haggard: born June 22, 1856, Bradenham, Norfolk, Eng. died May 14, 1925, London British novelist. After holding a series of official posts in South Africa (1875-81), he began writing stories set in Africa. Of his 34 colourful adventure novels, the best-known is King Solomon's Mines (1885); others include She (1887), Allan Quatermain (1887), Cleopatra (1889), and Ayesha (1905). Also a farmer, he wrote A Farmer's Year (1899) and Rural England (2 vol., 1902), and he was knighted in 1912 for his work on agricultural commissions
Sir Hans Adolf Krebs: born Aug. 25, 1900, Hildesheim, Ger. died Nov. 22, 1981, Oxford, Eng. German-born British biochemist. He fled Nazi Germany for England in 1933, where he taught at the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford. He was the first to describe the urea cycle (1932). He and Fritz Lipmann (1899-1986) received a 1953 Nobel Prize for their discovery in living organisms of the series of chemical reactions known as the tricarboxylic acid cycle (also called the citric acid cycle or Krebs cycle), a discovery of vital importance to a basic understanding of cell metabolism and molecular biology
Sir Harold Jeffreys: born April 22, 1891, Fatfield, Durham, Eng. died March 18, 1989, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire British astronomer and geophysicist. In astronomy, he established that the four large outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are very cold, devised models of their planetary structure, and studied the origin of the solar system and the theory of latitude. In geophysics, he investigated the thermal history of the Earth, was coauthor (1940) of the standard tables of travel times for earthquake waves, and was the first to hypothesize that the Earth's core is liquid. He explained the origin of monsoons and sea breezes and showed how cyclones are vital to the general circulation of the atmosphere. Jeffreys also worked on probability theory and on methods of general mathematical physics
Sir Harrison Birtwhistle: an English composer known for his modern music for voices and instruments, including Tragoedia and Ring a Dumb Carillon (1934- )
Sir Harrison Birtwistle: born July 15, 1934, Accrington, Lancashire, Eng. British composer. He began as a clarinetist, shifting to composition in his 20s. He cofounded the Pierrot Players with Peter Maxwell Davies (1967) but felt limited by the group's size. He concentrated on exploring large-scale time structures; his music's form is controlled by complex cyclical principles that he declined to discuss. His works include the theatre pieces Punch and Judy (1966-67), The Mask of Orpheus (1973-86), and Gawain (1991), and the orchestral works The Triumph of Time (1972), Silbury Air (1977), and Secret Theatre (1984)
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle: born July 15, 1934, Accrington, Lancashire, Eng. British composer. He began as a clarinetist, shifting to composition in his 20s. He cofounded the Pierrot Players with Peter Maxwell Davies (1967) but felt limited by the group's size. He concentrated on exploring large-scale time structures; his music's form is controlled by complex cyclical principles that he declined to discuss. His works include the theatre pieces Punch and Judy (1966-67), The Mask of Orpheus (1973-86), and Gawain (1991), and the orchestral works The Triumph of Time (1972), Silbury Air (1977), and Secret Theatre (1984)
Sir Henry Bessemer: {i} (1813-1898) English engineer, developer of the Bessemer process (process of producing steel)
Sir Henry Bessemer: born Jan. 19, 1813, Charlton, Hertfordshire, Eng. died March 15, 1898, London British inventor and engineer. Son of a metallurgist, he set up his own casting business at
Sir Henry Bessemer: At that time the only iron-based construction materials were cast iron and wrought iron. So-called steel was made by adding carbon to pure forms of wrought iron (see wootz); the resulting material was used almost entirely for cutting tools. During the Crimean War Bessemer worked to devise a stronger cast iron for cannon. The result was a process for the inexpensive production of large, slag-free ingots of steel as workable as any wrought iron. He eventually also discovered how to remove excess oxygen from the iron. The Bessemer process (1856) led to the development of the Bessemer converter. See also basic Bessemer process; R.F. Mushet; puddling process
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman: orig. Henry Campbell born Sept. 7, 1836, Glasgow, Scot. died April 22, 1908, London, Eng. British politician. A member of the House of Commons from 1868, he was elected leader of the Liberal Party in 1899 and served as prime minister (1905-08). His popularity unified his badly divided party. Though much of his legislative program was nullified by the House of Lords, he obtained approval of the Trades Disputes Act of 1906. He took the lead in granting self-government to the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, thereby securing the Boers' loyalty to the British Empire
Sir Henry Clinton: born April 16?, 1730? died Dec. 23, 1795, Cornwall, Eng. British commander in chief during the American Revolution. Commissioned in the British army in 1751, he went to North America in 1775 as second in command to William Howe. He commanded British troops to victories in New York and then succeeded to the supreme command on Howe's retirement in 1778. He led an offensive in the Carolinas in 1780 and effected the fall of Charleston. On his return to New York, he left Charles Cornwallis in charge of subsequent operations, which ultimately resulted in the British surrender after the Siege of Yorktown. He resigned in 1781 and returned to England, where he found himself blamed for the Yorktown defeat
Sir Henry Irving: orig. John Henry Brodribb born Feb. 6, 1838, Keinton Mandeville, Somerset, Eng. died Oct. 13, 1905, Bradford, Yorkshire British actor. He toured for 10 years with a stock company before making his London debut in 1866. With his success in The Bells (1871), he became a leading actor in H.L. Bateman's company (1871-77). As actor-manager of the Lyceum Theatre (from 1878), he made it London's most successful theatre. He formed a celebrated acting partnership with Ellen Terry that lasted until the company dissolved in 1902. They were noted for their Shakespearean roles, and their theatrical qualities complemented each other: he the brooding introvert, she the spontaneous charmer
Sir Henry James Sumner Maine: born Aug. 15, 1822, Kelso, Roxburgh, Scot. died Feb. 3, 1888, Cannes, France British jurist and legal historian. He taught civil law at the University of Cambridge (1847-54) and lectured on Roman law at the Inns of Court. These lectures became the basis of his Ancient Law (1861) and Early History of Institutions (1875), which influenced both political theory and anthropology. In 1869 he became the first professor of comparative jurisprudence at the University of Oxford; in 1887 he became professor of international law at Cambridge. As a member of the council of the governor-general of India (1863-69), he shaped plans for the codification of Indian law. He was knighted in 1871
Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer: later Baron Dalling and Bulwer of Dalling born Feb. 13, 1801, London, Eng. died May 23, 1872, Naples, Italy British diplomat. In the diplomatic service from 1829, he negotiated the Ponsonby Treaty (1838), which was advantageous to British trade with the Ottoman Empire. As ambassador to the U.S. (1849-52), he negotiated the controversial Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which was intended to resolve (but in fact aggravated) Anglo-American disputes in Latin America. In 1856 he played a major part in the negotiations following the Crimean War. His brother was the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Sir Henry Maine: born Aug. 15, 1822, Kelso, Roxburgh, Scot. died Feb. 3, 1888, Cannes, France British jurist and legal historian. He taught civil law at the University of Cambridge (1847-54) and lectured on Roman law at the Inns of Court. These lectures became the basis of his Ancient Law (1861) and Early History of Institutions (1875), which influenced both political theory and anthropology. In 1869 he became the first professor of comparative jurisprudence at the University of Oxford; in 1887 he became professor of international law at Cambridge. As a member of the council of the governor-general of India (1863-69), he shaped plans for the codification of Indian law. He was knighted in 1871
Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm: born Aug. 24, 1872, London, Eng. died May 20, 1956, Rapallo, Italy English caricaturist, writer, and dandy. His sophisticated drawings and parodies were unique in capturing, usually without malice, whatever was pretentious, affected, or absurd in his famous and fashionable contemporaries. His first literary collection, The Works of Max Beerbohm (1896), and his first book of drawings, Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen (1896), were followed by the charming fable The Happy Hypocrite (1897) and his only novel, Zuleika Dobson (1911), a burlesque of Oxford life. His story collection Seven Men (1919) is considered a masterpiece
Sir Henry Morgan: born 1635, Llanrhymney, Glamorgan, Wales died Aug. 25, 1688, probably Lawrencefield, Jam. Welsh buccaneer. In the second Anglo-Dutch War, he commanded buccaneers against the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean. After capturing Puerto Príncipe in Cuba and sacking the city of Portobelo, he set out in 1670 with 36 ships and 2,000 buccaneers to capture the major Spanish colonial city of Panamá, defeated a large Spanish force, and sacked and burned the city. On the return journey, he deserted his followers and took most of the booty. In 1674 he was knighted and sent to Jamaica as deputy governor. An exaggerated account of Morgan's exploits created his popular reputation as a bloodthirsty pirate
Sir Henry Morton Stanley: orig. John Rowlands born Jan. 28, 1841, Denbigh, Denbighshire, Wales died May 10, 1904, London, Eng. British-U.S. explorer of central Africa. An illegitimate child, Stanley grew up partly in a British workhouse; he sailed to the U.S. as a cabin boy in 1859. After becoming a journalist for the New York Herald in 1867, he embarked (1871) on a journey to locate David Livingstone, of whom little had been heard since his departure for Africa in 1866. On finding him at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, Stanley uttered the famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" He further explored central Africa for extended periods between 1874 and 1884, often in the service of Leopold II of Belgium, for whom he paved the way for the creation of the Congo Free State. Stanley's last expedition (1888) was for the relief of Mehmed Emin Pasha, who had been cut off by the Mahdist revolt in the Sudan; he escorted Emin and 1,500 others to the eastern coast. His highly popular books include Through the Dark Continent (1878) and In Darkest Africa (1890)
Sir Henry Raeburn: born March 4, 1756, Stockbridge, Scot. died July 8, 1823, Edinburgh Scottish portrait painter. Though apprenticed early to a goldsmith, he lacked formal training as a painter. He worked principally as a miniaturist and evolved a distinctive style of oil portraiture, painting directly on the canvas without preliminary drawings. His portraits are characterized by a vigorous handling of paint and vivid and experimental lighting effects, usually from behind the sitters' heads. He was elected president of the Edinburgh Society of Artists (1812) and Royal Academician (1815), knighted in 1822, and appointed His Majesty's Limner for Scotland (1822)
Sir Henry Rider Haggard: born June 22, 1856, Bradenham, Norfolk, Eng. died May 14, 1925, London British novelist. After holding a series of official posts in South Africa (1875-81), he began writing stories set in Africa. Of his 34 colourful adventure novels, the best-known is King Solomon's Mines (1885); others include She (1887), Allan Quatermain (1887), Cleopatra (1889), and Ayesha (1905). Also a farmer, he wrote A Farmer's Year (1899) and Rural England (2 vol., 1902), and he was knighted in 1912 for his work on agricultural commissions
Sir Henry Vane: v. known as Sir Henry Vane the Younger born 1613 died June 14, 1662, London, Eng. English politician. Son of the royal adviser Henry Vane the Elder (1589-1655), he was converted to Puritanism and in 1635 sailed to New England, where he served as governor of Massachusetts (1636-37). After returning to England, he became treasurer of the navy (1639), then served with his father in the Long Parliament, where they helped secure the impeachment of Thomas Wentworth, 1st earl of Strafford. The chief English negotiator of the Solemn League and Covenant, Vane became leader of the House of Commons (from 1643) and a member of the Commonwealth's Council of State (1649-53). After the Restoration, he was arrested, imprisoned (1660-62), and executed for treason
Sir Henry Wood: a British conductor (=someone who directs a group of musicians) who started the Proms, a series of concerts which take place in London every summer (1869-1944)
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree: born Dec. 17, 1853, London, Eng. died July 2, 1917, London British actor-manager. A romantic actor with a gift for character roles and comedy, he made his London debut in 1878 and won favourable notice in The Private Secretary (1884). As manager of the Haymarket Theatre (1887-97), he directed and acted in lavish Shakespearean productions, which he continued as actor-manager of Her Majesty's Theatre (1897-1915). He produced notable stage versions of Charles Dickens's works. In 1904 he founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Sir Herbert Draper Beerbohm Tree: born Dec. 17, 1853, London, Eng. died July 2, 1917, London British actor-manager. A romantic actor with a gift for character roles and comedy, he made his London debut in 1878 and won favourable notice in The Private Secretary (1884). As manager of the Haymarket Theatre (1887-97), he directed and acted in lavish Shakespearean productions, which he continued as actor-manager of Her Majesty's Theatre (1897-1915). He produced notable stage versions of Charles Dickens's works. In 1904 he founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Sir Hiram Maxim: born Feb. 5, 1840, Sangerville, Maine, U.S. died Nov. 24, 1916, London, Eng. U.S.-British inventor. Son of a Maine farmer, he was apprenticed to a carriage maker. He became chief engineer of the U.S. Electric Lighting Co. (1878-81), for which he introduced carbon filaments for electric lightbulbs. At his lab in London he began working on a fully automatic machine gun; in 1884 he succeeded with a design that used the recoil of the barrel to eject the spent cartridges and reload the chamber. He also developed his own smokeless gunpowder, cordite. Soon every army was equipped with Maxim guns or adaptations. His other inventions included a hair-curling iron, a pneumatic gun, and an airplane (1894). His Maxim Gun Co. was eventually absorbed into Vickers, Ltd. His son Hiram Percy (1869-1936) invented the Maxim silencer for rifles, which he adapted to mufflers and other technologies, and designed the Columbia electric automobile
Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim: born Feb. 5, 1840, Sangerville, Maine, U.S. died Nov. 24, 1916, London, Eng. U.S.-British inventor. Son of a Maine farmer, he was apprenticed to a carriage maker. He became chief engineer of the U.S. Electric Lighting Co. (1878-81), for which he introduced carbon filaments for electric lightbulbs. At his lab in London he began working on a fully automatic machine gun; in 1884 he succeeded with a design that used the recoil of the barrel to eject the spent cartridges and reload the chamber. He also developed his own smokeless gunpowder, cordite. Soon every army was equipped with Maxim guns or adaptations. His other inventions included a hair-curling iron, a pneumatic gun, and an airplane (1894). His Maxim Gun Co. was eventually absorbed into Vickers, Ltd. His son Hiram Percy (1869-1936) invented the Maxim silencer for rifles, which he adapted to mufflers and other technologies, and designed the Columbia electric automobile
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole: born March 13, 1884, Auckland, N.Z. died June 1, 1941, near Keswick, Cumberland, Eng. British novelist, critic, and dramatist. A natural storyteller, Walpole turned to writing and reviewing books after unsuccessful attempts at teaching and lay reading in the Anglican church. Among his important novels is the semiautobiographical series that includes Jeremy (1919), Jeremy and Hamlet (1923), and Jeremy at Crale (1927). The Herries Chronicle, about an English country family, comprises Rogue Herries (1930), Judith Paris (1931), The Fortress (1932), and Vanessa (1933). He also wrote critical works on Anthony Trollope, Walter Scott, and Joseph Conrad
Sir Hugh Thomas Munro: {i} (1856-1919) avid English mountaineer who was brought up in Scotland and after whom the Munro hills were named
Sir Hugh Walpole: born March 13, 1884, Auckland, N.Z. died June 1, 1941, near Keswick, Cumberland, Eng. British novelist, critic, and dramatist. A natural storyteller, Walpole turned to writing and reviewing books after unsuccessful attempts at teaching and lay reading in the Anglican church. Among his important novels is the semiautobiographical series that includes Jeremy (1919), Jeremy and Hamlet (1923), and Jeremy at Crale (1927). The Herries Chronicle, about an English country family, comprises Rogue Herries (1930), Judith Paris (1931), The Fortress (1932), and Vanessa (1933). He also wrote critical works on Anthony Trollope, Walter Scott, and Joseph Conrad
Sir Humphrey Davy: a British scientist who invented the Davy lamp, an oil lamp that could be used in coal mines without causing explosions. He also discovered several elements (=basic chemical substances) , including calcium, sodium, and potassium (1778-1829)
Sir Humphrey Gilbert: born 1539 died September 1583, at sea near the Azores English soldier and navigator. The half brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, he proposed in his Discourse (1566) a voyage in search of the Northwest Passage. Queen Elizabeth I rejected the idea and sent him to Ireland (1567-70), where he ruthlessly suppressed an uprising, for which he was knighted. In 1578 he set out with seven ships, intending to colonize North America, but through his poor leadership some ships returned to England and others turned to piracy. He sailed again in 1583, this time arriving in Newfoundland, which he claimed in the name of the queen
Sir Humphry Davy: born Dec. 17, 1778, Penzance, Cornwall, Eng. died May 29, 1829, Geneva, Switz. English chemist. By his early 20s his work on gases had established his reputation. His discovery of the anesthetic effect of nitrous oxide in 1799 was a major contribution to surgery. He also did early research on voltaic cells and batteries, tanning, electrolysis, and mineral analysis. In Elements of Agricultural Chemistry (1813) he became the first to apply chemical principles systematically to farming. He was the first to isolate potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, magnesium, and calcium; he also discovered boron and studied chlorine and iodine extensively. He analyzed many pigments and proved that diamond is a form of carbon. He was one of the greatest exponents of the scientific method. His research on mine explosions and flame and his invention of the safety lamp brought him great prestige, and in 1820 he was made president of the Royal Society of London
Sir Ian McKellen: born May 25, 1939, Burnley, Lancashire, Eng. British actor. Educated at Cambridge University, he made his professional stage debut in 1961 and won acclaim as Richard II and Edward II at the Edinburgh Festival in 1969. He cofounded the Actors' Co. in 1971 but left in 1974 to join the Royal Shakespeare Co. A versatile and passionate actor, he has played in a repertory ranging from Elizabethan to contemporary. In 1981 he won a Tony Award for Amadeus. His films include Plenty (1985), Scandal (1988), Richard III (1995), and Gods and Monsters (1998), and in 2001 he played the wizard Gandalf in the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. He has been a vocal supporter of gay rights since 1988. He was knighted in 1991
Sir Ian Murray McKellen: born May 25, 1939, Burnley, Lancashire, Eng. British actor. Educated at Cambridge University, he made his professional stage debut in 1961 and won acclaim as Richard II and Edward II at the Edinburgh Festival in 1969. He cofounded the Actors' Co. in 1971 but left in 1974 to join the Royal Shakespeare Co. A versatile and passionate actor, he has played in a repertory ranging from Elizabethan to contemporary. In 1981 he won a Tony Award for Amadeus. His films include Plenty (1985), Scandal (1988), Richard III (1995), and Gods and Monsters (1998), and in 2001 he played the wizard Gandalf in the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. He has been a vocal supporter of gay rights since 1988. He was knighted in 1991
Sir Isaac Newton: a British physicist and mathematician who discovered gravity (=the force that causes things to fall towards the ground or to be pulled towards stars or planets in space). He made many other important scientific discoveries, and is one of the most important scientists who ever lived. Until the early 20th century, modern physics was based on Newton's work, and it is sometimes called Newtonian physics (1642-1727). born Jan. 4, 1643, Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, Eng. died March 31, 1727, London English physicist and mathematician. The son of a yeoman, he was raised by his grandmother. He was educated at Cambridge University (1661-65), where he discovered the work of René Descartes. His experiments passing sunlight through a prism led to the discovery of the heterogeneous, corpuscular nature of white light and laid the foundation of physical optics. He built the first reflecting telescope in 1668 and became a professor of mathematics at Cambridge in 1669. He worked out the fundamentals of calculus, though this work went unpublished for more than 30 years. His most famous publication, Principia Mathematica (1687), grew out of correspondence with Edmond Halley. Describing his works on the laws of motion (see Newton's laws of motion), orbital dynamics, tidal theory, and the theory of universal gravitation, it is regarded as the seminal work of modern science. He was elected president of the Royal Society of London in 1703 and became the first scientist ever to be knighted in 1705. During his career he engaged in heated arguments with several of his colleagues, including Robert Hooke (over authorship of the inverse square relation of gravitation) and G.W. Leibniz (over the authorship of calculus). The battle with Leibniz dominated the last 25 years of his life; it is now well established that Newton developed calculus first, but that Leibniz was the first to publish on the subject. Newton is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time
Sir Isaiah Berlin: born June 9, 1909, Riga, Latvia died Nov. 5, 1997, Oxford, Eng. Latvian-born British political philosopher and historian of ideas. His family immigrated to Britain in 1920. Educated at the University of Oxford, Berlin taught there from 1950 to 1967, serving as president of Wolfson College from 1966 to 1975 and thereafter teaching at All Souls College. His writings on political philosophy are chiefly concerned with the problem of free will in increasingly totalitarian and mechanistic societies. His most important works include Karl Marx (1939), The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953), Historical Inevitability (1955), The Age of Enlightenment (1956), and Four Essays on Liberty (1969)
Sir J J Thomson: born Dec. 18, 1856, Cheetham Hill, near Manchester, Eng. died Aug. 30, 1940, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire English physicist. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he taught there at the Cavendish Laboratory (1884-1918), which he developed into a world-renowned institution, and was master of Trinity College (1918-40). In 1897 he showed that cathode rays are rapidly moving particles, and, by measuring their displacement by electric and magnetic fields, he determined that these particles were nearly 2,000 times less massive than the lightest known atomic particle. Originally called corpuscles by Thomson, the particles are now known as electrons. His discovery helped revolutionize the knowledge of atomic structure. In 1903 he suggested a discontinuous theory of light, foreshadowing Albert Einstein's later theory of photons. He later discovered isotopes and invented mass spectrometry. In 1906 Thomson received a Nobel Prize for his research into the electrical conductivity of gases. Throughout his life he was noted as an outstanding teacher, and seven of his assistants also became Nobel laureates
Sir Jacob Epstein: born Nov. 10, 1880, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 21, 1959, London, Eng. U.S.-born British sculptor. He studied in Paris and settled in England in 1905. His 18 nude figures known as the Strand Statues (1907-08) provoked charges of indecency; his nude angel on the tomb of Oscar Wilde (1912) in Paris was also attacked. In 1913 he became affiliated with Vorticism and developed a style characterized by simple forms and calm surfaces carved from stone; his works often partly retained the shape of the original block, or sometimes they were modeled in plaster. He is best known for religious and allegorical figures carved in colossal blocks of stone and for bronze portrait busts of celebrities. Occasionally he produced monumental bronze groups, such as St. Michael and the Devil (1958) for Coventry Cathedral
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray: born Feb. 7, 1837, Denholm, Roxburghshire, Scot. died July 26, 1915, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng. Scottish lexicographer. He taught in a grammar school (1855-85). His Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland (1873) and a major article on English for Encyclopædia Britannica (1878) established him as a leading philologist. He was hired by the Philological Society as editor of the vast New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, later called the Oxford English Dictionary, in 1879, and he applied himself to the work with legendary energy and resourcefulness. The first volume appeared in 1884, and by his death he had completed about half the dictionary

Turkish - English

Definition of sir in Turkish English dictionary: cabala; glaze; arcanum
sirs: (Tıp) sirs
efendim! Yes!/Sir!/Madam!/Ma'am!/Miss!: (used as a reply to someone who has called one's name and as a substitute for "Hello!" when answering the telephone). E

sir

Turkish pronunciation

sır

Pronunciation

/ˈsər/ /ˈsɜr/

Etymology

() Middle English sir Old French sire (“master, sir, lord”) Latin senior (“older, elder”) senex (“old”). Compare sire, signor, seignior, señor.

Tenses

siring, sired

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... Sir, at the front? ...

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sir

Definition of sir in English Turkish dictionary

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Definition of sir in Turkish Turkish dictionary

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Definition of sir in English English dictionary

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Definition of sir in Turkish English dictionary

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