March 31

Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell (31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert. He was a colleague and friend of John Milton. His poems include To His Coy Mistress, The Garden, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, The Mower's Song and thecountry house poem Upon Appleton House.

March 30

Eric Patrick Clapton (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, and the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music.

March 29

Edward Adrian Wilson FZS ("Uncle Bill") (23 July 1872 – 29 March 1912) was a notable English polar explorer, physician, naturalist, painter and ornithologist.

Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica, the British National Antarctic Expedition (Discovery Expedition) and the Terra Nova Expedition, both under the leadership of Scott. On the first, from 1901 to 1904, Wilson acted as Junior Surgeon, Zoologist and expedition artist, setting off with the expedition on 6 August 1901. They reached Antarctica in January 1902.

In the film Scott of the Antarctic, Wilson was played by Harold Warrender. In the Central TV production 'The Last Place on Earth', Wilson was played by Stephen Moore.

Wilson's statue on the Promenade in Cheltenham, modelled by Scott's widow Kathleen, was unveiled on 9 July 1914 by Arctic explorer Sir Clements Markham. There is a small standing exhibition commemorating him in Cheltenham Museum.

The Edward Wilson Primary School in Paddington, London is named after him.

The students' cafe at St George's Hospital Medical School is named Eddie Wilson's.

Robert Falcon Scott, CVO (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. During this second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott and his four comrades all died from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

Before his appointment to lead the Discovery Expedition, Scott had followed the conventional career of a naval officer in peacetime Victorian Britain, where opportunities for career advancement were both limited and keenly sought after by ambitious officers.

Following the news of his death, Scott became an iconic British hero, a status maintained for more than 50 years and reflected by the many permanent memorials erected across the nation. In the closing decades of the 20th century, the legend was reassessed as attention focused on the causes of the disaster that ended his and his comrades' lives, and the extent of Scott's personal culpability. From a previously unassailable position, Scott became a figure of controversy, with questions raised about his competence and character. Commentators in the 21st century have on the whole regarded Scott more positively, emphasising his personal bravery and stoicism while acknowledging his errors, but ascribing his expedition's fate primarily to misfortune.

March 28

Nicholas John "Nick" Frost (born 28 March 1972) is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is best known for his work with Edgar Wright in the role of Mike Watt in the television comedy Spaced, as well as Ed in Shaun of the Dead, Danny Butterman in Hot Fuzz, Clive Gollings in Paul, and drug dealer Ron in Attack the Block. He is also well known for his various roles in the sketch show Man Stroke Woman.

 Frost is a good friend of fellow actor Simon Pegg. He currently resides with his half-Swedish wife, production executive Christina in St Margarets, London. He previously lived in Finsbury Park, which was also the filming location for Shaun of the Dead. In a 2005 interview, Frost stated that he was brought up as a Catholic and is now an atheist. He is a supporter of West Ham United, as well as being a rugby player, formerly playing for Barking RFC. On 22 June 2011, Frost's wife gave birth to a son

March 27

    Alison Laura Carroll (born 27 March 1985) is an English gymnast, model, and actress. She was the Lara Croft model, from 2008 to 2010.

     Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), better known by her stage name Jessie J, is an English singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, she studied at the BRIT School before signing with Gut Records and striking a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing where she wrote for artists such as Chris Brown and Miley Cyrus.

March 26

Keira Christina Knightley was born on the 26^th of March in 1985. She is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child on television and made her film debut in 1995. Knightley had a supporting role in “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999) and her first significant role came in “The Hole” (2001). She gained widespread recognition in 2002 after co-starring in the film “Bend It Like Beckham” and achieved international fame in 2003 as a result of her appearances in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series (2003–07).

Since the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Knightley has become best known for starring in period drama films,such as “Pride & Prejudice” (2005), “Atonement” (2007), “Silk” (2007), “The Duchess” (2008), “A Dangerous Method” (2011), and “Anna Karenina” (2012).
Knightley has earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel “Pride and Prejudice”. Two years later she was nominated again for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Wright's Atonement. In 2008, Forbes claimed Knightley to be the second highest-paid actress in Hollywood, having reportedly earned $32 million in 2007, making her the only non-American on the list of highest-paid actresses.

March 25

Tolkien Reading Day 

 

 There is an annual event, launched by The Tolkien Society in 2003, that takes place on March 25. It has the aim of encouraging the reading of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and the use of Tolkien's works in education and library groups. The date of March 25 was chosen in honour of the fall of Sauron, in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
The day was originally suggested by columnist Sean Kirst, of the Syracuse, NY Post-Standard newspaper. He has organized Tolkien Reading Days every year since 2008.

Sir Elton Hercules John

 

 (birth name Reginald Kenneth Dwight, born 25 March 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex, England) is a British rock musician. He started his music career immediately after leaving school. Elton John was the biggest music star in the 1970s.
John became famous in the early 1970s when he and songwriter Bernie Taupin wrote several songs which he performed and recorded. John became a huge star, not only for his musical abilities, but for his flamboyant stage personality. He also composed several musicals and the music for the films The Lion King (1994) and The Road to El Dorado 2000) and is active in charity work. In remembrance of Diana, Princess of Wales, John released an altered version of his hit Candle in the Wind in 1997, originally written about Marilyn Monroe. This went on to become the world's biggest selling single of all time with 37 million copies sold within 2 months. In 2005 John entered a civil partnership with David Furnish, after 12 years together.

March 24

World Tuberculosis Day, falling on March 24 each year, is designed to build public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis and efforts to eliminate the disease. Today tuberculosis causes the deaths of about 1.7 million people each year, mostly in the Third World.

March 24 commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time of Koch's announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Koch's discovery opened the way toward diagnosing and curing tuberculosis.

March 23

Barry Charles Cryer OBE (born 23 March 1935) is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise.
Cryer also wrote episodes for the Doctor in the House British television comedy series.

March 22

World Water Day has been observed on 22 March since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared 22 March as World Day for Water.

This day was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Observance began in 1993 and has grown significantly ever since; for the general public to show support, it is encouraged for the public to not use their taps throughout the whole day, the day has become a popular Facebook trend.

The UN and its member nations devote this day to implementing UN recommendations and promoting concrete activities within their countries regarding the world's water resources. Each year, one of various UN agencies involved in water issues takes the lead in promoting and coordinating international activities for World Water Day. Since its inception in 2003, UN-Water has been responsible for selecting the theme, messages and lead UN agency for the World Day for Water.

Beverley Knight MBE (born 22 March 1973) is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer who released her debut album in 1995. Heavily influenced by soul greats such as Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, Knight has released six studio albums to date. Widely labelled as one of Britain's greatest soul singers, Knight is best known for her hit singles Greatest Day, Get Up!, Shoulda Woulda Coulda and Come as You Are.

March 21

Timothy Peter Dalton was born on 21 March 1944 or 1946. He is a British actor of film and television.

Dalton is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989), as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett (1994), an original sequel to Gone with the Wind. In addition, he is known for his roles as Phillip II of France inThe Lion In Winter; Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1970); Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre(1983); Prince Barin in Flash Gordon (1980); and various roles in Shakespearean films and plays such as Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Henry V, Love's Labour's Lost, Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2. Recently, he had a voice acting part in Toy Story 3 as Mr. Pricklepants. he has also appeared as Skinner in the mystery comedy film Hot Fuzz; portrayed the recurring character of Alexei Volkoff in the US TV series Chuck; andRassilon in the Doctor Who two-part episode "The End of Time".

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English screen and stage actor, filmmaker and musician. As an actor, he has collaborated with many of Hollywood's biggest filmmakers, including Robert Zemeckis, Christopher Nolan, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Quentin Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppola. Some of his best-known roles are Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy, Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears, Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Norman Stansfield in Léon: The Professional, Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series, James Gordon in Nolan's Batman series and George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Other films in which Oldman plays significant roles include Meantime, The Firm, State of Grace, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, True Romance, Basquiat, The Fifth Element, Air Force One, The Contender, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Lawless. Aside from film acting, Oldman has written and directed Nil by Mouth, appeared in television shows like Friends and Knots Landing, and recorded music with David Bowie and Glen Matlock. A Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court Theatre alumnus, he is also a classically-trained actor who has appeared in many stage productions.

March 20

   

Fiona Wade (born 20 March 1979) is a British actress. She has had an extensive career in British theatre and television, and is best known in the United States for her role as Anya Vicenze on the TV show 24Seven.Among her theatrical credits include the role of Kim in Miss Saigon both in the UK and Sweden; Juliet in Romeo and Juliet; Maria in West Side Story; Gujarati Preethi in Strictly Dandia and the title roles in adaptations of Cinderella and Aladdin.

Freema Agyeman (born Frema Agyeman on 20 March 1979) is a British television and film actress who is best known for playing Martha Jones, former companion of the Tenth Doctor in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and its spin-off series Torchwood.

March 19

Sir (Walter) Norman Haworth FRS (19 March 1883, White Coppice, Chorley, Lancashire – 19 March 1950, Barnt Green, Worcestershire) was a British chemist best known for his groundbreaking work on ascorbic acid (vitamin C) while working at the University of Birmingham. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C". The prize was shared with Swiss chemist Paul Karrer for his work on other vitamins.
Haworth worked out the correct structure of a number of sugars, and is known among organic chemists for his development of the Haworth projectionthat translates three-dimensional sugar structures into convenient two-dimensional graphical form.

In 1912 Haworth became a lecturer at United College of University of St Andrews in Scotland and became interested in carbohydrate chemistry, which was being investigated at St Andrews by Thomas Purdie (1843–1916) and James Irvine (1877–1952). Haworth began his work on simple sugars in 1915 and developed a new method for the preparation of the methyl ethers of sugars using methyl sulfate and alkali (now called Haworth methylation). He then began studies on the structural features of the disaccharides. Haworth organized the laboratories at St Andrews University for the production of chemicals and drugs for the British government during World War I (1914–1918).

He was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Armstrong College (Newcastle upon Tyne) of Durham University in 1920. The next year Haworth was appointed Head of the Chemistry Department at the college. It was during his time in the North East of England that he married Violet Chilton Dobbie.

In 1925 he was appointed Mason Professor of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham (a position he held until 1948). Among his lasting contributions to science was the confirmation of a number of structures of optically active sugars: by 1928, he had deduced and confirmed, among others, the structures of maltose, cellobiose,lactose, gentiobiose, melibiose, gentianose, raffinose, as well as the glucoside ring tautomeric structure of aldose sugars.

In 1933, working with the then Assistant Director of Research (later Sir) Edmund Hirst and a team led by post-doctoral student Maurice Stacey (who in 1956 rose to the same Mason Chair), having properly deduced the correct structure and optical-isomeric nature of vitamin C, Haworth reported the synthesisis of the vitamin. Haworth had been given his initial reference sample of "water-soluble vitamin C" or "hexuronic acid" (the previous name for the compound as extracted from natural products) by Hungarian physiologist Albert Szent-György, who had codiscovered its vitamin properties along with Charles Glen King, and had more recently discovered that it could be extracted in bulk from Hungarian paprika. In honor of the compound's antiscorbutic properties, Haworth and Szent-Györgyi now proposed the new name of "a-scorbic acid" for the molecule, with L-ascorbic acid as its formal chemical name.

March 18

Patrick Barlow (born 18 March 1947) is an English actor, comedian and playwright. His comedic alter ego, Desmond Olivier Dingle, is the founder, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the two-man National Theatre of Brent, which has performed on stage, on television and on radio.

Barlow is the scriptwriter, as well as lead performer, in many National Theatre of Brent productions, in particular All the World's a Globe (1987), Desmond Olivier Dingle's Compleat Life and Works of William Shakespeare (1995) and The Arts and How They Was Done (2007). In non-Theatre of Brent performances, he wrote and played in the 4-part situation comedy for radio called The Patrick and Maureen Maybe Music Experience which ran for four weeks from January 1999.
He played the part of Om in the radio adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Small Gods (2006), which was adapted by Robin Brooks.
Patrick Barlow wrote a stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps which premiered in June 2005 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.After revision, the play opened at London's Tricycle Theatre in August 2006, and after a successful run transferred to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly in September 2006.The play has also been performed on Broadway since early 2008, in Australia by the Melbourne Theatre Company in April 2008. and in Wellington, New Zealand, by Circa Theatre in July/August 2009 and in Bancroft, Ontario by Blackfly Theatre in July 2011.

March 17

Edmund Kean was born this day( 4 November 1787 – 15 May 1833). He was an English actor, regarded in his time as the greatest ever.Kean was born in westminister London. His father was probably Edmund Kean (see Ó Catháin), an architect’s clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th century composer and playwright Henry Carey.

It was in the impersonation of the great creations of Shakespeare’s genius that the varied beauty and grandeur of the acting of Kean were displayed in their highest form, although probably his most powerful character was Sir Giles Overreach in Philip Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts, the effect of his first performance of which was such that the pit rose en masse, and even the actors and actresses themselves were overcome by the terrific dramatic illusion. His main disadvantage as an actor was his small stature. Coleridge said, "Seeing him act was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning."

If the range of character in which Kean attained supreme excellence was narrow, no one except David Garrick was so successful in so many great roles. Unlike Garrick, Kean had no true talent for comedy, but in the expression of biting and saturnine wit, of grim and ghostly gaiety he was unsurpassed.

His eccentricities at the height of his fame were numerous. Sometimes he would ride recklessly on his horse, Shylock, throughout the night. He was presented with a tame lion with which he might be found playing in his drawing-room.

The prize-fighters Mendoza and Richmond the Black were among his visitors. Grattan was his devoted friend.

Several theatrical works have been based on Kean's life:

• Kean, a drama by Alexandre Dumas, père, 1836
• Kean, a comedy by Jean-Paul Sartre, 1953 (produced 1954 with Pierre Brasseur, revived London 2007 starring Antony Sher)
• Kean, a Broadway musical by Peter Stone, Robert Wright, and George Forrest, 1961
• Kean IV, a tragicomedy by Grigoriy Gorin, 1991

March 16

Benjamin Patrick Aris (16 March 1937 – 4 September 2003) was an English actor who was best known for his parts in Hi-de-Hi! and To the Manor Born, and was also very active on stage. He was often cast as an eccentric, upper-class man.

Clive Morton (16 March 1904 – 24 September 1975) was an English actor best known for playing upper class Englishmen, he made many screen appearances, especially on television. In 1955, he appeared in Laurence Olivier's Richard III and is recalled by fans of Doctor Who for his role as Trenchard in The Sea Devils in 1972. He was Commander Rogue in the first series of the fondly-remembered children's TV series Rogue's Rock in 1974. One of his last roles was as an aged butler in an episode of Upstairs Downstairs.

March 15

Howard Devoto (born Howard Andrew Trafford, 15 March 1952, Scunthorpe, England) is an English rock and roll singer-songwriter, who began his career as the frontman for the punk band Buzzcocks, but then left to form Magazine, one of the first post-punk bands. After Magazine, he went solo and later formed indie band Luxuria.

His singing has been characterized as a "speak-sing voice that veered between amused croon and panicked yelp."

Dame Cicely Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), DBE, better known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was an English author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon(1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund.Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.

March 14

Bill Owen

William John Owen Rowbotham MBE (14 March 1914 – 12 July 1999), better known as Bill Owen, was an English actor and songwriter.

Born in London, he made his first film appearance in 1944 but did not achieve lasting fame until the 1970s, when he took the starring role of Compo Simmonite in the long-running British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. Owen's character is a scruffy working class pensioner, often exploited by the bossy characters played by Michael Bates, Brian Wilde, Michael Aldridge and Frank Thornton for dirty jobs, stunts and escapades, while their indomitably docile friend Norman Clegg, played by Peter Sallis, follows and watches with a smirk. He wore a woollen hat and spent much of his time lusting after dowdy housewife Nora Batty. As Compo, Owen saw off several co-stars. The series, starting in 1973 and finishing in 2010, is today the world's longest-running comedy series. Owen became an icon, a darling of its audience and central to its success and episodes for 26 years, right until his death.^[1] The threesome of Compo, Clegg and Foggy (this third character was initially Blamire, played by Michael Bates and when Brian Wilde's Foggy took a hiatus, replaced by Michael Aldridge's Seymour Utterthwaite) remains the most popular group of three the show ever produced.

In 1958, Owen presented a music panel/programme titled Dad You're A Square for ATV. It ran for one series, and only one episode exists in the archive of ITV. In the series Floyd On TV - the one-series follower to Clive James On Television - Floyd showed viewers a clip from the show (leaving the audience to work out who the "to be" scruffy presenter was).

During the 1960s, Owen had a successful second career as a songwriter, with compositions including the hit, Marianne, recorded by Cliff Richard. At this time he also collaborated with songwriter Tony Russell on the musical The Matchgirls about the London matchgirls strike of 1888. He co-starred as Spike Milligan's straight man in the West End hit "Son of Oblomov" in 1964.

Bill Owen was a regular in the early Carry On films. He also had a cameo appearance in Brideshead Revisited as Lunt, Charles Ryder's scout during his days at the University of Oxford. He also featured in several Lindsay Anderson films including O Lucky Man! (1973) and In Celebration (1974).

March 13

Kaya Rose Scodelario (born Kaya Rose Humphrey; 13 March 1992) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Effy Stonem in the E4 drama Skins. Scodelario was born in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, UK on 13 March 1992 to an English father and a Brazilian mother. Her parents divorced when she was a child and she was brought up by her mother, subsequently adopting her surname and becoming fluent in Portuguese. Her father, Roger Humphrey, passed away on 22 November 2010. Scodelario was bullied during her early childhood and dealt with low self-esteem, which led to her passion for drama becoming an outlet. She revealed she has dyslexia, saying, "Watching an interesting doc on BBC Three about dyslexia, something that I have struggled with my whole life. It really affected my self-esteem."

March 12

Stephen Percy "Steve" Harris (born 12 March 1956) is an English musician and songwriter, known as the bassist, occasional keyboardist,backing vocalist, primary songwriter and founder of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He is the only member of Iron Maiden to have remained in the band since their inception and, along with guitarist Dave Murray, to have appeared on all of their albums.

Harris has a recognisable and popular style of bass playing, particularly the "gallop" which can be found on several Iron Maiden recordings. In addition to his role as the band's bass player and backing vocalist, he has undertaken many other roles for the group, such as producing and co-producing their albums, directing and editing their live videos and performing studio keyboards. He is considered to be one of the greatest metal bassists of all time.

On 24 September 2012, Harris released his debut solo album, British Lion.

March 11

On this day in 1997, Paul McCartney, a former member of the most successful rock band in history, The Beatles, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his "services to music." The 54-year-old lad from Liverpool became Sir Paul in a centuries-old ceremony of pomp and solemnity at Buckingham Palace in central London.

Russell Dean Lissack (born 11 March 1981) is an English musician best known as the lead guitarist of London based indie rock band, Bloc Party. Lissack is also in the electronica band Pin Me Down; a duo of himself and Milena Mepris. He has recently joined Northern Irish rock band Ash as a touring guitarist.

March 10

William Etty

(b York, 10 Mar. 1787; d York, 13 Nov. 1849). English painter, one of the few British artists to specialize almost exclusively in the nude. He spent most of his career in London, where he trained at the Royal Academy Schools and then (1807–8) with Lawrence, who had a great influence on him; this was later modified by the impact of Venetian art, which he admired on a lengthy tour of France and Italy in 1822–4. Etty's paintings are often of mythological or historical subjects, sometimes on an ambitious scale, but he also made life studies in the RA Schools throughout his career, and these are now probably his most admired works. He was often attacked for the alleged indecency of his work, The Times considering it ‘entirely too luscious for the public eye’.

March 9

9 March – 14 July 2013. The V&A reveals the majesty of the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I to Ivan the Terrible and the early Romanovs in a major exhibition celebrating 500 years of exchange between Britain and Russia. Comprising more than 150 objects, from royal portraits, jewellery and luxury goods to processional armour and heraldry, Treasures of the Royal Courts chronicles the close relationship between the English monarchy and the Russian Tsars.

                                        Treasures of the Royal Courts: About the Exhibition

Experience the majesty of the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I to Ivan the Terrible and the early Romanovs in a major exhibition at the V&A. From royal portraits, costume and jewellery to armour and heraldry, Treasures of the Royal Courts tells the story of diplomacy between the British Monarchy and the Russian Tsars through more than 150 magnificent objects.

A rarely-shown painting of Elizabeth I, Shakespeare's First Folio, a suit of armour tailor-made for Henry VIII and the legendary ruby-studded Drake Star reveal the spectacular world of kings, queens, merchants and courtiers from 1509 to 1685. At the heart of the exhibition is the beautiful English and French silver given to the Tsars by the British royal family, on exclusive loan from the Moscow Kremlin Museums in celebration of 500 years of Anglo-Russian exchange.

March 8

Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb on 8 March 1958) is an English singer, composer and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" (as Tubeway Army) and "Cars". His signature sound consists of heavy synthesiser hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.

Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music. His use of themes from science fiction and his combination of aggressive punk energy with electronics have been widely imitated.