1.
Paddington
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Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in central London. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965, a major project called Paddington Waterside aims to regenerate former railway and canal land between 1998 and 2018, and the area is seeing many new developments. However, the provenance is much later and likely to have been forged after the 1066 Norman conquest. There is no mention of the place in the Domesday Book of 1086, a more reliable 12th-century document cited by the cleric Isaac Maddox establishes that part of the land was held by brothers Richard and William de Padinton. In the later Elizabethan and early Stuart era, the rectory, manor, Nicholas Small was a clothworker who was sufficiently well connected to have Holbein paint a portrait of his wife, Jane Small. Nicholas died in 1565 and his wife married again, to Nicholas Parkinson of Paddington who became master of the Clothworkers company. Jane Small continued to live in Paddington after her husbands death, and her manor house was big enough to have been let to Sir John Popham. They let the building that became in this time Blowers Inn, as the regional population grew in the 17th century, Paddingtons ancient Hundred of Ossulstone was split into divisions, Holborn Division replaced the hundred for most administrative purposes. By 1773, a contemporary historian felt and wrote that London may now be said to include two cities, one borough and forty six antient villages. Roman roads formed the parishs north-eastern and southern boundaries from Marble Arch, Watling Street and, Uxbridge road, known by the 1860s in this neighbourhood as Bayswater Road. They were toll roads in much of the 18th century, before, by 1801, the area saw the start-point of an improved Harrow Road and an arm of the Grand Junction Canal - these remain. The district formed the centrepiece of an 1824 masterplan by Samuel Pepys Cockerell to redevelop the Tyburn Estate into an area to rival Belgravia. Despite this, Thackeray described the district of Tyburnia as the elegant, the prosperous, the polite Tyburnia. Derivation of the name is uncertain, speculative explanations include Padre-ing-tun, Pad-ing-tun, and Pæding-tun the last being the cited suggestion of the Victorian Anglo-Saxon scholar John Mitchell Kemble. There is another Paddington in Surrey, recorded in the Domesday Book as Padendene, a lord named Padda is named in the Domesday Book, associated with Brampton, Suffolk. An 18th-century dictionary gives the definition Paddington Fair Day, an execution day, Tyburn being in the parish or neighbourhood of Paddington. To dance the Paddington frisk, to be hanged, public executions were abolished in England in 1868. Paddington station is the terminus for services to the west of London and mainline services to Oxford, South-West England
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
Earl Spencer (peerage)
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He was a member of the prominent Spencer family and a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Previously, he had been created Viscount Spencer, of Althorp in the County of Northamptonshire, the future 6th Earl Spencer was created Viscount Althorp, of Great Brington in the County of Northamptonshire, on 19 December 1905 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Diana, Princess of Wales, was the youngest of three daughters of the 8th Earl Spencer, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry are grandsons of the 8th Earl Spencer. The family seat is Althorp in Northamptonshire and their estate includes significant land holdings in other parts of the country, including the village of North Creake in Norfolk. The family also holds the Spencer House in London, the coat of arms of the family is as follows, Quarterly argent and gules, in the second and third quarters a fret or, over all on a bend sable, three escallops of the first. The crest, emerging from the coronet, is a griffins head argent, the motto is Dieu defend le droit. ISBN 978-0-09-465700-7 Spencer, Charles Althorp, the story of an English house, ISBN 978-0-312-20833-2 Spencer, Charles The Spencers, a personal history of an English family. New York, St. Martin’s Press ISBN 978-0-312-26649-3 Althorp - official website Cracrofts Peerage page
4.
Diana, Princess of Wales
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Diana, Princess of Wales, was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, who is the eldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II. Diana was born into a family of British nobility with royal ancestry and was the child and third daughter of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp. She grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, in 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer, she became known as Lady Diana Spencer. She came to prominence in February 1981 when her engagement to Prince Charles was announced and her wedding to the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981, held at St Pauls Cathedral, reached a global television audience of over 750 million people. While married, Diana bore the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, the marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and she was celebrated for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. She was involved with dozens of charities including Londons Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, Diana was born on 1 July 1961, in Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the fourth of five children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, the Spencer family has been closely allied with the British Royal Family for several generations. Both of Dianas grandmothers had served as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, on 30 August 1961, Diana was baptised at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, with wealthy commoners as godparents. Diana had three siblings, Sarah, Jane, and Charles and her infant brother, John, died shortly after his birth one year before Diana was born. The desire for an added strain to the Spencers marriage. Diana grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, the Spencers leased the house from its owner, Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal Family frequently holidayed at the neighbouring Sandringham House, and Diana played with Princes Andrew, Diana was seven years old when her parents divorced. Her mother later had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd and married him in 1969, Diana lived with her mother in London during her parents separation in 1967, but during that years Christmas holidays, Lord Althorp refused to let Diana return to London with Lady Althorp. Shortly afterwards he won custody of Diana with support from his former mother-in-law, Ruth Roche, in 1972, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Dame Barbara Cartland. They married at Caxton Hall, London in 1976, as an upper-class child at the time, Diana was first educated under the supervision of her governess, Gertrude Allen. She began her education at Silfield Private School in Gayton, Norfolk, and moved to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school near Diss
5.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, KG, KT, PC, ADC is the elder son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. He is second in line to succeed his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, William was educated at four schools in the United Kingdom and obtained a degree from the University of St Andrews. He spent parts of a gap year in Chile, Belize, in December 2006, he completed 44 weeks of training as an officer cadet and was commissioned in the Blues and Royals regiment. In April 2008, he qualified as a pilot by completing training at Royal Air Force College Cranwell. He then underwent helicopter flying training in order to become a pilot with the RAF Search. His service with the British Armed Forces ended in September 2013, William married Catherine Middleton, on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Hours before the wedding, he was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, the couples first child, Prince George, was born on 22 July 2013, and their second, Princess Charlotte, was born on 2 May 2015. William, the first child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, was born at St Marys Hospital and his names, William Arthur Philip Louis, were announced by Buckingham Palace a week later on 28 June. He was baptised in the Music Room of Buckingham Palace on 4 August by the Archbishop of Canterbury and he was the first child born to a Prince and Princess of Wales since Prince John in 1905. William was affectionately called Wombat by his parents or Wills, Williams first public appearance was on 1 March 1991, during an official visit of his parents to Cardiff, Wales. After arriving by aeroplane, William was taken to Llandaff Cathedral where he signed the visitors book, on 3 June 1991, William was admitted to Royal Berkshire Hospital after being accidentally hit on the side of the forehead by a fellow student wielding a golf club. He did not lose consciousness, but suffered a fracture of the skull and was operated on at Great Ormond Street Hospital. In a 2009 interview, he dubbed this scar a Harry Potter scar and he was reported to have said, I call it that because it glows sometimes and some people notice it—other times they dont notice it at all. His mother wanted him and his younger brother Harry to have wider experiences than are usual for royal children and she took them to Walt Disney World and McDonalds as well as AIDS clinics and shelters for the homeless. She bought them typical teenage items, such as video games, Diana, who was by then divorced from the Prince of Wales, died in a car accident in the early hours of 31 August 1997. William, then aged 15, along with his brother who was 12, the Prince of Wales waited until his sons woke the following morning to tell them about their mothers death. At his mothers funeral, William accompanied his father, brother, paternal grandfather, William began to accompany his parents on official visits at an early age. William was educated at independent schools, starting at Jane Mynors nursery school, following this, he attended Ludgrove School near Wokingham, Berkshire, and was privately tutored during summers by Rory Stewart
6.
Prince Harry
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Prince Henry of Wales, KCVO, familiarly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. After an education at schools in the United Kingdom and spending parts of his gap year in Australia and Lesotho, Harry chose a military career, undergoing officer training at RMA Sandhurst. He was commissioned as a cornet into the Blues and Royals, serving temporarily with his brother, in 2007–2008, he served for 77 days in Helmand, Afghanistan, but was pulled out following publication of his presence there by an Australian magazine. He returned to Afghanistan for a 20-week deployment in 2012–2013 with the Army Air Corps and he left the army in June 2015. Harry launched the Invictus Games in 2014, and remains patron of its Foundation and he also gives patronage to several other organisations, including the HALO Trust, the London Marathon Charitable Trust, and Walking With The Wounded. Harry was born at St Marys Hospital in Paddington, London, on 15 September 1984 at 4,20 pm and he was baptised on 21 December 1984 at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. His godparents are Prince Andrew, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, Carolyn Bartholomew, Bryan Organ, Gerald Ward and Celia, Harry began to accompany his parents on official visits at an early age, his first overseas tour was with his parents to Italy in 1985. Harrys parents divorced in 1996, and his mother died following a car accident in Paris the following year, Harry and William were staying with their father at Balmoral at the time, and the Prince of Wales told his sons about their mothers death. Like his father and brother, Harry was educated at independent schools and he started at Jane Mynors nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School, both in London. Following this, he attended Ludgrove School, and, after passing the exams, was admitted to Eton College. In June 2003, Harry completed his education at Eton with two A-Levels, having decided to drop history of art after AS level and he excelled in sports, particularly polo and rugby union. Passing two A-levels, Harry was eligible to apply for a commission in the British Army. One of Harrys former teachers, Sarah Forsyth, has assessed that Harry was a weak student, both Eton and Harry denied the claims. While a tribunal made no ruling on the claim, it accepted the prince had received help in preparing his A-level expressive project. After school, Harry took a gap year, during which he spent time in Australia, working on a cattle station and he also travelled to Lesotho, where he worked with orphaned children and produced the documentary film The Forgotten Kingdom. Harry entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 8 May 2005, where he was known as Officer Cadet Wales, and joined the Alamein Company. Within a year, in April 2006, Harry completed his training and was commissioned as a Cornet in the Blues and Royals. He was given the service number 564673, on 13 April 2008, when he reached two years seniority, Harry was promoted to lieutenant
7.
Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer
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He was the paternal grandfather of Diana Spencer, who was just under 14 years old at the time of his death. Diana would go on to marry Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, six years later. Lord Spencer was born in London, the son of Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer, and his wife and his godparents included King Edward VII. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a friend of Lionel Lupton and they signed up together to fight in World War I. Luptons sister Olive was the grandmother of Kate Middleton who married the great-grandson of Lord Spencer, Prince William. When 1st Life Guards merged with the 2nd Life Guards on 18 November 1922 and he retired from the army on 20 September 1924, but remained a member of the Regular Army Reserve of Officers until reaching the mandatory retirement age on 2 June 1943. He was awarded the Territorial Efficiency Decoration on 12 September 1944, on 9 April 1935, Lord Spencer was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, and became Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire on 11 March 1952, serving until 31 July 1967. He was made a knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem on 1 July 1955, Lord Spencer was active in the local politics of Northamptonshire as a Conservative councillor. He opened his home, Althorp, to the public and was a well-known art connoisseur, being a trustee of the Wallace Collection. He was a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Society of Arts, and for eight years in the 1960s he was Chair of the Advisory Council of the Victoria and he was Chairman of the Governors at Wellingborough School from 1946 to 1972. Lord Spencer died at St Matthews Nursing Home, Northampton, after an illness, and was succeeded by his son, John
8.
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
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Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, DL, styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British nobleman, peer, author, print journalist, and broadcaster. Spencer was born in London on 20 May 1964 and named Charles Edward Maurice and his parents were then called Viscount and Viscountess Althorp, as his grandfather Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, was still alive. He had three sisters, Sarah, Jane, and Diana, who later became the Princess of Wales. An elder brother, John, had died within hours of birth and he was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. Spencer worked as a correspondent with NBC News from 1986 to 1995, primarily for the networks morning programme, Today. He wrote and presented the 12-part documentary series, Great Houses of the World for NBC Super Channel and he also worked as a reporter for Granada Television from 1991 to 1993. He also inherited Althorp, the ancestral seat in Northamptonshire. Since 2009, he has restored Althorp, re-roofing it and restoring its entire exterior for the first time since the 1780s and he has also helped establish Althorp Living History, a handmade fine-furniture line reproducing pieces from the collection at Althorp. The Spencer familys wealth derived from their profitable sheep farming in the Tudor era, on 31 August 1997, his older sister Diana died after a car crash in Paris and Spencer delivered the eulogy at her funeral service held at Westminster Abbey six days later. In his eulogy he rebuked both Britains royal family and the press for their treatment of his sister and it was reported in 2003 that Spencer had refused to allow his sister Diana to live at Althorp, despite her request. Diana was buried on Spencers ancestral estate, Althorp, where he built a mausoleum, the museum was opened to the public in 1998 with all profits going to Dianas Memorial Fund, also set up by Spencer. At this stage, Spencer began writing a series of books dealing with the estate itself and with his history, being, Althorp. The Spencers, a Personal History of an English Family and this book was a Sunday Times best-seller, and was shortlisted for History Book of the Year at the 2005 National Book Awards. Prince Rupert – The Last Cavalier, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 978-0-297-84610-9. Killers of the King, The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I and this book was a Sunday Times best-seller. In 2003, Spencer founded the Althorp Literary Festival, speakers at the annual event have included the authors Bill Bryson, Helen Fielding, Antonia Fraser, and Boris Johnson. In 2004, he presented two documentaries for the History Channel on Blenheim, Battle for Europe and he contributed a chapter to British Military Greats, published by Cassell in 2005. He also contributed two of the 100 chapters of The Art of War, Great Commanders of the Modern World, published by Quercus in 2009
9.
Frances Shand Kydd
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Frances Ruth Shand Kydd was the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales. Following her divorce from John Spencer, Viscount Althorp in 1969, Shand Kydd was born Frances Ruth Roche in Park House, on the royal estate at Sandringham, Norfolk, on 20 January 1936. Her father was Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy, a friend of King George VI and the son of the American heiress Frances Work and her first husband. Her mother, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, DCVO, was a confidante, in her own right since birth she held the style of The Honourable as the daughter of a baron. Her paternal grandmother, Frances Ellen Work, was an heiress, Shand Kydd was a direct descendant of Kitty, daughter of Eliza and Theodore Forbes. It also happens that ODonovan was Edmond Roche, 1st Baron Fermoys maternal great-great grandfather, on 1 June 1954, Frances Burke Roche married John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, at Westminster Abbey. The Queen and other members of the family attended the wedding ceremony. Shand Kydd was 18 years old and became the youngest woman wed in Westminster Abbey in the last five decades, Charles is now married to Karen Spencer, Countess Spencer, his third wife. Her marriage to Viscount Althorp was not a one and, in 1967, she left to be with Peter Shand Kydd. His half-brother was the champion amateur jockey William Shand Kydd. Subsequently, she was named the other woman in Janet Shand Kydds divorce action against her husband, another former official officer of Diana, Princess of Wales, considered these claims to be nonsense. This officer released letters about a strong and loving relationship that existed between Frances and her daughter, Diana had saved her mother from drowning and thought of her as her best chum. On 14 July 1976, Viscount Althorp married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth and he eventually won a bitter custody battle over his children. Frances and Peter Shand Kydd were married on 2 May 1969, (Clachan Seil 10 kilometres from Oban and easily reached by road. Although she lived a life, she was forced into public view following the engagement of Diana to Prince Charles on 24 February 1981. Shand Kydd and her husband separated in June 1988 after he left her for a younger woman. She blamed the pressure of attention for the breakdown of the marriage. In 1996, she was banned from driving after being convicted of drunk-driving and she and Diana quarrelled in May 1997 after she told Hello. magazine that Diana was happy to lose her title of Her Royal Highness following her controversial divorce from Prince Charles
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