Compact Biographies

By Compact BiographiesEducation History

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Compact Biographies episodes

December 06, 2018 Douglas Adams - S06E08
In the eighth episode of season 6 of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a brief look at the life of an author who wrote episodes for Doctor Who and worked with Monty Python, but will probably always be remembered for his amazing comedy sci-fi radio series, The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams.
8 min
November 29, 2018 Thomas Jefferson
“Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching” – Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson Biography
Born on 13 April 1743 in Shadwell, Virginia in what would later become the United States of America, few people could imagine all that would be accomplished by Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson had no true ties to nobility although he was born to a moderately wealthy family in Virginia. At that time, the British colonies were little over a century old and Shadwell, Virginia was certainly no place that great leadership was expected to come out of. However, Thomas Jefferson was a man who constantly defied the odds and rose through the ranks largely by his own merit, determination, and a certain amount of personal pride.

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Thomas Jefferson did receive a very high level of education for his time. It was this and his personal charisma that led him into politics – from a member of the Virginia representatives to the Continental Congress. It was there in Congress that his most important and lasting contributions to American society would be made. Chosen to be part of a hand-picked group which included James Madison and Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson was selected to draft the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.
The version that ended up being sent to Great Britain, however, had some significant differences from Jefferson’s original writings. Thomas Jefferson spent an exceptional amount of time, effort, and emotional energy to craft what he felt was a fully-formed and perfect, legally binding document. As with most governments, though, the other members of the Continental Congress had some points of contention and felt that they could improve upon his original draft.
Despite feeling slighted, Jefferson was dedicated to the cause of independence and continued to use his brilliant mind to lead as well as his fortune help subsidise the American Revolution. During the war, he would lend his exceptional experience to the American diplomatic mission to France along with Benjamin Franklin. Once again, though, Thomas Jefferson’s self-righteous personality would find him at odds with Franklin. Together, though, the two were able to successfully ensure the continued support of France for the fledgling United States.
Following America’s successful bid for independence, Thomas Jefferson continued to have a career as a statesman and he was selected as America’s first Secretary of State under George Washington. This period of time was a training ground for American democracy, and Jefferson benefitted by seeing how the United States of America’s new style of government would operate before he became its third president. After two terms with George Washington as president, the following election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would be perhaps one of the most heated that America has ever experienced.
While the two had been close friends and political allies during the Revolution, the political fighting that came as both men strove for the presidency would wound their friendship for decades to come. Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams felt each man would destroy the country. John Adams ultimately won and became the second president of the United States. However, due to his executive overreach and certain unpopular policies, he later lost out to Thomas Jefferson who became the third president of the United States in 1801.
Jefferson’s presidency would not be without its own certain share of scandals, though. Forwarding unpopular legislation to Congress, as well as the questionable Louisiana Purchase land deal, led to a marring of his presidency during his term in office. Basically, he was spending money the United States did not have. In retrospect, the Louisiana Purchase turned out to be an extraordinarily good land deal,
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November 29, 2018 Thomas Jefferson - S06E07
In the seventh episode of season 6 of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a brief look at the life of the man who drafted the Declaration of Independence and was the third President of the United States - Thomas Jefferson.
8 min
November 22, 2018 Lee Marvin - S06E06
In the sixth episode of season 6 of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a brief look at the life of a World War II combat veteran who was wounded in action and went on to become one of Hollywood's best loved Western and war movie actors - Lee Marvin.
7 min
November 22, 2018 Lee Marvin

“I only make movies to finance my fishing.” – Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin was born on 19 February 1924 in New York City, USA to parents Lamont Waltman Marvin who was an advertising executive and Courtenay Washington who was a beauty consultant and fashion writer. One of his earliest ancestors was Matthew Marvin Sr who had emigrated to America from Essex in England to help found Hartford, Connecticut in 1635. He was also the first cousin of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee whom he and his brother Robert are named after.

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After being expelled from several schools for bad behaviour, Lee Marvin attended the St. Leo College Prep School in Florida. His early interests included music and he studied violin, but he could also often be found hunting deer, puma and wild turkey in the as yet uncharted Florida Everglades.
In August 1942, when he was 18, Marvin left school and enlisted in the United States Marines and saw action in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. During the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan on 18 June 1944, he was wounded, along with most of his company, after coming under machine gun, and sniper fire. After receiving treatment at various navy medical hospitals, he was discharged on medical grounds and as a combat soldier wounded in action he was awarded a Purple Heart medal.
Lee Marvin’s acting career began by accident after he was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals at a theatre in New York where he had been working as a plumber’s assistant. Acting seemed to be something he could do and so in 1950, he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career.
As with many actors at the start of their career, Lee Marvin found work in supporting roles, many of which were in war movies where he could also be helpful, as a decorated combat veteran, assisting directors and other actors in accurate portrayals of wartime situations.
In February 1951 he married Betty Ebeling with whom he had a son called Christopher and three daughters, Courtenay, Cynthia and Claudia. Betty and Lee divorced in January 1967.
During the 1950’s and into the 1960’s Lee Marvin’s roles started to increase in size and stature but it took a TV series called M Squad, in which he played a Chicago cop called Frank Ballinger for over 100 episodes to get his name recognised. His first title role was that of Liberty Vallance in The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance opposite John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. In 1964, he received his first top billing in a move for his part in The Killers, for which he received a BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
In 1965 Lee Marvin won an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his role in the comedy Western movie Cat Ballou opposite Jane Fonda. More top billing would come along in 1967’s The Dirty Dozen and again for the musical Paint Your Wagon in 1969 which also starred Clint Eastwood. Marvin wasn’t a great singer, but that didn’t stop him having a hit with his song from Paint Your Wagon, “Wand’rin Star”. He was now at the top of his career and being paid $1m per movie.
In October 1970, Lee Marvin married again, this time to Pamela Feeley. During this time he resided on and off in Woodstock so that he could care for his father but after his father’s death, he and Pamela moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1975 and the couple would remain together until his death.
During the 70’s and 80’s he took on a greater variety of roles with fewer of them being ‘bad guys’ but he continued to work with lots of household Hollywood names including Paul Newman, Oliver Reed, Roger Moore and Richard Burton. His last big role was in another war movie, though, 1980’s Big Red One, which was based on the wartime experiences of its director Samuel Fuller.
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November 15, 2018 Rudyard Kipling - S06E05
In the fifth episode of season 6 of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a brief look at the life of the man who gave us Shere Khan, Bagheera and of course the young orphan boy called Mowgli in his Jungle Books, the author Rudyard Kipling.
13 min
November 15, 2018 Rudyard Kipling

“A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.” – Rudyard Kipling.

Rudyard Kipling Biography
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on 30 December 1865 in Mumbai, then called Bombay, in India. John Lockwood Kipling, his father, was a sculptor and pottery designer whereas his mother, Alice, was the daughter of a Wesleyan Methodist minister. After the couple met in 1863, they courted at Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire, England, and they were so taken by the beauty of the place that it featured in the name of their first child.

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The custom in British India at the time was to send children back to England for their education and so it was that in 1871, Rudyard, who was only five years old and his sister Alice, who was three, were sent to stay with Captain Pryse Agar Holloway, an ex-officer of the merchant navy and Mrs. Sarah Holloway. Rudyard remembered in his autobiography that the next six years of his life were filled with cruelty, neglect, and bullying. Trix, as his sister was known, was treated better, probably because Mrs. Holloway had designs on her one day marrying her son. Relief from life at the Holloway’s in Southsea came for Rudyard for a month every Christmas, when the two children spent time with their aunt Georgiana in Fulham, London. Compared to Southsea, Rudyard thought the place was paradise.
In 1877, the torture would be over though as Alice returned from India and removed the children. The following year, Rudyard Kipling was admitted to the United Services College in Devon. This was a new school which had been set up to prepare boys for a life in the British Army. His time there influenced two of his future works. The schoolboy series Stalky & Co which was published in 1899 takes from his experiences at USC and the character of Maisie in his first novel entitled The Light that Failed is based upon Florence Gerrard who was boarding with Trix, and whom Kipling had fallen in love with.
However, Rudyard Kipling lacked the academic skills to get into Oxford on a scholarship and his parents lacked the finances to buy him a place and so his father, who was Principal at the Mayo College of Art and Curator of the Lahore Museum arranged a job for him as assistant editor of the Civil & Military Gazette, a small local newspaper in Lahore, which is now in Pakistan. Kipling left England on 20 September 1882 and arrived in Bombay a month later.
Kipling was worked hard at the Gazette but this didn’t seem to be a problem for a man with such a love for writing. When a new editor took over in 1886, he was given more creative freedom and was asked to contribute short stories. Between 1885 and 1888, Rudyard Kipling went to Simla each year for his annual leave and the town, which became a center of power in India for six months of the year, features quite strongly in his stories.
In November 1887, Kipling became assistant editor at the Gazette’s larger sister paper, the Pioneer. He remained just as prolific, though, turning out 41 short stories in six collections in 1888. His time at the Pioneer was short though and after a dispute, he was discharged of his duties there in 1889. Kipling sold the rights to his stories and with the proceeds, along with six months’ salary in lieu of notice from the paper, he decided to return to London.
His route back to London was not a direct one. He first headed for San Francisco via Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Rangoon. He was particularly impressed with Japan, writing that the Japanese were gracious folk. His arrival in San Francisco was just the start of a tour of the United States and Canada. On his travels, he saw Niagara Falls and met Mark Twain. He visited New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Salt Lake City, and Yellowstone National Park. At the end of his tour he set sail across the Atlantic and arrived in Liverpool...
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November 08, 2018 Rosa Parks

“Each person must live their life as a model for others” – Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks Biography
Although the Civil War had officially ended over 60 years before she was born, Rosa Parks was an American civil rights activist, at a very tense time in US history when equality had not been fully achieved. She was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama on 4 February 1913 and has been referred to as the first lady of civil rights as well as the mother of the freedom movement.

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Rosa Parks was African-American, with Scots-Irish and Native American great-grandparents. Her parents separated when she was young, so she and her little brother Sylvester were raised by her mother’s parents. Until she was eleven, Rosa went to rural schools in Alabama, later taking courses as a student of the Industrial School for Girls. After that, she went to a school operated by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes, which was a secondary education school. Unfortunately, due to the poor health of her mother and grandmother, she couldn’t continue her education as it fell to her to take care of them.
In Alabama at the turn of the 20th century, the former Confederate states – including Alabama – had implemented the “Jim Crow Laws” which forced racial segregation, and left little opportunities for success for African-Americans. White and black people, even as children, were not allowed to ride the bus together, and the African-American students had to walk to school.
Growing up, Rosa was disturbed by the inequality in her society and was often bullied by white children in her neighbourhood although she would not accept it without a fight.
In 1932, Rosa was married to Raymond Parks. He was a barber and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, or NAACP. Rosa had several different jobs including domestic worker and hospital aid. Her husband encouraged her to finish high school, and in 1933 she graduated, making her one of less than 7% of African-Americans who had a high school diploma at the time. Although the Jim Crow Laws discriminated against African-American voters, she tried to register three times, and on the third time succeeded.
In 1943 Rosa Parks became very active in the civil rights movement and joined the NAACP as secretary. Referring to this time, she said that she was the only woman there and they needed a secretary and she didn’t want to say no. Rosa Parks not only had to toil for her rights as an African-American but also as a woman at a time when it was viewed that a woman’s place was in the kitchen.
For a while, she worked as a housekeeper and seamstress at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, for Clifford and Virginia Durr, a white couple. Since the Durrs were very liberal politically, they became friends with Rosa and helped to sponsor her to attend the Highlander Folk School which was an educational facility for activism workers who sought racial equality.
Montgomery had implemented a city law in 1900 that allowed for the segregation of bus passengers by race. Although the actual law maintained that no one would have to move or give up their seat if there were other seats available, over time, law started to give way to custom. Because of this, the bus drivers started to make black passengers move when no white only seats were available. The buses had sections where ‘coloured’ people sat in the back, and white people sat in the front of the bus, even though most of those who rode were black. Many African-Americans were disturbed by this inequality and had complained for decades.
One day in 1943, Rosa paid the fare and started to board the bus, but as she did so the driver, James Blake, told her to follow the rules and board the bus from the back door. Instead of complying,
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November 08, 2018 Rosa Parks - S06E04
In the fourth episode of season 6 of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a brief look at the life of the woman who is remembered for refusing to give up her bus seat and who went on to become one of the best-known figures in the fight for racial equality in the USA - Rosa Parks.
9 min
November 01, 2018 Guy Fawkes

A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy.” – Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes Biography
Guy Fawkes was born on 13 April 1570 in Stonegate, which is in York, in the North of England. His parents were a proctor called Edward Fawkes and Edith, a recusant Catholic. His great-grandfather on his father’s side of the family was Lord Mayor of York in the 1530’s.

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He also had three siblings, a sister called Anne, who had been born in 1568 but had died only a few weeks later, and two more sisters, both younger than Guy, one called Anne born in 1572 and the other called Elizabeth born in 1575.
The date given for his birth above is a bit of a guesstimate as it is not actually known on what date he was born. However, there are baptism records from the church of St. Michael le Belfrey showing that he was baptised on 16 April. At the time, it was customary to wait three days from the birth of a child before the baptism was performed.
Edward, Guy’s father, died when he was only eight years old and several years later, his mother remarried to a Catholic called Dionis Baynbridge who came from Scotton, near Harrogate. Guy attended St. Peter’s School in York and both of these things seem to have cemented Guy’s Catholic faith, which at the time was a dangerous thing due to Elizabeth I, who was Queen of England between 1533 and 1603, continuing her father, King Henry VIII’s legacy of turning England into a Protestant state. There were severe punishments for those who continued to practice Catholicism.
After leaving school, Guy Fawkes became a servant in the household of the 1st Viscount Montagu, Anthony Browne. The Viscount didn’t like Fawkes and eventually dismissed him, but upon the Viscount’s death, he was re-employed by his grandson, the eighteen-year-old 2nd Viscount Montagu, Anthony-Maria. Some sources claim that Guy Fawkes married around this time and had a son, but this has not been verified.
Upon his father’s death, Guy Fawkes had inherited an estate in Clifton, York, but in October 1591 he sold it and travelled to join the Catholic Spanish army to fight against the Dutch Republic in what became known as the Eighty Years War. He also fought in France between 1595 and 1598. By joining the Spanish, Guy was also effectively fighting against England as the two countries were still at war. The Spanish Armada was in the past, but only by a few years and tensions were still high. Fawkes became a junior officer under Sir William Stanley, who had at one time been highly regarded by Queen Elizabeth, but who had now switched sides to fight for Catholic Spain. By 1603, the year Elizabeth died, Fawkes had been recommended for captaincy and travelled to Spain to try and gain support for a Catholic rebellion in England. At the same time he started to use the Italian version of his first name, Guido. He denounced James I, who had taken over England’s throne from Elizabeth as a heretic and also denounced Scotland and all of the King’s favourite noblemen. Philip III of Spain received Guido at court, but support for the rebellion was not forthcoming.
In 1604, a group of English Catholics led by a man called Robert Catesby had planned to assassinate King James I in order to replace him, with his daughter, the Princess Elizabeth. Guy Fawkes joined the group and their first meeting took place on Sunday 20 May 1604 at an inn called the Duck & Drake in London. The group had already talked about the possibility of blowing up parliament with gunpowder and it was felt that the addition of Fawkes would be a welcome one due to his wartime experience and also due to the fact that he had been away from England for so long, he was not known to anyone.
One of the members of the group, Thomas Percy had managed to secure promotion from his employer who happened to be Keeper of the King’s Wardrobe,
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About Compact Biographies

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Each week, we aim to bring you interesting information about interesting people in the form of short, compact biographies, which can be read on our website or listened to as a podcast episode. We hope…