103-419: The Ulster History Circle is a heritage organisation that administers Blue Plaques for the area that encompasses the province of Ulster on the island of Ireland . It is a voluntary, not-for-profit organisation, placing commemorative plaques in public places in honour of people and locations that have contributed to all genres of history within the boundaries of the nine-county province of Ulster. Founded in
206-909: A branch of the department store John Lewis . His family in the English Midlands can be traced back without interruption to Ralph de Buran who arrived in England with William the Conqueror in the 11th century. His land holdings are listed in the Domesday Book . Byron was the only child of Captain John Byron (known as 'Jack') and his second wife, Catherine Gordon , heiress of the Gight estate in Aberdeenshire , Scotland. Byron's paternal grandparents were Vice Admiral John Byron and Sophia Trevanion. Having survived
309-530: A coincidence in Byron's chartering the Hercules . The vessel was launched only a few miles south of Seaham Hall , where in 1815 Byron had married Annabella Milbanke. Between 1815 and 1823 the vessel was in service between England and Canada. Suddenly in 1823, the ship's Captain decided to sail to Genoa and offer the Hercules for charter. After taking Byron to Greece, the ship returned to England, never again to venture into
412-501: A crow, and a falcon; and all these, except the horses, walk about the house, which every now and then resounds with their unarbitrated quarrels, as if they were the masters of it... . [P.S.] I find that my enumeration of the animals in this Circean Palace was defective ... . I have just met on the grand staircase five peacocks, two guinea hens, and an Egyptian crane. I wonder who all these animals were before they were changed into these shapes. In 1821, Byron left Ravenna and went to live in
515-527: A deformed right foot; his mother once retaliated and, in a fit of temper, referred to him as "a lame brat". However, Byron's biographer, Doris Langley Moore , in her 1974 book Accounts Rendered , paints a more sympathetic view of Mrs Byron, showing how she was a staunch supporter of her son and sacrificed her own precarious finances to keep him in luxury at Harrow and Cambridge. Langley-Moore questions 19th-century biographer John Galt 's claim that she over-indulged in alcohol. Byron's mother-in-law, Judith Noel,
618-519: A duel; over time, in subsequent editions, it became a mark of prestige to be the target of Byron's pen. After his return from travels he entrusted R. C. Dallas, as his literary agent, with the publication of his poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage , which Byron thought to be of little account. The first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage were published in 1812 and were received with critical acclaim. In Byron's own words, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." He followed up this success with
721-565: A fever and died in Missolonghi on 19 April. His physician at the time, Julius van Millingen , son of Dutch–English archaeologist James Millingen , was unable to prevent his death. It has been said that if Byron had lived and had gone on to defeat the Ottomans, he might have been declared King of Greece . However, modern scholars have found such an outcome unlikely. The British historian David Brewer wrote that in one sense, Byron failed to persuade
824-445: A group with a particular interest in its subject. The London Borough of Southwark started its own blue plaque scheme in 2003, under which the borough awards plaques through popular vote following public nomination: living people may be commemorated. The London Borough of Islington has a similar green heritage plaque scheme, initiated in 2010. Other plaques may be erected by smaller groups, such as residents' associations . In 2007
927-511: A house on the coast and had a schooner built. Byron decided to have his own yacht, and engaged Trelawny's friend, Captain Daniel Roberts , to design and construct the boat. Named the Bolivar , it was later sold to Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington , and Marguerite, Countess of Blessington , when Byron left for Greece in 1823. Byron attended the beachside cremation of Shelley, which
1030-403: A large number of changes to the manuscript, and provided the reasoning for some of them. Dallas also stated that Byron had originally intended to prefix an argument to this poem, which Dallas quoted. Although it was published anonymously, that April R. C. Dallas wrote that "you are already pretty generally known to be the author". The work so upset some of his critics that they challenged Byron to
1133-545: A legal separation. Their separation was made legal in a private settlement in March 1816. The scandal of the separation, the rumours about Augusta, and ever-increasing debts forced him to leave England in April 1816, never to return. After this break-up of his domestic life, and by pressure on the part of his creditors, which led to the sale of his library, Byron left England, and never returned. (Despite his dying wishes, however, his body
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#17328524440561236-508: A letter: Lord Byron gets up at two. I get up, quite contrary to my usual custom ... at 12. After breakfast we sit talking till six. From six to eight we gallop through the pine forest which divide Ravenna from the sea; we then come home and dine, and sit up gossiping till six in the morning. I don't suppose this will kill me in a week or fortnight, but I shall not try it longer. Lord B.'s establishment consists, besides servants, of ten horses, eight enormous dogs, three monkeys, five cats, an eagle,
1339-521: A link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker . The term is used in the United Kingdom in two senses. It may be used narrowly and specifically to refer to the "official" scheme administered by English Heritage , and for much of its history restricted to sites within Greater London ; or it may be used less formally to encompass
1442-474: A marketing tool for English Heritage". The vice chair Dr Celina Fox and Dr Margaret Pelling stated that the scheme was "being dismantled and its previous achievements discredited". In April 2015, English Heritage was divided into two parts, Historic England (a statutory body), and the new English Heritage Trust (a charity, which took over the English Heritage operating name and logo). Responsibility for
1545-678: A member of the Windrush generation . In Northern Ireland , Belfast City Council and the Ulster History Circle are among a small number of groups administering blue plaques. Established in 1983, the Ulster History Circle has erected around 260. Its scope extends into the Republic of Ireland , covering all nine counties of Ulster , the northern province in Ireland . Elsewhere in
1648-507: A minimum of 20 years having passed since the death of the nominee, who must have made a significant contribution to human welfare or happiness. At least one surviving building must be associated with the nominee in a form that they would have recognised and the building must be visible from the public highway. The first plaque in the scheme was unveiled in Ilkley , West Yorkshire on 23 February 2024, commemorating Daphne Steele , first Black matron in
1751-514: A number of similar schemes administered by organisations throughout the UK. The plaques erected are made in a variety of designs, shapes, materials and colours: some are blue, others are not. However, the term "blue plaque" is often used informally to encompass all such schemes. The "official" scheme traces its origins to that launched in 1866 in London, on the initiative of the politician William Ewart , to mark
1854-717: A plaque was the actor Sarah Siddons in 1876. The plaque, placed on her house in Marylebone , London, was retrieved when the house was demolished in 1905 and is now held in the Victoria and Albert Museum . In total, the Society of Arts put up 35 plaques, fewer than half of which survive today. The Society only erected one plaque within the square-mile of the City of London , that to Samuel Johnson on his house in Gough Square , in 1876. In 1879, it
1957-566: A potter, at his workshop in Chepstow , Wales. Each plaque is made entirely by hand. A small minority of GLC and English Heritage plaques have been erected to commemorate events which took place at particular locations rather than the famous people who lived there. In 1998, English Heritage initiated a trial national plaques scheme, and over the following years erected 34 plaques in Birmingham , Merseyside , Southampton and Portsmouth . The scheme
2060-659: A project he initiated of a grammar of Classical Armenian for English speakers, where he included quotations from classical and modern Armenian . Byron later helped to compile the English Armenian Dictionary ( Barraran angleren yev hayeren , 1821) and wrote the preface, in which he explained Armenian oppression by the Turkish pashas and the Persian satraps and the Armenian struggle of liberation. His two main translations are
2163-550: A result, she fell even further into debt to support his demands. One of these loans enabled him to travel to Valenciennes , France, where he died of a "long & suffering illness" – probably tuberculosis – in 1791. When Byron's great-uncle, who was posthumously labelled the "wicked" Lord Byron , died on 21 May 1798, the 10-year-old became the sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale and inherited the ancestral home, Newstead Abbey , in Nottinghamshire. His mother took him to England, but
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#17328524440562266-464: A series of elegies, in his memory. In later years, he described the affair as "a violent, though pure love and passion". This statement, however, needs to be read in the context of hardening public attitudes toward homosexuality in England and the severe sanctions (including public hanging) imposed upon convicted or even suspected offenders. The liaison, on the other hand, may well have been "pure" out of respect for Edleston's innocence, in contrast to
2369-470: A shipwreck as a teenage midshipman, Byron's grandfather set a new speed record for circumnavigating the globe. After he became embroiled in a tempestuous voyage during the American War of Independence , he became nicknamed 'Foul-Weather Jack' Byron by the press. Byron's father had previously been somewhat scandalously married to Amelia Osborne, Marchioness of Carmarthen , with whom he was having an affair –
2472-399: A suitable marriage, considering – amongst others – Annabella Millbanke . However, in 1813 he met for the first time in four years his half-sister, Augusta Leigh . Rumours of incest surrounded the pair; Augusta's daughter Medora (b. 1814) was suspected to have been Byron's child. To escape from growing debts and rumours, Byron pressed in his determination to marry Annabella, who was said to be
2575-507: A trial programme since discontinued, 34 plaques were erected elsewhere in England. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 extended the scheme to the whole of England. Many other plaque schemes have been initiated in the United Kingdom. Some are restricted to a specific geographical area, others to a particular theme of historical commemoration. They are administered by a range of bodies including local authorities , civic societies , residents' associations and other organisations such as
2678-447: The City of London coat of arms . Because of the rapidity of change in the built environment within the City, a high proportion of Corporation of London plaques mark the sites of former buildings. Many of the 32 London boroughs also now have their own schemes, running alongside the English Heritage scheme. Westminster City Council runs a green plaque scheme, each plaque being sponsored by
2781-721: The Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians , two chapters of Movses Khorenatsi 's History of Armenia , and sections of Nerses of Lambron 's Orations . He also translated into English those sections of the Armenian Bible that are not present in the English Bible. His fascination was so great that he even considered using the Armenian version of the story of Cain for his play of the same name . Byron's interest in Armenian studies contributed to
2884-588: The Hampstead Garden Suburb Residents Association erected a blue plaque in memory of Prime Minister Harold Wilson at 12 Southway as part of the suburb's centenary celebrations. In 2021, a Black Lives Matter plaque was erected at the Wolverhampton Heritage Centre (the former constituency office of Enoch Powell , where his Rivers of Blood speech was written) to commemorate immigrant rights activist Paulette Wilson ,
2987-1102: The Levant ; he had read about the Ottoman and Persian lands as a child, was attracted to Islam (especially Sufi mysticism ), and later wrote, "With these countries, and events connected with them, all my really poetical feelings begin and end." Byron began his trip in Portugal , from where he wrote a letter to his friend Mr Hodgson in which he describes what he had learned of the Portuguese language: mainly swear words and insults. Byron particularly enjoyed his stay in Sintra , which he later described in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage as "glorious Eden". From Lisbon he travelled overland to Seville , Jerez de la Frontera , Cádiz , and Gibraltar , and from there by sea to Sardinia, Malta , Albania and Greece . The purpose of Byron's and Hobhouse's travel to Albania
3090-524: The National Health Service in 1964. On 24 May 2024, a blue plaque commemorating the childhood home of musician George Harrison in Liverpool was unveiled, and was referred to in the press as "Historic England's first official non-London blue plaque". The popularity of English Heritage 's London blue plaques scheme has meant that a number of comparable schemes have been established elsewhere in
3193-544: The Ravenna Diary and My Dictionary and Recollections . Around this time he received visits from Percy Bysshe Shelley , as well as from Thomas Moore , to whom he confided his autobiography or "life and adventures", which Moore, Hobhouse, and Byron's publisher, John Murray , burned in 1824, a month after Byron's death. Of Byron's lifestyle in Ravenna we know more from Shelley, who documented some of its more colourful aspects in
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3296-944: The Transport Trust , the Royal Society of Chemistry , the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America and the British Comic Society. There are also commemorative plaque schemes throughout the world such as those in Paris , Rome , Oslo , and Dublin ; and in other cities in Australia, Canada, the Philippines , Russia, and the United States. These take various forms, and they are more likely to be known as commemorative plaques or historical markers. The original blue plaque scheme
3399-521: The Tuscan city of Pisa , to which Teresa had also relocated. From 1821 to 1822, Byron finished Cantos 6–12 of Don Juan at Pisa, and in the same year he joined with Leigh Hunt and Shelley in starting a short-lived newspaper, The Liberal , in whose first number The Vision of Judgment appeared. For the first time since his arrival in Italy, Byron found himself tempted to give dinner parties; his guests included
3502-756: The Welsh Conservative Group in the Senedd , called for the introduction of a country-wide approach. Regional schemes are operated by local authorities and civic societies . The Purple Plaques scheme is a national scheme (across Wales) that aims to commemorate women whose lives have had a significant and long-lasting impact. There also exist several nationwide schemes sponsored by special-interest bodies, which erect plaques at sites or buildings with historical associations within their particular sphere of activity. Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron , FRS (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824)
3605-403: The (probably) more sexually overt relations experienced at Harrow School. The poem "The Cornelian" was written about the cornelian that Byron had received from Edleston. Byron spent three years at Trinity College, engaging in boxing, horse riding, gambling, and sexual escapades. While at Cambridge , he also formed lifelong friendships with men such as John Cam Hobhouse , who initiated him into
3708-505: The 21-year-old Countess Guiccioli , who found her first love in Byron; he asked her to elope with him. After considering migrating to Venezuela or to the Cape Colony , Byron finally decided to leave Venice for Ravenna . Because of his love for the local aristocratic, young, newly married Teresa Guiccioli, Byron lived in Ravenna from 1819 to 1821. Here he continued Don Juan and wrote
3811-531: The Abbey was in a state of disrepair and, rather than live there, she decided to lease it to Lord Grey de Ruthyn , among others, during Byron's adolescence. Described as "a woman without judgment or self-command", Catherine either spoiled and indulged her son or vexed him with her capricious stubbornness. Her drinking disgusted him and he often mocked her for being short and corpulent, which made it difficult for her to catch him to discipline him. Byron had been born with
3914-552: The Cambridge Whig Club, which endorsed liberal politics, and Francis Hodgson , a Fellow at King's College, with whom he corresponded on literary and other matters until the end of his life. While not at school or college, Byron lived at his mother's residence, Burgage Manor in Southwell, Nottinghamshire . While there, he cultivated friendships with Elizabeth Bridget Pigot and her brother John, with whom he staged two plays for
4017-745: The Greek cause. In today's money, Byron would have been a millionaire many times over. News that a fabulously wealthy British aristocrat, known for his financial generosity, had arrived in Greece made Byron the object of much solicitation in that desperately poor country. Byron wrote to his business agent in England, "I should not like to give the Greeks but a half helping hand", saying he would have wanted to spend his entire fortune on Greek freedom. Byron found himself besieged by various people, both Greek and foreign, who tried to persuade him to open his pocketbook for support. By
4120-446: The Hon. Lady Milbanke, died in 1822, and her will required that he change his surname to "Noel" in order to inherit half of her estate. He accordingly obtained a Royal Warrant , enabling him to "take and use the surname of Noel only" and to "subscribe the said surname of Noel before all titles of honour". From that point, he signed himself "Noel Byron" (the usual signature of a peer being merely
4223-642: The John Murray archive contain evidence of a previously unremarked if short-lived romantic relationship with a younger boy at Harrow, John Thomas Claridge . In the following autumn he entered Trinity College, Cambridge , where he met and formed a close friendship with the younger John Edleston. About his "protégé" he wrote, "He has been my almost constant associate since October, 1805, when I entered Trinity College. His voice first attracted my attention, his countenance fixed it, and his manners attached me to him for ever." After Edleston's death, Byron composed Thyrza ,
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4326-464: The Mediterranean. The Hercules was aged 37 when, on 21 September 1852, she went aground near Hartlepool , 25 miles south of Sunderland , the place where her keel had been laid in 1815. Byron's "keel was laid" nine months before his official birth date, 22 January 1788. Therefore in ship years, he was also 37 when he died in Missolonghi. Byron initially stayed on the island of Kefalonia , where he
4429-569: The Ottoman captain mistook Byron's boat for a fireship. To avoid the Ottoman Navy, which he encountered several times on his voyage, Byron was forced to take a roundabout route and only reached Missolonghi on 5 January 1824. After arriving in Missolonghi , Byron joined forces with Alexandros Mavrokordatos , a Greek politician with military power. Byron moved to the second floor of a two-story house and
4532-632: The Ottomans. At the same time, other leaders of the Greek factions like Petrobey Mavromichalis and Theodoros Kolokotronis wrote letters to Byron telling him to disregard all of the Roumeliot leaders and to come to their respective areas in the Peloponnese. This drove Byron to distraction; he complained that the Greeks were hopelessly disunited and spent more time feuding with each other than trying to win independence. Byron's friend Edward John Trelawny had aligned himself with Androutsos, who ruled Athens, and
4635-507: The Republic, schemes are operated through local authorities and civic societies . Historic Environment Scotland , the Scottish heritage agency, has previously operated a national commemorative plaques scheme but, as of 2023, this was inactive. Regional schemes are run by local authorities. Wales does not operate a national blue plaque scheme, although in 2022 Andrew RT Davies , leader of
4738-482: The Romagna under the condition that his daughter return to him, without Byron. At the same time that the philhellene, Edward Blaquiere, was attempting to recruit him, Byron was confused as to what he was supposed to do in Greece, writing: "Blaquiere seemed to think that I might be of some use—even here ;—though what he did not exactly specify". With the assistance of his banker and Captain Daniel Roberts , Byron chartered
4841-482: The Shelleys, Edward Ellerker Williams , Thomas Medwin , John Taaffe, and Edward John Trelawny ; and "never", as Shelley said, "did he display himself to more advantage than on these occasions; being at once polite and cordial, full of social hilarity and the most perfect good humour; never diverging into ungraceful merriment, and yet keeping up the spirit of liveliness throughout the evening." Shelley and Williams rented
4944-449: The Society's plaques, but to make them uniformly blue, with a laurel wreath and the LCC's title. Though this design was used consistently from 1903 to 1938, some experimentation occurred in the 1920s, and plaques were made in bronze, stone and lead. Shape and colour also varied. In 1921, the most common (blue) plaque design was revised, as it was discovered that glazed Royal Doulton stoneware
5047-520: The Souliotes as he was unhappy with Mavrokordatos's leadership, which led to a brief bout of inter-Greek fighting before Karaiskakis was chased away by 6 April. When the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen heard about Byron's heroics in Greece, he voluntarily resculpted his earlier bust of Byron in Greek marble. Mavrokordatos and Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto , at
5150-680: The Suliotes for the good of Greece—and their own—I have come to the following resolution—I will have nothing more to do with the Suliotes—they may go to the Turks or the devil...they may cut me into more pieces than they have dissensions among them, sooner than change my resolution". At the same time, Guiccioli's brother, Pietro Gamba, who had followed Byron to Greece, exasperated Byron with his incompetence as he continually made expensive mistakes. For example, when asked to buy some cloth from Corfu, Gamba ordered
5253-423: The United Kingdom. Many of these schemes also use blue plaques, often manufactured in metal or plastic rather than the ceramic used in London, but some feature plaques of different colours and shapes. In 2012, English Heritage published a register of plaque schemes run by other organisations across England. The criteria for selection varies greatly. Many schemes treat plaques primarily as memorials and place them on
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#17328524440565356-737: The birth of their illegitimate child Allegra , who died at the age of 5 under the care of Byron later in life. Several times Byron went to see Germaine de Staël and her Coppet group , which turned out to be a valid intellectual and emotional support to Byron at the time. Kept indoors at the Villa Diodati by the "incessant rain" of "that wet, ungenial summer" over three days in June, the five turned to reading fantastical stories, including Fantasmagoriana , and then devising their own tales. Mary Shelley produced what would become Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus , and Polidori produced The Vampyre ,
5459-541: The blue plaque scheme passed to the English Heritage Trust. The 1,000th plaque, marking the offices of the Women's Freedom League , 1908–1915, was unveiled in 2023. To be eligible for an English Heritage blue plaque in London, the famous person concerned must: In cases of foreigners and overseas visitors, candidates should be of international reputation or significant standing in their own country. With regards to
5562-604: The brig Hercules to take him to Greece. When Byron left Genoa, it caused "passionate grief" from Guiccioli, who wept openly as he sailed away. The Hercules was forced to return to port shortly afterwards. When it set sail for the final time, Guiccioli had already left Genoa. On 16 July, Byron left Genoa, arriving at Kefalonia in the Ionian Islands on 4 August. His voyage is covered in detail in Donald Prell 's Sailing with Byron from Genoa to Cephalonia . Prell also wrote of
5665-423: The butt of their humour. The Napoleonic Wars forced Byron to avoid touring in most of Europe; he instead turned to the Mediterranean . His journey enabled him to avoid his creditors and to meet up with a former love, Mary Chaworth (the subject of his poem "To a Lady: On Being Asked My Reason for Quitting England in the Spring"). Another reason for choosing to visit the Mediterranean was probably his curiosity about
5768-441: The city, Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead, of Salsette ' s Marines, swam the Hellespont . Byron commemorated this feat in the second canto of Don Juan . He returned to England from Malta in July 1811 aboard HMS Volage . After the publication of the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812), Byron became a celebrity. "He rapidly became the most brilliant star in the dazzling world of Regency London. He
5871-457: The early 1980s, the group receives no government funding, unlike many similar organisations in the United Kingdom. Doreen Corcoran served as chair of the Circle from 1998 to 2009. Since the first plaque was formally unveiled over 150 individuals have been honoured, including: Blue Plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate
5974-455: The end of March 1824, the so-called "Byron brigade" of 30 philhellene officers and about 200 men had been formed, paid for entirely by Byron. Leadership of the Greek cause in the Roumeli region was divided between two rival leaders: a former Klepht (bandit), Odysseas Androutsos ; and a wealthy Phanariot Prince, Alexandros Mavrokordatos . Byron used his prestige to attempt to persuade the two rival leaders to come together to focus on defeating
6077-437: The entertainment of the community. During this time, with the help of Elizabeth Pigot, who copied many of his rough drafts, he was encouraged to write his first volumes of poetry. Fugitive Pieces was printed by Ridge of Newark, which contained poems written when Byron was only 17. However, it was promptly recalled and burned on the advice of his friend the Reverend J. T. Becher, on account of its more amorous verses, particularly
6180-451: The homes and workplaces of famous people. The first such scheme in the world, it has directly or indirectly provided the inspiration and model for many others. The scheme has been administered successively by the Society of Arts (1866–1901), the London County Council (1901–1965), the Greater London Council (1965–1986) and English Heritage (1986 to date). It was initially focused on Greater London , although between 1998 and 2005, under
6283-431: The likely heiress of a rich uncle. They married on 2 January 1815, and their daughter, Ada , was born in December of that year. However, Byron's continuing obsession with Augusta Leigh (and his continuing sexual escapades with actresses such as Charlotte Mardyn and others) made their marital life a misery. Annabella considered Byron insane, and in January 1816 she left him, taking their daughter, and began proceedings for
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#17328524440566386-437: The location of a plaque: Other schemes have different criteria, which are often less restrictive: in particular, it is common under other schemes for plaques to be erected to mark the sites of demolished buildings. Almost all the proposals for English Heritage blue plaques are made by members of the public who write or email the organisation before submitting a formal proposal. English Heritage's in-house historian researches
6489-439: The mouth of the Gulf of Corinth . Byron employed a fire master to prepare artillery, and he took part of the rebel army under his own command despite his lack of military experience. Before the expedition could sail, on 15 February 1824, he fell ill, and bloodletting weakened him further. He made a partial recovery, but in early April he caught a cold; the therapeutic bleeding insisted on by his doctors exacerbated it. He contracted
6592-505: The mutinous Albanian officers who were offering to surrender Navpaktos to Byron and arranged to have some of the arrears paid out to the rest of the garrison. Byron never led the attack on Navpaktos because the Souliotes kept demanding that Byron pay them more and more money before they would march; Byron grew tired of their blackmail and sent them all home on 15 February 1824. Byron wrote in a note to himself: "Having tried in vain at every expense, considerable trouble—and some danger to unite
6695-429: The name of the peerage, in this case simply "Byron"). Some have speculated that he did this so that his initials would read "N.B.", mimicking those of his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte . Lady Byron eventually succeeded to the Barony of Wentworth , becoming "Lady Wentworth". Byron received his early formal education at Aberdeen Grammar School in 1798 until his move back to England as a 10-year-old. In August 1799 he entered
6798-603: The night in his gondola ; when he asked her to leave the house, she threw herself into the Venetian canal. In 1816, Byron visited San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice, where he acquainted himself with Armenian culture with the help of the monks belonging to the Mechitarist Order . With the help of Father Pascal Aucher (Harutiun Avkerian), he learned the Armenian language and attended many seminars about language and history. He co-authored Grammar English and Armenian in 1817, an English textbook written by Aucher and corrected by Byron, and A Grammar Armenian and English in 1819,
6901-519: The poem To Mary . Hours of Idleness , a collection of many of the previous poems, along with more recent compositions, was the culminating book. The savage, anonymous criticism it received (now known to be the work of Henry Peter Brougham ) in the Edinburgh Review prompted Byron to compose his first major satire, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809). Byron put it into the hands of his relative R. C. Dallas , and asked him to "...get it published without his name." Alexander Dallas suggested
7004-522: The poem's last two cantos, as well as four equally celebrated "Oriental Tales": The Giaour , The Bride of Abydos , The Corsair , and Lara . About the same time, he began his intimacy with his future biographer, Thomas Moore . Byron racked up numerous debts as a young man, owing to what his mother termed a "reckless disregard for money". She lived at Newstead during this time, in fear of her son's creditors. He had planned to spend some time in 1808 cruising with his cousin George Bettesworth , who
7107-564: The press reported that her heart had been broken out of remorse for leaving her husband. Much later, 19th-century sources blamed Jack's own "brutal and vicious" treatment of her. Jack would then marry Catherine Gordon of Gight on 13 May 1785, by all accounts only for her fortune. To claim his second wife's estate in Scotland, Byron's father took the additional surname "Gordon", becoming "John Byron Gordon", and occasionally styled himself "John Byron Gordon of Gight ". Byron's mother had to sell her land and title to pay her new husband's debts, and in
7210-586: The progenitor of the Romantic vampire genre . The Vampyre was inspired by a fragmentary story of Byron, " A Fragment ". Byron's story fragment was published as a postscript to Mazeppa ; he also wrote the third canto of Childe Harold . Byron wintered in Venice , pausing in his travels when he fell in love with Marianna Segati, in whose Venice house he was lodging, and who was soon replaced by 22-year-old Margarita Cogni; both women were married. Cogni could not read or write, and she left her husband to move in with Byron. Their fighting often caused Byron to spend
7313-420: The proposal, and the Blue Plaques Panel advises on which suggestions should be successful. This is composed of 12 people from various disciplines from across the country. The panel is chaired by Professor William Whyte . Other members (as at September 2023) include Richard J. Aldrich , Mihir Bose , Andrew Graham-Dixon , Claire Harman , Gus Casely-Hayford and Amy Lame . The actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry
7416-462: The scheme. In the event the scheme was relaunched by English Heritage in June 2014 with private funding (including support from a new donors' club, the Blue Plaques Club, and from property developer David Pearl ). Four members of the advisory panel resigned over this transmutation. Professor David Edgerton and author and critic Gillian Darley were concerned that the scheme had been "reduced to
7519-482: The school of Dr. William Glennie , in Dulwich . Placed under the care of a Dr. Bailey, he was encouraged to exercise in moderation but could not restrain himself from "violent" bouts of activity in an attempt to compensate for his deformed foot. His mother interfered with his studies, often withdrawing him from school, which arguably contributed to his lack of self-discipline and his neglect of his classical studies. Byron
7622-412: The sites of former buildings, in contrast to the strict English Heritage policy of only installing a plaque on the actual building in which a famous person lived or an event took place. The Corporation of London continues to run its own plaque scheme for the City of London , where English Heritage does not erect plaques. City of London plaques are blue and ceramic, but are rectangular in shape and carry
7725-610: The space of two years, the large estate, worth some £23,500, had been squandered, leaving the former heiress with an annual income in trust of only £150. In a move to avoid his creditors, Catherine accompanied her husband to France in 1786, but returned to England at the end of 1787 to give birth to her son. Byron was born in January 1788, and christened at St Marylebone Parish Church . His father appears to have wished to call his son 'William', but as he remained absent, Byron's mother named him after her own father, George Gordon of Gight, who
7828-548: The spread and development of that discipline. His profound lyricism and ideological courage have inspired many Armenian poets, the likes of Ghevond Alishan , Smbat Shahaziz , Hovhannes Tumanyan , Ruben Vorberian, and others. In 1817, he journeyed to Rome . On returning to Venice, he wrote the fourth canto of Childe Harold . About the same time, he sold Newstead Abbey and published Manfred , Cain , and The Deformed Transformed . The first five cantos of Don Juan were written between 1818 and 1820. During this period he met
7931-522: The standardisation of the design in 1921, the plaques were manufactured by Royal Doulton which continued their production until 1955. From 1984 until 2015 they were made by Frank Ashworth at his studio in Cornwall, and were then inscribed by his wife. From 1955 to 1985 the lettering for the plaques was designed in the Roman lettering style by Henry Hooper. Since 2015, the plaques have been made by Ned Heywood,
8034-460: The subjects including Sylvia Pankhurst , Samuel Coleridge-Taylor , and Mary Seacole . In 1986, the GLC was disbanded and the blue plaques scheme passed to English Heritage . English Heritage erected more than 300 plaques in London. In January 2013 English Heritage suspended proposals for plaques owing to funding cuts. The National Trust 's chairman stated that his organisation might step in to save
8137-482: The two world wars. The LCC formalised the selection criteria for the scheme in 1954. When the LCC was abolished in 1965, the scheme was taken over by the Greater London Council (GLC). The principles of the scheme changed little, but now applied to the entire, much larger, administrative county of Greater London . The GLC was also keen to broaden the range of people commemorated. The GLC erected 252 plaques,
8240-427: The wedding took place just weeks after her divorce from her husband, and she was around eight months pregnant. The marriage was not a happy one, and their first two children – Sophia Georgina, and an unnamed boy – died in infancy. Amelia herself died in 1784 almost exactly a year after the birth of their third child, the poet's half-sister Augusta Mary . Though Amelia died from a wasting illness, probably tuberculosis,
8343-463: The worst of all maladies in my opinion. In short, the boy is distractedly in love with Miss Chaworth." In Byron's later memoirs , "Mary Chaworth is portrayed as the first object of his adult sexual feelings." Byron finally returned in January 1804, to a more settled period, which saw the formation of a circle of emotional involvements with other Harrow boys, which he recalled with great vividness: "My school friendships were with me passions (for I
8446-472: The wrong cloth in excess, causing the bill to be 10 times higher than what Byron wanted. Byron wrote about his right-hand man: "Gamba—who is anything but lucky —had something to do with it—and as usual—the moment he had—matters went wrong". To help raise money for the revolution, Byron sold his estate in England, Rochdale Manor, which raised some £11,250. This led Byron to estimate that he now had some £20,000 at his disposal, all of which he planned to spend on
8549-710: Was a British poet and peer . He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement , and is regarded as being among the greatest of British poets. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narratives Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage ; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular. Byron was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge , before he travelled extensively in Europe. He lived for seven years in Italy, in Venice , Ravenna , and Pisa after he
8652-514: Was a descendant of James I of Scotland and who had died by suicide some years earlier, in 1779. Byron's mother moved back to Aberdeenshire in 1790, and Byron spent part of his childhood there. His father soon joined them in their lodgings in Queen Street, but the couple quickly separated. Catherine regularly experienced mood swings and bouts of melancholy, which could be partly explained by her husband's continuously borrowing money from her. As
8755-414: Was a founding figure in the field of computer programming based on her notes for Charles Babbage 's Analytical Engine . Byron's extramarital children include Allegra Byron , who died in childhood, and possibly Elizabeth Medora Leigh , daughter of his half-sister Augusta Leigh. George Gordon Byron was born on 22 January 1788, on Holles Street in London; his birthplace is now supposedly occupied by
8858-475: Was agreed that the City of London Corporation would be responsible for erecting plaques within the City to recognise its jurisdictional independence. This demarcation has remained ever since. In 1901, the Society of Arts scheme was taken over by the London County Council (LCC), which gave much thought to the future design of the plaques. It was eventually decided to keep the basic shape and design of
8961-411: Was always violent)". The most enduring of those was with John FitzGibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare —four years Byron's junior—whom he was to meet again unexpectedly many years later, in 1821, in Italy. His nostalgic poems about his Harrow friendships, Childish Recollections (1806), express a prescient "consciousness of sexual differences that may in the end make England untenable to him." Letters to Byron in
9064-420: Was besieged by agents of the rival Greek factions, all of whom wanted to recruit Byron for their own cause. The Ionian islands, of which Kefalonia is one, were under British rule until 1864. Byron spent £4,000 of his own money to refit the Greek fleet. When Byron travelled to the mainland of Greece on the night of 28 December 1823, Byron's ship was surprised by an Ottoman warship, which did not attack his ship, as
9167-563: Was captain of the 32-gun frigate HMS Tartar , but Bettesworth's death at the Battle of Alvøen in May 1808 made that impossible. From 1809 to 1811, Byron went on the Grand Tour , then a customary part of the education of young noblemen. He travelled with Hobhouse for the first year, and his entourage of servants included Byron's trustworthy valet, William Fletcher . Hobhouse and Byron often made Fletcher
9270-499: Was cheaper than the encaustic formerly used. In 1938, a new plaque design was prepared by an unnamed student at the LCC's Central School of Arts and Crafts and was approved by the committee. It omitted the decorative elements of earlier plaque designs, and allowed for lettering to be better spaced and enlarged. A white border was added to the design shortly after, and this has remained the standard ever since. No plaques were erected between 1915 and 1919, or between 1940 and 1947, owing to
9373-496: Was discontinued in 2005, although English Heritage continued to provide advice and guidance to individuals and organisations outside of London wanting to develop local schemes. In September 2023 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced the reintroduction of a national scheme, with Historic England as the lead developer. From mid 2024, the public will be invited to submit nominations, with eligibility criteria including
9476-450: Was established by the Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage . It is the oldest such scheme in the world. After being conceived by politician William Ewart in 1863, the scheme was initiated in 1866 by Ewart, Henry Cole and the Society of Arts (now the Royal Society of Arts ), which erected plaques in a variety of shapes and colours. The first plaque
9579-597: Was forced to flee England due to threats of lynching . During his stay in Italy, he would frequently visit his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley . Later in life, Byron joined the Greek War of Independence to fight the Ottoman Empire , for which Greeks revere him as a folk hero . He died leading a campaign in 1824, at the age of 36, from a fever contracted after the first and second sieges of Missolonghi. His one child conceived within marriage, Ada Lovelace ,
9682-478: Was forced to spend much of his time dealing with unruly Souliotes who demanded that Byron pay them the back-pay owed to them by the Greek government. Byron gave the Souliotes some £6,000. Byron was supposed to lead an attack on the Ottoman fortress of Navpaktos, whose Albanian garrison were unhappy due to arrears in pay, and who offered to put up only token resistance if Byron was willing to bribe them into surrendering. However, Ottoman commander Yussuf Pasha executed
9785-630: Was formerly a member of the panel, and wrote the foreword to the book Lived in London: Blue Plaques and the Stories Behind Them (2009). Roughly a third of proposals are approved in principle, and are placed on a shortlist. Because the scheme is so popular, and because a lot of detailed research has to be carried out, it takes about three years for each case to reach the top of the shortlist. Proposals not taken forward can only be re-proposed once 10 years have elapsed. From 1923, soon after
9888-460: Was living in Genoa in 1823, when, growing bored with his life there, he accepted overtures for his support from representatives of the Greek independence movement from the Ottoman Empire . At first, Byron did not wish to leave his 22-year-old mistress, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, who had abandoned her husband to live with him. But ultimately Guiccioli's father, Count Gamba, was allowed to leave his exile in
9991-417: Was now pressing for Byron to break with Mavrokordatos in favour of backing the rival Androutsos. Androutsos, having won over Trelawny to his cause, was now anxious to persuade Byron to put his wealth behind his claim to be the leader of Greece. Byron wrote with disgust about how one of the Greek captains, former Klepht Georgios Karaiskakis , attacked Missolonghi on 3 April 1824 with some 150 men supported by
10094-617: Was orchestrated by Trelawny after Williams and Shelley drowned in a boating accident on 8 July 1822. His last Italian home was in Genoa . While living there he was accompanied by the Countess Guiccioli, and the Blessingtons. Lady Blessington based much of the material in her book, Conversations with Lord Byron , on the time spent together there. This book became an important biographical text about Byron's life just prior to his death. Byron
10197-525: Was returned for burial in England.) He journeyed through Belgium and continued up the Rhine river. In the summer of 1816 he settled at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva , Switzerland, with his personal physician, John William Polidori . There Byron befriended the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and author Mary Godwin , Shelley's future wife. He was also joined by Mary's stepsister, Claire Clairmont , with whom he'd had an affair in London, which subsequently resulted in
10300-581: Was sent to Harrow School in 1801, and remained there until July 1805. An undistinguished student and an unskilled cricketer, he nevertheless represented the school during the first Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's in 1805. His lack of moderation was not restricted to physical exercise. Byron fell in love with Mary Chaworth, whom he met while at school, and she was the reason he refused to return to Harrow in September 1803. His mother wrote, "He has no indisposition that I know of but love, desperate love,
10403-744: Was sought after at every society venue, elected to several exclusive clubs, and frequented the most fashionable London drawing-rooms." During this period in England he produced many works, including The Giaour , The Bride of Abydos (1813), Parisina , and The Siege of Corinth (1815). On the initiative of the composer Isaac Nathan , he produced in 1814–1815 the Hebrew Melodies (including what became some of his best-known lyrics, such as " She Walks in Beauty " and " The Destruction of Sennacherib "). Involved at first in an affair with Lady Caroline Lamb (who called him "mad, bad and dangerous to know") and with other lovers and also pressed by debt, he began to seek
10506-472: Was to meet Ali Pasha of Ioannina and to see the country that was, until then, mostly unknown in Britain. In Athens in 1810, Byron wrote " Maid of Athens, ere we part " for a 12-year-old girl, Teresa Makri (1798–1875). Byron and Hobhouse made their way to Smyrna , where they cadged a ride to Constantinople on HMS Salsette . On 3 May 1810, while Salsette was anchored awaiting Ottoman permission to dock at
10609-481: Was unveiled in 1867 to commemorate Lord Byron at his birthplace, 24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square . This house was demolished in 1889. The earliest blue plaque to survive, also put up in 1867, commemorates Napoleon III in King Street, St James's . Byron's plaque was blue, but the colour was changed by the manufacturer Minton, Hollins & Co to chocolate brown to save money. The first woman to be honoured with
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