Ian Handford

Born at Lyonsdown, Hertfordshire on March 20th 1889, Lionel Greenstreet seemingly had the sea in his blood, being the son of a Master Mariner. Then, having obtained his Master’s Certificate in 1911, he achieved a Royal Navy commission in 1914 and had the chance to join Shackleton’s South...

This feature commences with Richard Carte, father of Rupert and a partner in Rudall, Carte and Company with Blanche, his wife. Richard had adopted the "D'Oyly" from his mother's maiden name, perhaps wishing to have an accent on his name as a showman. Critics later called him a "calcul...

THIS feature commences with Richard Carte, father of Rupert and a partner in Rudall, Carte and Company with Blanche his wife Richard had adopted the ‘D'Oyly’ from his mother’s maiden name perhaps wishing to have an accent on his name as a showman. Critics later called him a ‘...

Agatha Christie the “Queen of Crime” needs no introduction. My feature concentrates only on the personal, not commercial side of her producing hundreds of novels, short stories, plays and written works, that have been said to have been published in forty languages. Today her books are th...

Henry Augustus Garrett, born in 1859 was by the age of twenty being appointed assistant surveyor to Bournemouth Council. Yet by 1890, he would move to Torquay after being appointed Harbour Engineer and Surveyor. He now discovered his adopted town was very ripe for expansion having earned a reputatio...

The saga of trying to establish a blue plaque at Villa Rosa in Trumlands Road, Torquay, in honour of the Irish playwright Sean O'Casey started in 1986. The Civic Society successfully completed the task when unveiling not one but two plaques in 2012. But then another anomaly we learned was that a fri...

Born at Portsmouth on March 27th 1912 Leonard James (Jim) Callaghan was the only son of James - Chief Naval Petty Officer RN who had served on the Royal Yacht. The family moved from Southampton to Brixham in 1914 and by age two Leonard was attending school at Furzeham Elementary School. Once the Fir...

Born at Golders Green London on May 19th 1932 Alma Angela Kogin was the older of two Jewish sisters and an older brother. The sisters were oddly sent to St Joseph's Roman Catholic Convent school which meant they daily waited outside until prayers had been given to the school's other five hundred Cat...

On returning from Blackpool six weeks later Alma in London had her first break. Ted Heath would later admit to regretting his comment 'too young', saying it was one of the greatest mistakes of his life. It was Alma's Uncle Gerry that created the first step forward to stardom in show business. Appare...

In a two-part series, Ian looks at novelist, poet, playwright, composer, doctor, and soldier, Francis Brett-Young