Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

56 Oakley Street

LONDON SW10

Erected by: London County Council - 1935

Lived Here: 1904 - 1908

Helen Ross - Me

Robert Falcon Scott's
Blue Plaque

Scott was born on 6 June 1868, the third child out of six and elder son of John Edward and Hannah (née Cuming) Scott of Stoke Damerol near Devonport, Devon. Although his father was a brewer and magistrate, there were naval and military traditions in the family, Scott's grandfather and four uncles all having served in the army or navy. John Scott's prosperity came from the ownership of a small Plymouth brewery which he inherited from his father and which he subsequently sold. In later years, when Scott was establishing his naval career, the family would suffer serious financial misfortune, but his early childhood years were spent in comfort.

Robert Falcon Scott

In accordance with the family's tradition, Robert and his younger brother Archibald were predestined for careers in the armed services. Robert spent four years at a local day school before being sent to Stubbington House School, Hampshire a cramming establishment preparing candidates for the entrance examinations to the naval training ship HMS Britannia at Dartmouth. Having passed these exams Scott, aged 13, began his naval career in 1881, as a cadet.  

Scott made two expeditions to the north pole the first "The Discovery Expedition" 1901 - 1904 and the ill fated "Terra Nova Expedition" 1910 - 1913.  

The march south began on 1 November 1911, a caravan of mixed transport groups (motors, dogs, horses), with loaded sledges, travelling at different rates, all designed to support a final group of four men who would make a dash for the Pole. Scott had earlier outlined his plans for the southern journey to the entire shore party, without being specific about precise roles – no one knew who would form the final polar team. During the journey, Scott sent a series of conflicting orders back to base concerning the future use of the expedition's dogs, leaving it unclear whether they were to be saved for future scientific journeys or were to assist the polar party home. Scott's subordinates back at base were unsure of Scott's intentions, and consequently failed to use the dogs in a concerted attempt to relieve the returning polar party when the need arose.

The southbound party steadily reduced in size as successive support teams turned back. By 4 January 1912, the last two four-man groups had reached 87° 34′ S.^[65] Scott announced his decision: five men (Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans) would go forward, the other three (Teddy Evans, William Lashly and Tom Crean) would return. The chosen group marched on, reaching the Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by five weeks. Scott's anguish is indicated in his diary: "The worst has happened"; "All the day dreams must go"; "Great God! This is an awful place".

Scott's group took this photograph of themselves using a string to operate the shutter on 17 January 1912, the day after they discovered Amundsen had reached the pole first.

The deflated party began the 800-mile (1,300 km) return journey on 19 January. "I'm afraid the return journey is going to be dreadfully tiring and monotonous", wrote Scott on the next day. However, the party made good progress despite poor weather, and had completed the Polar Plateau stage of their journey, approximately 300 miles (500 km), by 7 February. In the following days, as the party made the 100-mile (160 km) descent of the Beardmore Glacier, the physical condition of Edgar Evans, which Scott had noted with concern as early as 23 January, declined sharply. A fall on 4 February had left Evans "dull and incapable", and on 17 February, after a further fall, he died near the glacier foot.

With 400 miles (670 km) still to travel across the Ross Ice Shelf, the party's prospects steadily worsened as, with deteriorating weather, frostbite, snow blindness, hunger and exhaustion, they struggled northward. On 16 March, Oates, whose condition was aggravated by an old war-wound to the extent that he was barely able to walk, voluntarily left the tent and walked to his death. Scott wrote that Oates' last words were "I am just going outside and may be some time".

Roald Amundsen

After walking a further 20 miles, the three remaining men made their final camp on 19 March, 11 miles (18 km) short of One Ton Depot, but 24 miles (38 km) beyond the original intended location of the depot. The next day a fierce blizzard prevented their making any progress. During the next nine days, as their supplies ran out, with frozen fingers, little light, and storms still raging outside the tent, Scott wrote his final words, although he gave up his diary after 23 March, save for a final entry on 29 March, with its concluding words: "Last entry. For God's sake look after our people". He left letters to Wilson's mother, Bowers' mother, a string of notables including his former commander Sir George Egerton, his own mother and his wife. He also wrote his "Message To The Public", primarily a defence of the expedition's organisation and conduct in which the party's failure is attributed to weather and other misfortunes, but ending on an inspirational note, with these words:

We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last ... Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.

Robert Falcon Scott's Burial Place

Scott is presumed to have died on 29 March 1912, possibly a day later. The positions of the bodies in the tent when it was discovered eight months later suggested that Scott was the last of the three to die.

King Henry VIII

King Henry VIII
Chelsea Studios
Cheyne Walk 
LONDON SW10
Erected by ?????
Lived Here ????

Helen Ross - Me

Chelsea Manor

Sandys, a royal official and courtier created Baron Sandys in 1523, conveyed the manor of Chelsea to Henry VIII in May 1536 as part of an exchange, and the king acquired Westminster Abbey's rent-charge and overlordship with property in Westminster as part of another exchange that year, giving the Crown absolute title to Chelsea manor.  

Henry VII - Blue Plaque

Chelsea was granted to Queen Catherine Parr for life in 1544 as part of her jointure.  After Henry's death she married her former suitor, Sir Thomas Seymour, the Lord Admiral and Baron Seymour of Sudeley, but died after childbirth in 1548; Seymour was executed for treason in 1549 and Chelsea reverted to the Crown. 

Short Biography and facts about the life of King Henry VIII - Father of Queen Elizabeth I

The following biography information provides basic facts and information about the life King Henry VIII:

• Nationality: English
• Father of Queen Elizabeth I
• Lifespan: 1491 - 1547
• Born: 28 June 1491
• He the second son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and he was born on 28 June 1491 at Greenwich, London, England
• Succeeded to the throne of England: 21 April 1509
• Reigned: 1509 - 1547
• Marriages: King Henry VIII married six times
• Died: 28 January 1547 - The body of King Henry VIII  was interred with his third wife, Jane Seymour, the beloved mother of his son and heir
• Family connections: Son of Henry VII the first Tudor King
• Religion: In his early life he was a devout Catholic given the title 'Defender of the Faith' by the Pope. Following his liaison with Anne Boleyn he then changed to the Protestant religion, dissolved all the monasteries in Britain and established the Church of England  
• Character of King Henry VIII : As a young man in his early life he was flamboyant, studious but fun loving. In his later life he was cruel, arrogant and a hypocrite
  
  
  

  

  Chelsea Manor

  The following is a first hand description of King Henry VIII made in a dispatch from the Venetian diplomat Pasqualigo in 1515:
  His Majesty is the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on; above the usual height, with an extremely fine calf to his leg, his complexion very fair and bright, auburn hair combed straight and short, in the French fashion, and a round face so very beautiful that it would become a pretty woman, his throat being rather long and thick.... He will enter his twenty-fifth year the month after next. He speaks French, English and Latin, and a little Italian, plays well on the lute and harpsichord, sings from book at sight, draws the bow with greater strength than any man in England and jousts marvelously... a most accomplished Prince.
  As a young man Henry was the second son and was prepared for a life in the church. The death of his elder brother Arthur changed the fate of Henry. In his early life he enjoyed physical activites including hunting, hawking, horseback riding, jousting, tennis, archery and wrestling. He was alos well educated and intelligent and enjoyed writing and composing music. Henry VIII loved court life with its pageants, dancing and masques. A leg injury incurred whilst he was riding led to a festering ulcer in his led and considerably reduced his physical exercise in Henry VIII's later life. He gave in to excess in eating and drinking and became a huge, bloated figure
  
  
  
  
  Henry VIII is buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor
  
  
  

  

  
  

Philip Wilson Steer

Philip Wilson Steer

109 Cheyne Walk

LONDON SW10

Erected by: Greater London Council in 1967

Lived Here: ???

Me - Helen Ross

Philip Wilson Steer
Self Portrait

Philip Wilson Steer OM (28 Dec 1860 – 18 March 1942) was a British painter of landscape and occasional portraits and figure studies. He was a leading figure in the Impressionist movement in Britain.

Philip Wilson Steer was born on 28 December 1860 in Birkenhead, in Merseyside, near Liverpool. He was the son of the portrait-painter, Philip Steer (1810-1871).  After finding the examinations of the British Civil Service too demanding, he became an artist in 1878. He studied at the Gloucester School of Art and then from 1880 to 1881 at the South Kensington Drawing Schools. He was rejected by the Royal Academy of Art, and so studied in Paris between 1882 and 1884, firstly at the Académie Julian, and then in the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Cabanel, where he became a follower of the Impressionist School.   Between 1883 and 1885 he exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1886 he became a founder of the New English Art Club, with whom he continued to exhibit regularly. Between 1893 and 1930 he taught painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. He lived in Chelsea, but in the summers painted in Yorkshire, the Cotswolds and the West Country and on the south and east coasts of Britain.  During World Wart 1 he was recruited by Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Information, to paint pictures of the Royal Navy.  

Children Shrimping
Philip Wilson Steer

In 1931 he was awarded the Order of Merit.  He died in London, 18 March 1942.  Steer is best known for his landscapes, such as 'The Beach at Walberswick' (1890; Tate Gallery, London), and 'Girls Running: Walberswick Pier' (1894, Tate Gallery, London). With Walter Sickert he became a leading British Impressionist. Besides the French Impressinists he was influenced by Whistler and also by such old masters as Boucher, Gainsborough, Constable and Turner. He also painted a number of portraits and figure studies (e.g. 'Portrait of Mrs. Raynes' (1922, Tate Gallery, London)  His self-portrait is in the collection in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.  He also taught such artists as Anna Airy, an etcher.

Howard Carter

Howard Carter
19 Collingham Gardens
LONDON SW5
Erected by: English Heritage in 1999
Lived Here: ???

Me - Helen Ross
Howard Carter's Blue Plaque

Howard Carter

Howard Carter (9 May 1874 – 2 March 1939) was an English Archaeologist and Egyptologist, noted as a primary discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun.  Howard Carter was born in London, England, the son of Samuel Carter, an artist, and Martha Joyce (Sands) Carter.  In 1891, at the age of 17, a talented young artist, he was sent out to Egypt by the Egypt Exploration Fund to assist Percy Newberry in the excavation and recording of Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan. Even at that young age he was innovative in improving the methods of copying tomb decoration. In 1892 he worked under the tutelage of Flinders Petrie for one season at Amarna, the capital founded by the pharaoh Akhenaten. From 1894 to 1899 he then worked with Edouard Naville at Deir el Bahri, where he recorded the wall reliefs in the temple of Hatshepsut.  In 1899, Carter was appointed the first chief inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS). He supervised a number of excavations at Thebes (now known as Luxor) before he was transferred in 1904 to the Inspectorate of Lower Egypt. Carter resigned from the Antiquities Service in 1904 as a result of an affray between Egyptian site guards and a group of French tourists, in which he sided with the Egyptian personnel.  After three hard years, Carter was  employed by Lord Carnarvon supervise his excavations from 1907.  

 The intention of Gaston Maspero, who introduced the two, was to ensure that Carter imposed modern archaeological methods and systems of recording.  Carnarvon financed Carter's work in the Valley of the Kings from 1914, but it was interrupted by World War 1 until 1917, when serious work was resumed. After several years of fruitless searching, Carnarvon became dissatisfied with the lack of results and, in 1922, he gave Carter one more season of funding to find the tomb he was searching for.  On 4 November 1922, Carter's excavation group found the steps leading to Tutankhamun's tomb (subsequently designated KV62), by far the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings. He wired Carnarvon to come, and on 26 November 1922, with Carnarvon, Carnarvon's daughter, and others in attendance, Carter made the "tiny breach in the top left hand corner" of the doorway, and was able to peer in by the light of a candle and see that many of the gold and ebony treasures were still in place. He made the breach into the tomb with a chisel his grandmother had given him for his seventeenth birthday. She knew he would one day make an amazing archaeological discovery. He did not yet know at that point whether it was "a tomb or merely a cache", but he did see a promising sealed doorway between two sentinel statues. When Carnarvon asked "can you see anything?", Carter replied with the famous words: "Yes, wonderful things."  The next several months were spent cataloging the contents of the antechamber under the 'often stressful' oversight of Pierre Lacau, director general of the Department of Antiquities of Egypt. 





On 16 February 1923, Carter opened the sealed doorway, and found that it did indeed lead to a burial chamber, and he got his first glimpse of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. All of these discoveries were eagerly covered by the world's press, but most of their representatives were kept in their hotels; only H V Morton was allowed on the scene, and his vivid descriptions helped to cement Carter's reputation with the British public.  Carter's own notes and photographic evidence, indicate that he, Lord Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn Herbert entered the burial chamber shortly after the tomb's discovery and before the official opening.The clearance of the tomb with its thousands of objects continued until 1932. Following his sensational discovery Howard Carter retired from archaeology and became a part-time agent for collectors and museums, He gave a series of illustrated lectures in New York City and other cities in the United States which were attended by very large and enthusiastic audiences, sparking Egyptomania in America.  He died of lymphoma, a type of cancer, in Kensington, London, on 2 March 1939 at the age of 64. The archaeologist's death so long after the opening of the tomb, despite being the leader of the expedition, is the piece of evidence most commonly put forward by sceptics to refute the idea of a "curse of the pharaohs" plaguing the party that violated Tutankhamun's tomb.  Carter is buried in the Putney Vale Cemetery in London.  On his gravestone is written: "May your spirit live, May you spend millions of years, You who love Thebes, Sitting with your face to the north wind, Your eyes beholding happiness" and "O night, spread thy wings over me as the imperishable stars"

Sir Alexander Fleming

Sir Alexander Fleming
2a Danvers Street
LONDON SW10
Erected by: Greater London Council
Lived Here: ???

Me - Helen Ross

Alexander Fleming - Blue Plaque

Sir Alexander Fleming was born at Lochfield near Darvel in Ayrshire, Scotland on August 6th, 1881. He attended Louden Moor School, Darvel School, and Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London where he attended the Polytechnic. He spent four years in a shipping office before entering St. Mary's Medical School, London University. He qualified with distinction in 1906 and began research at St. Mary's under Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy. He gained M.B., B.S., (London), with Gold Medal in 1908, and became a lecturer at St. Mary's until 1914. He served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps, being mentioned in dispatches, and in 1918 he returned to St.Mary's. He was elected Professor of the School in 1928 and Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology, University of London in 1948. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1943 and knighted in 1944.

Sir Alexander Fleming

Early in his medical life, Fleming became interested in the natural bacterial action of the blood and in antiseptics. He was able to continue his studies throughout his military career and on demobilization he settled to work on antibacterial substances which would not be toxic to animal tissues. In 1921, he discovered in «tissues and secretions» an important bacteriolytic substance which he named Lysozyme. About this time, he devised sensitivity titration methods and assays in human blood and other body fluids, which he subsequently used for the titration of penicillin. In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to further experiment and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times. He named the active substance penicillin.


Sir Alexander wrote numerous papers on bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy, including original descriptions of lysozyme and penicillin. They have been published in medical and scientific journals.


Fleming, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (England), 1909, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), 1944, has gained many awards. They include Hunterian Professor (1919), Arris and Gale Lecturer (1929) and Honorary Gold Medal (1946) of the Royal College of Surgeons; Williams Julius Mickle Fellowship, University of London (1942); Charles Mickle Fellowship, University of Toronto (1944); John Scott Medal, City Guild of Philadelphia (1944); Cameron Prize, University of Edinburgh (1945); Moxon Medal, Royal College of Physicians (1945); Cutter Lecturer, Harvard University (1945); Albert Gold Medal, Royal Society of Arts (1946); Gold Medal, Royal Society of Medicine (1947); Medal for Merit, U.S.A. (1947); and the Grand Cross of Alphonse X the Wise, Spain (1948).

He served as President of the Society for General Microbiology, he was a Member of the Pontifical Academy of Science and Honorary Member of almost all the medical and scientific societies of the world. He was Rector of Edinburgh University during 1951-1954, Freeman of many boroughs and cities and Honorary Chief Doy-gei-tau of the Kiowa tribe. He was also awarded doctorate, honoris causa, degrees of almost thirty European and American Universities.

Penicillin Molecule

In 1915, Fleming married Sarah Marion McElroy of Killala, Ireland, who died in 1949. Their son is a general medical practitioner.
Fleming married again in 1953, his bride was Dr. Amalia Koutsouri-Voureka, a Greek colleague at St. Mary's.


In his younger days he was a keen member of the Territorial Army and he served from 1900 to 1914 as a private in the London Scottish Regiment.

Memorial Stone
St Paul's Cathedral

Dr Fleming died on March 11th in 1955 and is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1964

Sylvia Pankhurst

Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst
120 Cheyne Walk
LONDON SW10
Erected by: Greater London Council in 1985
Lived Here:  ???

Me (Helen Ross)

Sylvia Pankhurst
Blue Plaque

Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882  – 27 September 1960) was an English campaigner for the Suffragist movement in the UK. She was for a time a prominent communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-facism.  

Sylvia Pankhurst

Sylvia Pankhurst was born in Manchester, daughter of Dr. Richard Pankhurst and Emmeline Pankhurst, both members of the Independent Labour Party and much concerned with women's rights. She and her sisters attended the Manchester High School for Girls. Her sister Christabel would also become an activist.Sylvia trained as an artist at the Manchester School of Art, and in 1900 won a scholarship to the Royal Colllege of Art in South Kensington.  In 1906 Sylvia gave up her art studies and worked full-time for the WSPU.  Later that year she suffered her first imprisonment after protesting in court at a trial in which women had not been allowed to speak in their own defence.

Sylvia Pankhurst
Released from Prison

During the 1st World War, Sylvia was horrified to see her mother and her sister Christabel become enthusiastic supporters of the war drive, and campaigning in favour of military conscription. She herself was opposed to the war. Her organization attempted to organize the defence of the interests of women in the poorer parts of London. They set up "cost-price" restaurants to feed the hungry, without the taint of charity. They also established a toy factory in order to give work to women who had become unemployed because of the war.   Sylvia worked incessantly to defend soldiers' wives rights to decent allowances while their partners were away, both practically by setting up legal advice centres, and politically by running campaigns to oblige the government to take into account the poverty of soldiers' wives.   She was an important figure in the communist movement at the time and attended meetings of the International in Russia and Amsterdam and also those of the Italian Socialist Party. She disagreed with Lenin on important points of Communist theory and strategy and was supportive of "left communists" such as Anton Pannekoek.  


Sylvia Pankhurst objected to entering into a marriage contract and taking a husband's name. At about the end of the First World War, she began living with Italian anarchist Silvo Corio and moved to London.  In 1927 she gave birth to a son, Richard. As she refused to marry the child's father.  Her own mother, Emmeline Pankhurst, broke with her and did not speak to her again.  

Sylvia Pankhurst Speaks at
Anti Nazi March - Circa 1936

In the early 1930s, Pankhurst drifted away from communist politics but remained involved in movements connected with anti-facism and anti-colonialism. In 1932 she was instrumental in the establishment of the Socialist Workers' National Health Council. She responded to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia by publishing The New Times & Ethiopia News, and became a supporter of Haile Selassie. She raised funds for Ethiopia's first teaching hospital and wrote extensively on Ethiopian Art & Culture; her research was published as Ethiopia, a Cultural History (London: Lalibela House, 1955).  From 1936, MI5 kept a watch on Pankhurst's correspondence. In 1940, she wrote to Viscount Swinton as the chairman of a committee investigating Fifth Columnists, sending him a list of active Fascists still at large and of anti-Fascists who had been interned. A copy of this letter on MI5's file carries a note in Swinton's hand, reading "I should think a most doubtful source of information."  


After the post-war liberation of Ethiopia, she became a strong supporter of union between Ethiopia and the former Italian Somaliland, and MI5's file continued to follow her activities. In 1948, MI5 considered strategies for "muzzling the tiresome Miss Sylvia Pankhurst".  

Sylvia Pankhurst & Haile Selassie

Pankhurst became a friend and adviser to the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and followed a consistently anti-British stance. She moved to Addis Ababa at Haile Selassie's invitation in 1956 with her son, Richard, (who continues to live there), and founded a monthly journal, Ethiopia Observer, which reported on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development.


She died in 1960, and was given a full state funeral at which Haile Selassie named her "an honorary Ethiopian". She is the only foreigner buried in front of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, in the area reserved for patriots of the Italian war.

Sylvia Pankhurst's Grave
Addis Ababa

Baron Marochetti

Baron Carlo Marochetti            

34 Onslow Square

LONDON SW10

Erected by: English Heritage - April 2010

Lived Here: 1851-1867

Me (Helen Ross)

Carlos Marochetti
Blue Plaque

Carlo Marochetti was born on 4 January 1805. His first teachers were Francois Joseph Bosio and Antoine-Jean Gros in Paris.

He followed the French king Louis-Philippe into exile in the United Kingdom after the fall of the July Monarchy in 1848. From 1832 to 1848 he lived in France.

Baron Carlos Marochetti

He spent the greater part of his time from then until his death in London. He lived in Onslow Square, and had a large studio, and his own foundry, nearby in Sydney Mews. Among his chief works were statues of Queen Victoria, Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde (erected 1867 in Waterloo Place), and Richard the Lionheart. The equestrian statue of Richard the Lionheart was displayed in the Great Exhibition, and a bronze copy was made in 1860 to be displayed in front of the Palace of Westminster, where it has remained ever since.  He made many other famous statues which have been placed all over the world.  From 1864 he collaborated with Sir Edwin Landseer on the four bronze lions to be placed around the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, and cast them at his foundry.

Richard the Lionheart
Houses of Parliament

As a favourite sculptor of Queen Victoria, he was commissioned to make the seated figure of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. However the first version was rejected by the architect of the monument, Sir George Gilbert Scott and Marochetti died before a satisfactory second version could be completed.

Marochetti was created a baron by the King of Sardinia and was also a chevalier of the Legion of Honour He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy 1861 and a full academician in 1866.