1913 v 2013

If 2013 were to yield as many talented individuals as 1913 then it will be a magnificent year.


Richard Nixon.

Was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 when the Watergate scandal forced him to resign in the face of almost certain impeachment before being controversially pardoned by Gerald Ford who was also born in 1913. Although Nixon initially escalated America's involvement in the Vietnam War, he subsequently ended U.S. involvement in 1973. Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972 opened diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union the same year.

Eiji Toyoda

A prominent Japanese industrialist, who was largely responsible for bringing Toyota Motor Corporation to profitability and worldwide prominence during his tenure as president and later Chairman. He was born into a family of textile manufacturers but after completing his degree he joined his cousin who had established a fledgling car manufacturing plant and in 1938 he was asked to oversee construction of a newer factory near Nagoya, later renamed Toyota City.

Having visited Fords main production site, Toyoda decided to adopt US automobile mass production methods but recognised the need to develop core concepts of what later became known as Kanban and Kaizen, two of the key manufacturing concepts that are now globally adopted.

Michael Foot

British Labour Party politician and man of letters. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992. He was deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980, and later became the Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983.

Associated with the Labour left for most of his career, Foot was a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and British withdrawal from the European Economic Community. His first Cabinet appointment was as Employment secretary under in 1974 and later served as Leader of the House of Commons. A passionate orator, he was elected Labour leader in 1980 presenting himself as a compromise candidate capable of uniting the party, which at the time was riven by the grassroots left-wing insurgency and resigned after the 1983 general election when the party obtained its lowest share of the vote since 1918.


Foot had a parallel career as a journalist which included appointments as editor of Tribune and the Evening Standard newspaper. Among the books he authored are Guilty Men (an attack on Neville Chamberlain and others for the policy of appeasement), a biography of Jonathan Swift (The Pen and the Sword, 1957) and a biography of Aneurin Bevan.


Richard (Baron) Beeching

More commonly known as Dr Beeching, he was chairman of British Railways and a physicist and engineer. He became a household name in Britain in the early 1960s for his report "The Reshaping of British Railways", commonly referred to as "The Beeching Report", which led to far-reaching changes in the railway network, popularly known as the Beeching Axe resulting in the loss of 4,000 miles of railway line.

His early career pre and post war was at ICI to where he returned after his work on the railways and was appointed Deputy Chairman in 1966.

Benjamin Britten

Was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was one of the central figures of twentieth-century British classical music, and wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best known works include Peter Grimes and The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, over the next nine years, he wrote six more operas, thus establishing himself as one of the leading twentieth-century composers in this genre. As a pacifist one of Britten’s greatest achievements in the 1960s was his War Requiem, written for the 1962 consecration of the newly reconstructed Coventry Cathedral

Jesse Owens

American track and field athlete who competed in the Nazi propaganda driven 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team, becoming the most successful athlete at the 1936 Summer Olympics. As a consequence of this the Jesse Owens Award, USA Track and Field's highest accolade for the year's best athlete, is named after him.

Mary Martin

American actress, singer and Broadway star. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein she originated many leading roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific in 1949 and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music on Broadway in 1959. In many respects she has become better known more latterly as the mother of actor Larry Hagman. She received the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual honor for career achievements, in 1989.

Sid James

Was an English-based actor and comedian who made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona. His first major comedy role was in The Lavender Hill Mob in which he made up the bullion robbery gang headed by Alec Guinness. The characters he portrayed in the films were usually very similar to the wise-cracking, sly, lecherous Cockney he was famed for playing on television and normally called Sid or a derivative of Sid. His best now TV show was probably ‘Bless this house’.