Titanic musician and palace intruder enter dictionary
 Wallace Hartley sailed on the Titanic in April 1912 |
A teenager who broke into Buckingham Palace three times and the Titanic band leader are among 90 people added to the updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Dictionary editor Philip Carter said they were examples of lives that were connected with well-known events.
Edward Jones claimed he sat upon the throne during his palace escapades in the late 1830s, his entry says.
Wallace Hartley famously played on deck as the Titanic sank in 1912.
The dictionary was first published in 2004, and now contains 57,348 lives, with about 300 added every year. No living person is included in the dictionary.
Dr Carter said Edward Jones, nicknamed the Boy Jones or In-I-Go Jones by newspapers, was suggested by a history academic - a frequent way in which names are considered for inclusion.
 |  [Edward Jones was] an emblem of persistent, if inappropriate, ambition  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |
Edward Jones became a household name after three successful entries into Buckingham Palace as a teenager, including one within days of Queen Victoria giving birth.
He claimed he wanted to see what life was like inside the palace, but was twice sentenced to hard labour for trespass.
Reluctantly sent to sea to remove him from further mischief, he was known as "an emblem of persistent, if inappropriate, ambition", the dictionary says.
With press coverage, serious concern from the Home Office, and interest from Charles Dickens, Dr Carter said: "There was huge interest in this individual and it was a well-known event. We wanted to reflect those kind of episodes and aspects of British life."
The story of Wallace Hartley is more well known in the 21st Century. He and his seven-man orchestra have had 13 memorials worldwide erected to them, double the number erected to the Titanic's captain, the dictionary says.
The band played until the ship sank at 0220 on 15 April 1912, less than three hours after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Their last tune was Nearer, my God, to thee. Mr Hartley was found with his violin strapped to his body.
"As victims who acted courageously and benevolently, and who were in no way responsible for the Titanic's loss, the ship's musicians became emblematic of the dignity and heroism shown by many during the disaster," his entry says.
Seaweed saviour
Also honoured beyond Britain is Lancashire-born scientist Kathleen Drew. A memorial was set up to her in Uto City, Japan, where she is known as "the Mother of the Sea" for her pioneering work in red algae which led to large-scale seaweed cultivation.
Red algae, also known as porphyra, had been a Japanese food source for over 2,000 years, but poor harvests in the late 1940s and a typhoon in 1951 had led to the collapse of the industry, but Mrs Drew's research reversed the decline.
Before she died from cancer in September 1957, she burnt all her letters and documents, leaving little trace of her character, the dictionary says.
But the dictionary said: "She had a clear and acute mind, and was forthright, generous, sincere, and devoted to her friends. A colleague of integrity, she had high standards in everything she did."
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Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker (1901-1957) was a British phycologist, born in Leigh, Lancashire, particularly known for her basic research on the edible seaweed Porphyra laciniata (nori), which led to a breakthrough for commercial growing.
Drew-Baker studied the life cycle of the red alga Porphyra umbilicalis and found out that the microscopic Conchocelis - hitherto thought of as an independent alga - was the diploid stage of the same organism that Porphyra is the macroscopic, haploid stage[1]. Her investigations were soon repeated by the Japanese phycologist Sokichi Segawa, which in turn provided knowledge to revolutionize Japanese nori culture, which before had suffered from unpredictable harvests. Already by 1953, Fusao Ota and other Japanese marine biologists had developed artificial seeding techniques, building on her work. This in turn increased production and led to a boost in Japanese seaweed industry. She is still today hailed as the Mother of the Sea in Japan.[2] She is celebrated each year on April 14.
Drew-Baker spent most of her academic life at the cryptogamic botany department of the University of Manchester, serving as a Lecturer in Botany and Researcher from 1922 to 1957. She also spent two years working at the University of California. She was a co-founder of the British Phycological Society and the society's first president.
References
- ^ Drew, Kathleen M. (1949). "Conchocelis-phase in the life-history of Porphyra umbilicalis (L.) Kütz". Nature 164 (4174): 748–749. doi:10.1038/164748a0. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v164/n4174/abs/164748a0.html.
- ^ "Titanic musician and palace intruder enter dictionary". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8705942.stm. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
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