4º British: Characters of the Victorian Era

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) – Queen of the United Kingdom (1837-1901). Oversaw extension of British Empire and named Empress of India (1876-1901). Victorian Era named after her.

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) – Pioneering nurse. Born in Italy, Nightingale served as a nurse in the Crimean war and helped to raise standards of hospitals and the nursing profession.

Emily Pankhurst (1858-1928) – British suffragette who resorted to militant tactics in an effort to gain women the vote.

Millicent Fawcett (1847 – 1929) – British Suffragist who campaigned (through non-violence) for women to have the vote and to improve women’s access to higher education.

Annie Besant (1847-1933) – Women’s activist, political campaigner for working class, Theosophist and Indian nationalist.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881) – British Prime Minister and close friend of Queen Victoria. Associated with ‘One Nation’ Conservatism and the expansion of the British Empire.

George Stephenson (1781 – 1848) Mechanical engineer, who developed the steam engine for use in trains. He was a key figure in building the 25 mile Stockton and Darlington railway. Stephenson also built the first intercity railway between Liverpool and Manchester – ushering in the ‘railway age’.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 – 1859) English engineer. Brunel was at the heart of many of the key building projects of the British industrial revolution. He built the Great Western Railway from Bristol to London and also developed powerful steam ships. He also built the first tunnel under a navigable river.

William Gladstone (1809 – 1898) Liberal Prime Minister. He served as the Prime Minister on four occasions, and as Chancellor of Exchequer on 4 occasions. Considered to have the epitome of Victorian moral values.

Sir Henry Bessemer (1813 – 1898) an English engineer, inventor, and businessman. Bessemer’s greatest contribution was to the mass production of steel, which was a key component of the second wave of the industrial revolution.

Edmund Cartwright (1743-1823) – English inventor, and member of the Anglican clergy. Cartwright invented the power loom which significantly increased the efficiency of textile production. He also developed a wool combing machine.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) – Writer and social critic. Dickens more than any other writer captured the Victorian age, especially some of the poverty that was endemic in Victorian inner cities.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) – A Scottish physician who was best known as the author of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories.

Philippa Fawcett (1868-1948) - The first women admitted as a mathematician in the Cambridge University.

David Livingstone (1813-1873) – Explorer. Famously trekked through Africa and became the first European to discover the source of the Nile. A popular Victorian hero, who epitomised the age of ‘enlightened Empire’ and the quest for discovery.

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) – English naturalist. Developed theory of evolution. This created one of the greatest changes of thought during Victorian period. A few years after Darwin published his theory, evolution became commonly accepted.

Alexander Bell (1847-1922) – Scottish scientist credited with inventing the first working telephone.

A young boy working in a coal mine in Scotland. He works 10 hours a day in very poor and dangerous conditions, for just several coppers at the end of the week. He never goes to school because his “salary” is needed for helping his big family.

A young girl working on a textile factory in Manchester. She works 10 hours a day in very poor conditions (the factory is an old, dark building, no ventilation and no safety measures), for just several coppers at the end of the week. She can’t go to school.

Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) – Scientist who helped electricity to be used in a practical form.

Sir Titus Salt (1803 – 1876) Sir Titus Salt was a successful businessman in Saltaire, Bradford, West Yorkshire. At a time when many businessmen exploited their workers, Titus Salt built a model village and had a genuine concern for his workforce.

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) – English Mathematician, writer and author of Alice in Wonderland.

A member of The Luddites, a group of 19th-century English skilled workers who were concerned about losing their skilled jobs in the textile industry. They saw

power looms and spinning frames as the death knell for their profession. They began smashing machines in different factories in protest.

A member of Tolpuddle Martyrs In 1834, a group of Dorset agricultural labourers who were arrested for and convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of theFriendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. Their case attracted considerable sympathy and eventually they were released. The event is considered an important milestone in the trade union movement.

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 – 1865) British novelist and social historian. Mrs Gaskell’s novels portray the lives of a cross section of Victorian society.

John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) Utilitarian philosopher and supporter of radical / liberal politics and the emancipation of women.

William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833) – Campaigner to end slavery. Wilberforce successfully highlighted the terrible conditions of slavery.

Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) – English abolitionist and leading campaigner against slave trade.

Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) – Quaker prison reformer.

William Booth (1829 – 1912) – Founder of Salvation organisation dedicated to reducing poverty and ‘saving’ souls.

Army –

Christian

Robert Owen (1771 – 1858) – Welsh social reformer who attempted to build utopian socialist and co-operative movement.

Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) Popular Victorian poet Laureate, wroteCharge of the Light Brigade, Ulysses, Although In Memoriam A.H.H.

Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) – Wit, playwright, poet and author. Wilde was at one time the most popular playwright of his generation, but was sentenced to gaol after losing a libel case.

Emily Brontë (1818-1850) – Writer and poet from Haworth, Yorkshire

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) – Romantic Poet

Emily Murphy (1868-1933) – Canadian female lawyer. First female magistrate in the British Empire.