Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Mandeville, Sir John, 14th-century English author of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Originally written in Norman French, the work became enormously popular and was translated into English, Latin,...

(Encyclopedia) McClintock, Sir Francis Leopold, 1819–1907, British arctic explorer. As a lieutenant in the navy he was assigned to his first arctic service in 1848, when Sir James Clark Ross went in search of the ...

(Encyclopedia) Hull, William, 1753–1825, American general, b. Derby, Conn. He served brilliantly in the American Revolution and became in 1805 governor of the newly created Michigan Territory. As the War of 1812 b...

(Encyclopedia) Walsingham, Sir Francis wôlˈsĭng-əm [key], 1532?–1590, English statesman. A zealous Protestant, he went abroad during the reign of Queen Mary I but returned on the accession (1558) of Elizabeth ...

(Encyclopedia) Head, Sir Francis Bond, 1793–1875, British administrator in Canada. A soldier (1811–25) and unsuccessful mining adventurer in South America, he had had little experience to prepare him for the pos...

(Encyclopedia) Langtry, Lillie, 1853–1929, English actress, b. Jersey, Channel Islands; known as the Jersey Lily. One of the first English women of elevated social rank to go on the stage, she made her debut at th...

(Encyclopedia) Bustamante, Sir Alexander bŭsˌtəmănˈtē [key], 1884–1977, prime minister of Jamaica (1962–67). Born William Alexander Clarke, the son of an Irish father and a Jamaican mother, he was adopted...

(Encyclopedia) Bessemer, Sir Henry bĕsˈəmər [key], English engineer and inventor, b. Charleton, Hertfordshire. He made experiments to obtain stronger material for gun manufacture and discovered the basic princip...

(Encyclopedia) Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell fouˈəl [key], 1786–1845, British social reformer. As a member of Parliament (1818–37) he began his reform activities immediately with the publication of An Inquiry Whet...

(Encyclopedia) Thomson, Sir George Paget, 1892–1975, English physicist; son of Sir Joseph John Thomson. He was professor of natural philosophy at the Univ. of Aberdeen (1922–30) and from 1930 to 1952 was profess...