Gary Wallace

Samuel Ferguson, poet, antiquarian, barrister and archivist, was born in Belfast on 10 March 1810. He was the youngest of the six children of John and Agnes Ferguson. His father’s family had lived in Ulster since the seventeenth century but their property in county Antrim did not provide them much towards the children’s education.

Ferguson attended the Belfast Academical Institution where he became interested in Irish language poetry and the history and myths of Ireland. He began publishing his own poetry in 1830 with contributions to the Ulster Magazine. Regular contributions to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine started in 1832 with his poem The Forging of the Anchor, and he was an early contributor for the new Dublin University Magazine from 1833.

These publications provided Ferguson with an income during his student years. He studied law as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, but illness in 1834 prevented him from graduating. After resuming his studies at King’s Inns, Dublin in 1836, he was called to the bar in Ireland in 1838.

His career as a barrister left him with less time for writing, but Ferguson published poetry in anthologies such as The Ballad Poetry of Ireland in 1845. Following further illness in 1846, and the death of his father, Ferguson travelled through Europe for almost a year visiting sites of archaeological interest, libraries and museums.

After his return to Ireland Ferguson became involved with nationalism, founding the Protestant Repeal Movement which campaigned for the repeal of the Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland. His political lobbying ended with his marriage to Mary Guinness on 16 August 1848.

In 1865 Ferguson published his first book, Lays of the Ancient Gael and Other Poems, and was awarded an honorary LLD by Trinity College, Dublin. The epic poem Congal that Ferguson had been working on for thirty years was published in 1872 and a third book, Poems, appeared in 1880.

As deputy keeper of the records in Ireland from 1867, Ferguson was responsible for bringing together documents from parishes around Ireland to be stored in the Public Records Office at the Four Courts in Dublin. A fire during the 1922 civil war destroyed a large proportion of this central store of documents.

His work in the archives was rewarded in 1878 when he was knighted for his services. Another honorary LLD in 1884, this time from the University of Edinburgh, recognised his antiquarian work with the Royal Irish Academy, where his interest lay in ogham stone inscriptions. He had been president of the Academy since 1881.

But by this time his health was failing and, on 9 August 1886, Samuel Ferguson died of heart failure in Howth, near Dublin. He was buried at Donegore in county Antrim.

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Samuel Barber was born on 9 March 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, the son of Samuel, a doctor, and Marguerite, a pianist. Barber learned to play the piano at an early age and was soon composing. At the age of ten he wrote The Rose, a short opera.

As a part-time organist at Westminster Church in West Chester, Barber earned $100 per month at the age of only twelve. Two years later he was one of the first pupils to enrol at the new Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His studies there included composition, conducting, piano and singing.

Barber had a fine baritone voice and, while at the Curtis Institute, he considered becoming a professional singer. But he was destined for a career in composition. By the time he graduated, Barber had composed several outstanding works, including the Serenade for String Quartet and the song, Dover Beach.

Barber twice won the Bearns Prize from Colombia University, firstly for his Violin Sonata (1928) and then for The School for Scandal (1933), an orchestral overture based on a comedy by Richard Sheridan. The prize money took Barber to Rome where he studied and composed his (first) Symphony in One Movement.

In 1936 Barber wrote what was to become his most popular piece. The conductor Arturo Toscanini requested that the second movement from the String Quartet, a molto adagio, be arranged for string orchestra. The resulting Adagio for Strings was first performed by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1938 and was instantly and enduringly popular.

From 1939 Barber spent three years teaching composition and orchestration at the Curtis Institute before joining the Army Air Corps in 1942 for the duration of the Second World War. The Air Corps commissioned Barber’s Second Symphony (or Symphony Dedicated to the Air Forces) in 1943 and it was first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1944.

After the war Barber continued composing, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Music on two occasions, for his first full opera, Vanessa (1958), and for his Piano Concerto (1962). The libretti for Vanessa and his second opera, A Hand of Bridge, were written by his partner, and former fellow student at the Curtis Institute, Gian-Carlo Menotti.

A third opera in 1966, Antony and Cleopatra, based on the Shakespeare play, was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Association for the opening of its new opera house at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The performance was a disaster, mainly due to the excessively flamboyant production and libretto from its director, Franco Zeffirelli.

Following this failure, and despite a reworking of the libretto by Menotti in 1974, Barber wrote very little for the remaining years of his life. He struggled through periods of depression and retired to the Italian Alps.

Barber’s health deteriorated and he died of cancer in New York on 23 January 1981. He was buried next to his mother at Oaklands Cemetery in his home town of West Chester.

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The “Baroness” Raymonde de Laroche was born on 22 August 1886 as Elise Raymonde Deroche and was the daughter of a plumber. On becoming an actress and singer as a young woman, Elise Deroche took the stage name of Raymonde de Laroche.

An interest in engineering and flight led de Laroche to take up ballooning. In 1909, at a dinner with Charles Voisin, a pioneer of aviation, she was encouraged to take flying lessons in a fixed-wing aircraft.

Within days de Laroche was confident at the controls of the aircraft, taxiing up and down the airfield. The next stage of her training was to make short hops and, on 22 October 1909, de Laroche left the ground for a distance of 300 yards before landing safely. The following day she flew circuits of the airfield for a total distance of about four miles.

Reporting on these achievements, Flight magazine mistakenly gave her the title of “Baroness” in its article a week later. The title stuck to her for the rest of her life. Her pilot’s licence was awarded by the International Aeronautics Federation (FIA) on 8 March 1910. Licence number 36 was the first awarded to a female pilot.

Appearances at aviation meeting followed. After events in Heliopolis, Saint Petersburg, Budapest and Rouen, de Laroche attended a meeting at Reims. At this event, on 8 July 1910 she suffered serious injuries when her aircraft crashed.

She was not able to fly again for two years. Just after she returned to flying she was injured again, this time in an automobile accident that claimed the life of Charles Voisin. The following year, on 25 November 1913, de Laroche won the Femina Cup for a non-stop flight of over four hours.

During the First World War de Laroche served as a military driver but returned to flying after the armistice. In June 1919 she set the women’s altitude record, at 15,700 feet, and the women’s distance record, at 201 miles.

De Laroche longed to become the first female test pilot and so, on 18 July 1919, she co-piloted a new at Caudron aircraft at the Le Crotoy airfield. After the flight the aircraft went into a dive on its landing approach and crashed killing both de Laroche and pilot.

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Cuthbert Collingwood was born on 26 September 1748 in Newcastle upon Tyne, the eighth child of Cuthbert and Milcah Collingwood. He was the eldest of three sons. After a schooling at the Newcastle Free School, Collingwood went to sea on the Shannon at the age of twelve on 28 August 1761. He was accompanied by his brother, Wilfred, and they served together on various ships for the next twelve years.

Collingwood joined the Preston in 1774 under Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves and sailed for Boston. During the battle of Bunker Hill on 17 June 1775 the Preston landed supplies to the army. Collingwood’s actions on that day led to his immediate promotion to lieutenant.

Collingwood had been a friend of Horatio Nelson since 1773 and was destined to follow him into several posts. He succeeded Nelson as second lieutenant of the Lowestoffe (1778), in command of the Badger (1779) and in command of the Hinchinbroke (1780).

Time ashore was brief for Collingwood during his long career but, at the end of the American War of Independence, he spent a year ashore before being posted to the West Indies in command of the Mediator. After three years protecting the trade routes in the islands, Collingwood returned home and spent four years with his family in Northumberland.

After another brief command in the West Indies (1790-91) Collingwood married Sarah Blackett on 16 June 1791. The couple moved to Morpeth where their two daughters, Sarah and Mary Patience, were born, in 1792 and 1793 respectively.

With the outbreak of war with France in 1793, Collingwood returned to sea. Aboard the Barfleur under Rear-Admiral George Bowyer, Collingwood saw action in the battle of the Glorious First of June (1794). He took over command of Bowyer’s subdivision during the battle after the Rear-Admiral lost a leg but, despite his actions, he was not awarded the gold medal for the battle.

When gold medals were awarded to flag officers and captains after the battle of Cape St Vincent on 14 February 1797, against a much larger Spanish fleet, Collingwood refused to accept his unless he was also awarded a medal for the Glorious First of June. Both medals were sent to him by April 1797.

For the next few years Collingwood was involved in the blockades of the French and Spanish fleets at Brest and Cadiz. His career advanced as he was promoted to commodore (1797), rear-admiral of the white (1799) and rear-admiral of the red (1801).

Collingwood saw his wife and children for the last time on 3 June 1803. After the brief peace of Amiens, war broke out again in May 1803 and Collingwood continued the blockades. A further promotion to vice-admiral of the blue came in 1804 and on 21 May 1805 Collingwood left England for the last time.

After blockading Villeneuve’s fleet at Cadiz, Collingwood was joined by Nelson who took command of the British fleet. Collingwood transferred to the Royal Sovereign.

On 21 October 1805 twenty-seven British ships faced thirty-three French and Spanish at the battle of Trafalgar. The Royal Sovereign was the first to engage the enemy attacking the Spanish flagship, the Santa Ana. Collingwood’s ship took heavy damage and was unable to manoeuvre by the end of the battle.

After Nelson’s death, Collingwood took command of the fleet and transferred to the Euryalus. Nelson had intended to anchor the British ships and their captured prizes but this proved impossible for many due to battle damage. So Collingwood took the damaged ships in tow. Many were lost in severe gales but all of the British ships and four of the prizes arrived safely in Gibraltar.

Collingwood was promoted to vice-admiral of the red for his service. He was also created Baron Collingwood of Caldburne and Hethpoole, given a pension of £2000 per annum and awarded his third gold medal. Only Nelson and Sir Edward Berry matched this accumulation of gold medals for the war.

The final five years of his career and life were very tiring for Collingwood. As commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean fleet it was his duty to protect British trade while disrupting that of the enemy. His request to be relieved of duty due to ill-health in August 1808 was denied and so he continued his service.

Collingwood applied to return to England eigthteen months later but died on 7 March 1810 before his successor, Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, could relieve him. His body was returned to England and buried in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, close to Nelson, on 11 May.

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Gottlieb Daimler was born in Schorndorf, Württemberg on 17 March 1834. He trained as a gunsmith but had a fascination with engineering from an early age. After studying at the Stuttgart Polytechnic Institute he began a career in engineering.

The inventor of the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, Nikolaus A. Otto, employed Daimler as the technical director of his company, Deutz in Cologne, from 1872. Otto, Daimler and another engineer, Wilhelm Maybach, worked on refining the internal-combustion engine for use with road vehicles.

After a disagreement with Otto, Daimler left Deutz and was soon followed by Maybach. The two engineers set up their own company in 1882 and, by 1885, had patented a high-speed engine. That same year they attached their engine to a bicycle creating the world’s first motorcycle.

The following year Daimler and Maybach built a larger engine and used it to propel a four-wheeled carriage and, in 1887, used another engine in a boat. Then, in 1889, the pair placed an engine on the rear of a frame of light tubing and their first commercially viable automobile was born.

The Daimler Motor Company was formed in 1890 to sell the vehicles. They had a four-speed gearbox, wheels that were driven by belts and a top speed of 11 miles per hour. Daimler engines proved to be very reliable and production licences were granted to companies around the world, including Peugeot in France.

Daimler died in Cannstatt on 6 March 1900. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1978.

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James Montgomery Doohan was born in Vancouver, in the Canadian Province of British Columbia, on 3 March 1920. His parents, William and Sarah, had emigrated from Ireland and had three older children. The family later moved to Ontario where Doohan was educated at the Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School.

During the Second World War Doohan was a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery and took part in the D-Day landings on Juno Beach where he lost a finger to a bullet. Although he was not a member of the air force, he did fly during the war and earned a reputation as “the craziest pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force” after nearly crashing in Holland.

After the war Doohan studied acting in New York and, from 1953, appeared in 400 television episodes and 4000 radio shows in Canada. A move to Hollywood led to parts in television shows such as The Twilight Zone.

But it was the science fiction series Star Trek that gave Doohan his most memorable role as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise. Doohan tried out several accents for Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator, but chose Scottish because, in his opinion, “all the world’s best engineers have been Scottish”.

Star Trek was cancelled after three years and Doohan found himself typecast in Scottish roles despite his skill with a variety of accents. But he enjoyed meeting fans of the show on the convention circuit and often entertained them with a song. His public appearances and, from 1979, seven Star Trek films kept him financially secure.

His character in Star Trek regularly saved the ship and its crew with his engineering knowledge, and Doohan’s performance inspired a generation of students to make it their field of study. So many students at the Milwaukee School of Engineering cited Scotty as their inspiration that Doohan was awarded an honorary doctorate in Engineering.

Doohan was married three times and had seven children, the last at the age of eighty. After suffering from Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease later in life, Doohan died of pneumonia on 20 July 2005. Almost two years later, on 28 April 2007, a few grams of his ashes were sent into suborbital space for four minutes before returning to Earth.

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Frédéric François Chopin (or Fryderyk Franciszek Szopen in Polish) was born on 1 March 1810 in the Duchy of Warsaw to a French father and a Polish mother. His father, Nicholas, took work as a tutor to aristocratic families and later became a French teacher at the Warsaw lyceum.

Chopin loved music from an early age and, during his infancy, would listen to his mother and sister play the piano. He started piano lessons at the age of seven and was allowed to develop his own original style of playing. Chopin wrote his Polonaise in G Minor at this early age and made his first public performance at a charity concert aged just eight. At eleven he performed for Alexander I, the Russian tsar.

His individuality was further encouraged by the director of the Warsaw Conservatory of Music, Joseph Elsner, when Chopin was enrolled there at the age of sixteen. But his parents thought that he would benefit from experiencing life outside Warsaw, so he was sent to Vienna, via Berlin, where his performances were a great success. On returning home he wrote his two piano concertos.

A second visit to Vienna in 1830 coincided with the Polish revolt against Russian rule and so Chopin made his way to Paris. As the centre of European culture, Paris offered Chopin the company of other composers, such as Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz, and the freedom to teach and compose.

Chopin disliked performing for large crowds, but his sensitivity and elegance made him a favourite in the homes of the wealthy, playing small recitals and teaching. The financial security this brought allowed him to devote much of his time to composing.

It was in Paris in 1836 that Chopin met Aurore Dudevant, better known as the novelist George Sand. They began an affair in 1838 and Chopin accompanied Sand and her two children to a villa on Majorca for the winter. Here he became ill with tuberculosis, a condition that would cause him bouts of ill-health for the rest of his life.

For the next few years Chopin was happy and creative. He continued his teaching and wrote many of his best works during the summers spent at Sand’s country house at Nohant. But in 1847 his relationship with Sand ended and Chopin’s creativity declined.

The following year Chopin embarked on a tour of Britain and gave his last public performance at London’s Guildhall on 16 November 1848. Exhausted and ill, Chopin returned to Paris where he died of tuberculosis on 17 October 1849. His heart was sent to the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw while the rest of his body was buried at the cemetery of Père Lachaise.

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