Aston, William George
(1841–1911), Japanese scholar and diplomat, was born 9 April 1841, near Derry, the son of George Robert Aston, a Unitarian minister. In the early 1850s the family moved to Saintfield, Co. Down, where his father established a school in which Aston himself taught…...
Johnson, Nevill (1911–99), artist, was born on 23 July 1911 in the family home at Buxton, Derbyshire, England, the youngest of two sons of Arthur Ernest Johnson, a wealthy cotton merchant, and his wife Florence Isobel (née Townsend). His parents' marriage ended (c.1930) over…...
Laffan, William Mackay
(1848–1909), journalist, newspaper owner, and art connoisseur, was born 24 January 1848 at 41 Philipsburgh Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin, eldest of six children of Michael Laffan, clerk in the Custom House, and Ellen Sarah Laffan (née Fitzgibbon). William's…...
Pearse, James (1839–1900), sculptor, was
born on 8 December 1839 at 24
Plumtree Street, Bloomsbury, London, the second
of three sons of James Pearse, frame-maker, and his first wife Mary Ann (née
Thompson). The family was impoverished and moved to Birmingham (c.1847), where…...