WJoseph Hayes Acklen was an American slaveholder and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1878 to 1881.
WSimon Robert Armitage is an English poet, playwright and novelist who was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is also professor of poetry at the University of Leeds and succeeded Geoffrey Hill as Oxford Professor of Poetry when he was elected to the four-year part-time appointment from 2015 to 2019.
WRamana Athreya is a birdwatcher and an astronomer at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune. In 2006, he described a new species of bird, the Bugun liocichla from the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in western Arunachal Pradesh, North-east India. This discovery has been described by Birdlife as the most sensational ornithological discovery in India for more than half a century. He was awarded the Pakshishree award in 2009 for this discovery by the Government of Rajasthan. In May 2011, he was conferred the Whitley Award, one of seven awardees in the year for his work on conservation and involving communities in Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary.
WJohn James Audubon was an American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoral record of all the bird species of North America. He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations, which depicted the birds in their natural habitats. His major work, a color-plate book titled The Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon is also known for identifying 25 new species. He is the eponym of the National Audubon Society, and his name adorns a large number of towns, neighborhoods, and streets in every part of the United States. Dozens of scientific names first published by Audubon are currently in use by the scientific community.
WMark Robert Bailey, known professionally as Bill Bailey, is an English actor, comedian, musician and singer. He is known for his role as Manny in the sitcom Black Books and his appearances on the panel shows Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI, as well as for his stand-up comedy work. He plays a variety of musical instruments and incorporates music into his performances.
WEdward Frederic Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
WKenneth Harry Clarke, Baron Clarke of Nottingham,, often known as Ken Clarke, is a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 1992 to 1993 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1993 to 1997 as well as serving as deputy chair of British American Tobacco from 1998 to 2007. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Rushcliffe from 1970 to 2019 and was Father of the House of Commons between 2017 and 2019. The President of the Tory Reform Group since 1997, he is a one-nation conservative who identifies with economically and socially liberal views.
WWesley Earl Craven was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor, who was known for his pioneering work in the horror genre, particularly slasher films, where he mixed horror cliches with humor and satire. The cultural impact and influence of his work have dubbed him a “Master of Horror”.
WPeter Wilton Cushing was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition in his home country for his leading performances in the Hammer Productions horror films from the 1950s to 1970s, while earning international prominence as Grand Moff Tarkin in the original 1977 Star Wars.
WRobert Dougall, MBE was an English broadcaster and ornithologist, mainly known as a newsreader and announcer.
WRosalie Barrow Edge was an environmental advocate, New York socialite, suffragist, and amateur birdwatcher who in 1929 established the Emergency Conservation Committee to expose the conservation establishment's ineffectiveness, and strongly advocate for species preservation. In 1934 Edge also founded the world's first preserve for birds of prey — Hawk Mountain Sanctuary near Kempton, Pennsylvania. During the Great Depression, Edge was considered the United States' most militant conservationist. In 1948, a profile of her in The New Yorker described her as "the only honest, unselfish, indomitable hellcat in the history of conservation".
WIan Lancaster Fleming was a British writer, journalist and naval intelligence officer who is best known for his James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
WAnna Ford is an English former journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She first worked as a researcher, news reporter and later newsreader for Granada Television, ITN, and the BBC. Ford helped launch the British breakfast television broadcaster TV-am. She retired from broadcast news presenting in April 2006 and was a non-executive director of Sainsbury's until the end of 2012. Ford now lives in her home town of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.
WJonathan Earl Franzen is an American novelist, and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections, a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His novel Freedom (2010) garnered similar praise and led to an appearance on the cover of Time magazine alongside the headline "Great American Novelist". In 2021, Franzen published the first in a projected trilogy, Crossroads, which Becca Rothfeld of The Atlantic called "[his] best book yet."
WMartha Conger Neblett Hagar, known as Connie Hagar, was an American birdwatcher and naturalist whose observations were valued by professional ornithologists, particularly her early observations of hummingbirds on the Texas coast.
WJan Hamber is an American ornithologist and conservationist. While working at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in the 1970s, she became involved in the effort to save the California condor, and has been credited with playing a major role in the condor's survival in the wild. Hamber was the biologist who tracked the last known California condor in the wild, placing the phone call that led to its capture at the beginning of the successful captive breeding program that saved condors from becoming extinct.
WAlger Hiss was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before the trial Hiss was involved in the establishment of the United Nations, both as a U.S. State Department official and as a U.N. official. In later life he worked as a lecturer and author.
WAlexander James Jeffery Horne is a British comedian. Horne is the creator of BAFTA award-winning TV series Taskmaster, in which he also performs as the Taskmaster's assistant. He is the host and bandleader of The Horne Section, a comedic band. Horne runs the band's eponymous podcast and has appeared with them on their music variety show on BBC Radio 4 and TV channel Dave.
WLam Chiu-ying, SBS, also known by the nickname 'Black Ying', is a Hong Kong meteorologist, bird-watcher, conservationist and blogger. He was the director of the Hong Kong observatory 2003 through 2009. He is also an honorary fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, an Honorary University Fellow of the University of Hong Kong as well as the honorary president of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society. Microplanet 64288 Lamchiuying is named after Lam.
WErnest Bertram Lloyd was an English naturalist, humanitarian, vegetarian and campaigner for animal rights. He was the founder of the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports.
WJohn Peter McDonald (October 17, 1922 – November 19, 1993) was an American librarian. McDonald served as university librarian and director at the University of Connecticut and executive director of the Association of Research Libraries (1974–76).
WCharles Johnson Maynard was an American naturalist and ornithologist born in Newton, Massachusetts. He was a collector, a taxidermist, and an expert on the vocal organs of birds. In addition to birds, he also studied mollusks, moss, gravestones and insects. He lived in the house at 459 Crafts Street in Newton, Massachusetts, built in 1897 and included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 as the Charles Maynard House. The Charles Johnson Maynard Award is given out by the Newton Conservators, Inc.
WPatrick Rory McGrath is a British comedian, television personality, and writer. He came to prominence in the comedy show Who Dares Wins and was for many years a regular panelist on the game show They Think It's All Over. He acted in the sitcom Chelmsford 123 and appeared in the ITV reality show Sugar Free Farm.
WJohn Howard Moore was an American zoologist, philosopher, educator, humanitarian and socialist. He is considered to be an early, yet neglected, proponent of animal rights and ethical vegetarianism, and was a leading figure in the American humanitarian movement. Moore was a prolific writer, authoring numerous articles, books, essays, pamphlets on topics including animal rights, education, ethics, evolutionary biology, humanitarianism, socialism, temperance, utilitarianism and vegetarianism. He also lectured on many of these subjects and was widely regarded as a talented orator, earning the name the "silver tongue of Kansas" for his lectures on prohibition.
WJohn Eric Bartholomew,, known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984. Morecambe took his stage name from his home town, the seaside resort of Morecambe in Lancashire.
WElliot Anthony Morley is a British former Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Glanford and Scunthorpe from 1987 to 1997 and then Scunthorpe from 1997 to 2010. In 2009, he was accused by The Daily Telegraph of continuing to claim parliamentary expenses for a mortgage that had already been repaid. Morley was prosecuted and on 7 April 2011 pleaded guilty in Southwark Crown Court to two counts of false accounting, involving over £30,000. On 20 May 2011, he was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment. He was released from prison on 20 September 2011 having served a quarter of his sentence.
WSanjeeva Nayaka is an Indian lichenologist, currently working as Senior Principal Scientist at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute in Lucknow. He is also in charge of Algology Laboratory at the same institute, and secretary of the Indian Lichenological Society.
WCorina Newsome is an American ornithologist, birder, science communicator, and graduate student at Georgia Southern University. In response to the racism faced by Black birder Christian Cooper in Central Park, Newsome co-organized Black Birders Week to celebrate Black birders.
WWilliam Edgar Oddie is an English writer, comedian, songwriter, musician, artist, birder, conservationist, television presenter and actor. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies.
WAnna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is a Ghanaian-born American activist, writer, and economist. She is a co-founder and former CEO of the Sadie Collective, as well as a co-founder and co-organizer of Black Birders Week.
WPhoebe Snetsinger, was an American birder famous for having seen and documented birds of 8,398 different species, at the time, more than anyone else in history and the first person to see more than 8,000. Her memoir, Birding on Borrowed Time, explores this achievement. She traveled the world multiple times to find birds in their habitats. She was described as having had an excellent memory, and a strong competitive spirit.
WAlison Steadman is an English actress. She received the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film Life Is Sweet and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the ‘50 Greatest Actors’ voted for by other actors, she was ranked 42.
WJason Ward is an American naturalist, birder, and activist. He hosted the 2019 television documentary series Birds of North America, and is the co-founder and former CEO of "The BlackAFinSTEM Collective".