Donough OBrien - Who?: The Most Remarkable People Youve Never Heard of

Thank you to the innumerable people and organisations who have helped to make this book possible, suggesting stories and verifying them, and helping me to fill the pages with photographs, paintings and illustrations. Sincere apologies if anyone has been left out.

Dr Peter Ackroyd

Aeroplane magazine

AftertheBattle magazine

The Hon. Brian Alexander

Earl Alexander of Tunis

Mary Berry

The late John Blake

Bletchley Park

Mark Buckingham

Brooklands Motor Museum

Reggie Boyle

Paul Buckett, Volkswagen Group

Gordon Burns

Mark (Woody) Campbell

Churchill War Rooms

Sir Anthony Cleaver

Nicholas Courtney

The late Sir John Cowley

Tony Cowland

Robert Corbishley, Xerox

Barry Dinan

Pam Easton, Baker Hughes

Edison National Historic Site

Edwards Air Force Base

Professor Malcolm Elliot

The Earl of Erroll

Eton College

Timothy ffytche

Ford Motor Company

French Foreign Legion

Teresa Fry

Michael Grimsdale

Hamburg, New York, Chamber of

Commerce

Charles Douglas-Hamilton

Tim von Halle

The late Richard Holmes

Imperial War Museum, Duxford

Lord Inchiquin

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Irish Guards

Holly James, Mattel

Lord Kakkar

Lori Kupec, Carrier

The late Earl of Lichfield

Danny Litani

Tricia Lord

Louisiana State Museum

Joanna Lumley

Phil Liggett

Sir William McAlpine Bt

Laurence McDonnell

David McDonough

Mot & Chandon

Phil Mooney, Coca-Cola

Professor Vivian Moses

Sir Stirling Moss

Jon Mostyn

Florence Nightingale Museum

National Army Museum, London

National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

New York Historical Society

Ed OBrien

Murrough OBrien

Murrough OBrien Jr

OBrien Trust

The Parachute Regiment

Nicole Payne

Henry Poole & Co

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

The late David Rattray

Dawn Roads, AGA

Royal Aeronautical Society

Royal Air Force Club

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst

Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Thomas Ryan, RHA

Chris Samuel

Society of the Monument to the

Childrens Casualties of War, Prague

Hugh Synge

The Hon. Michael Spring-Rice

Victoria Thai, Otis

Charles Thompson

J. Walter Thompson

Josefin Thorell, IKEA

US National Park Service

John Utley

Tom Waldrop, Intel

Anthony Weldon

Stuart Wheeler

Bob Wills Museum, Texas

So many books have helped this book that it is easier to list the authors:

Peter ACKROYD, Constance BABINGTON SMITH, Anthony BEEVOR, A. Scott BERG, Mary BERRY, John BLAKE, William BODDY, A.E.C BREDIN, Piers BRENDON, Dee BROWN, Bill BRYSON, Ron CHERNOW, Winston CHURCHILL, J A COLE, S J CONNELY, Tim Pat COOGAN, Nicholas COURTNEY, John COWLEY, Len DEIGHTON, Larry DOBROW, Stephen DORRIL, James DUNNIGAN, Erik DURSCHMIED, James DURNEY, Harold, EVANS, Roger FORD, Nick FRENCH, David FROST, Edward GIBBON, Daniel GOLDHAGEN, Linda GUTTSTEIN, Salisbury HARRISON, Peter HART, Jim HASTINS, Max HASTINGS, Maureen HILL, Ian HOGG, Richard HOLMES, Stephen HOWARTH, John HUGHES-WILSON, Robert, JACKSON, Roy JENKINS, Paul JOHNSON, R.V, JONES, David KAHN, Christine KEELER, Thomas KENEALLY, Ian KNIGHT, and John LABAND, H.W KOCH, Spiro KOSTOF, Mark KURLANSKY, Bruno LAGRANGE, Christian LAMB, Richard LAMB Michael LANNING, Edward LAXTON, Patrick LICHFIELD, Lord LONGFORD, Yigal LOSSIN, Douglas MACARTHUR, John MACDONALD, James MACKAY, Harold MACMILLAN, Norman MAILER, William MANCHESTER, Ben McINTIRE, Larry McMURTY, Giles MILTON, Gerry MULLINS, Emmett MURPHY, Jay Robert NASH, Ulick OCONNOR, David OGILVY, Dr David OWEN, Matthew PARKER, Lawrence REES, Geoffrey REGAN, Anthony RHODES, Jasper RIDLEY, Mark ROSEMAN, Anthony SAMPSON, Simon SCHAMA, Simon SEBAG MONTEFIORI, Michael SETH-SMITH, William SHIRER, Arthur SIFAKI, Kate SIMON, Antoine de ST EXUPERY, Anthony SUMMER, Adrian SYKES, Colin TAYLOR, Peter TAYLOR, Rich TAYLOR, Margaret THATCHER, Gordon THOMAS, Alvin TOFFLER, Blanche TOUHILL, Masanobu TSUJI, Tim TRAVERS, Miranda TWISS, Mark URBAN, Peter VERNEY, Edgar VINCENT, Christian WALMER, Geoffrey WARD, John WARRY, Keith WATERHOUSE, Hugh WIER, Harold WILSON, Derek WOOD, Cecil WOODMAN-SMITH, Brock YATES, Chuck YEAGER, Adam ZAMOYSKI.

Where possible, picture credit have been given on the appropriate page next toindividual images. Where this is impractical, additional credits are acknowledged below. Everyeffort has been made to acknowledge all sources. If any sources have, in error, not been credited,please contact the publisher.

In a world dominated by often shallow celebrity, many remarkable people have remained unknown and unlauded. This book brings the unrecognised to recognition, with over 200 names that should trip off the tongue but dont.

In the title, I claim that readers have never heard of the people described. But I admit there will be those with specialised knowledge who will have heard of some of them.

I would be surprised, for instance, if doctors did not know about Howard Florey, Frederick Banting or William Harvey, but probably not of Henrietta Lacks who gave the world her immortal HeLa cells. Military buffs may be familiar with William Brydon or Constance Babington Smith, and film fans may well know of Reginald Denny, Hedy Lamarr and John Loder but will they know of their significance beyond acting? At the same time, some readers will recognise and relate to just one area of a characters importance like Davy with his safety lamp, Leotard with his costume, or Whitney and his Cotton Gin but not for other excellent reasons to include them.

Of course, remarkable can be interpreted in many ways. Here, too, are individuals who were remarkably deceitful, dangerous, crooked or cruel, but are also worth remembering, in the hopes that we never see the likes of them again.

So often we only remember people who have affected our lives directly, or are increasingly in the public view. Above all, I hope this book redresses the balance and gives credit where credit is due or overdue.

Donough OBrien

www.quirkyhistory.com

SPECIAL THANKS

To my wife, editor, proof reader and greatest supporter, Liz

To my designers: Ian Hughes, Prue Fox and Tony Hannaford

To Ian Hughes of Mousemat Design for the striking cover

Most of us are intrigued by the question Whatever happened to ? followed by the details about a now long-forgotten personage of whom we used to know a lot.

Donough OBrien has hit on another splendid idea: Whoever was ? listing and describing scores and scores of extraordinary people who played an important but hidden task in the story of our times, but whom we probably never heard of in the first place.

Definitely a book to dip into from time to time for an hour or mores remarkable details.

FREDERICK FORSYTH

Frank ABAGNALE

At a hotel conference in 1995 in Seville, we were impressed with the silver-haired speaker warning us of the frauds that threatened our industry. And more amazed by Frank Abagnales credentials, because before becoming a respected security consultant and an advisor to the FBI, Frank had been one of the worlds most daring fraudsters and been jailed for it. Later, the world knew him from Spielbergs film