Tamara Rojo: from principal dancer to artistic director
The Spanish dancer’s years with British ballet companies encompassed demanding classical roles, new commissions and a decade leading English National Ballet.
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Christopher Wheeldon: from Royal Ballet dancer to international choreographer
The Yeovil-born artist has made story-led ballet for companies in Britain and abroad, including the Royal Ballet’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale.
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Lynn Seymour: the dancer who reshaped story ballet
The Canadian-born ballerina became a defining interpreter of Kenneth MacMillan’s work at the Royal Ballet, and went on to choreograph and lead companies.
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David Bintley: telling stories through ballet
The Huddersfield-born choreographer joined Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in 1976, created works including Hobson’s Choice and Edward II, and led Birmingham Royal Ballet for nearly 24 years.
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Sylvie Guillem
French-born ballerina who performed with the Royal Ballet, known for her technical brilliance and artistic versatility.
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Antony Tudor: the choreographer who brought psychology to ballet
From London’s Ballet Club to American Ballet Theatre, Tudor made classical form a vehicle for complicated human feeling.
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Wayne McGregor: choreography across ballet, technology and film
From Stockport to the Royal Ballet, McGregor has built a career connecting contemporary movement with science, design and popular culture.
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Darcey Bussell: a career shaped at the Royal Ballet
From her 1989 promotion as the Royal Ballet’s youngest principal dancer to television, education and public service, Bussell has carried ballet to wider audiences.
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Kenneth MacMillan: the choreographer who changed British ballet
From his early years as a dancer to the Royal Ballet and beyond, MacMillan brought psychological intensity and new subjects to classical dance.
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Frederick Ashton: shaping an English ballet tradition
From his first choreography in 1926 to the directorship of the Royal Ballet, Ashton built a repertory that joined musical precision, comedy and English character.
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Matthew Bourne: storytelling that reshaped British dance
From his late start in dance to the male swans of Swan Lake, Bourne has made theatrical, narrative-led dance for audiences across generations.
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Rudolf Nureyev
The Soviet-born dancer’s partnership with Margot Fonteyn made the Royal Ballet a stage for a remarkable artistic exchange.
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Margot Fonteyn: a British ballerina on the world stage
From the Vic-Wells Ballet to a celebrated partnership with Rudolf Nureyev, Fonteyn built a career that shaped the Royal Ballet and carried British dance to international audiences.
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Admiral Sir John Fisher and the remaking of the Royal Navy
As First Sea Lord, Fisher drove changes to Britain’s fleet and backed new forms of naval technology.
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Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning
The British airborne commander’s career encompassed two world wars, the planning of Market Garden and a later role in the royal household.
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Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park: the defence of Britain
New Zealand-born RAF commander Keith Park directed the defence of south-east England in 1940, then led air operations from Malta to South-East Asia.
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Major General Sir Isaac Brock: the making of the Hero of Upper Canada
The Guernsey-born British officer helped defend Upper Canada in 1812, captured Detroit and died leading a counterattack at Queenston Heights.
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General Sir Miles Dempsey: the quiet commander of the Second Army
From the Western Front to the Rhine crossing, Dempsey led major British Army formations while remaining notably out of the public eye.
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Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay
The Royal Navy planner who directed the Dunkirk evacuation and commanded the Allied naval forces for D-Day.
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Major General Sir Edward Spears: Britain’s link with France
An officer, MP and wartime intermediary, Spears spent two world wars trying to keep British and French forces working together.
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Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck
The Indian Army commander who halted Rommel at El Alamein and helped sustain the Burma campaign.
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Lieutenant General Sir Brian Horrocks
A corps commander in the Second World War, Horrocks later became Black Rod, a military writer and a familiar television presenter.
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Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart
A Belgian-born British Army officer, Carton de Wiart served in three world wars, won the Victoria Cross and undertook wartime missions in Poland and China.
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John “Mad Jack” Churchill: the commando with bagpipes
A British Army officer whose exploits in Norway, Italy and Yugoslavia combined commandos’ warfare with a broadsword, longbow and pipes.
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Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock: Coronel and its cost
A Royal Navy officer killed at Coronel, Cradock spent his career on distant stations, in rescue work and in command at sea.
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Brigadier General Anthony Farrar-Hockley
A British Army officer whose career encompassed wartime service, Korea, Sandhurst and military history.
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Albert Ball: the Nottingham pilot who became an ace
A Royal Flying Corps fighter pilot, Ball became Britain’s leading ace before his death in France in 1917, aged 20.
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Major General Charles George Gordon
From the Taiping Rebellion to the siege of Khartoum, Gordon’s career became a Victorian legend—and a contested imperial legacy.
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General Sir Peter de la Billière
The British Army officer who commanded British forces during the Gulf War and led the SAS through a period of intense public attention.
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General Sir Charles Monro
From the evacuation of Gallipoli to command in India, Monro held senior British military posts during the First World War.
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Major General Robert Ross: from the Peninsular War to Washington
An Irish-born British Army officer, Ross led the capture and burning of Washington in 1814 before being killed during the campaign against Baltimore.
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General Sir John Hackett: Soldier, Author and Arnhem Survivor
Australian-born, British Army officer Sir John Hackett commanded the 4th Parachute Brigade at Arnhem and later wrote influential accounts of war and military strategy.
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John McCrae: the Canadian doctor behind “In Flanders Fields”
A physician and soldier in Canada’s forces, McCrae wrote a poem that helped shape remembrance of the First World War on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Lieutenant General Sir William Dobbie
The Royal Engineers officer who led Malta through two years of wartime siege also warned of the threat to Singapore from the north.
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Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham
A Royal Navy career from entry as a teenager to Mediterranean command and the office of First Sea Lord.
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General Sir Bernard Freyberg
New Zealand-born soldier who commanded Allied forces at Crete and later served as Governor-General of New Zealand.
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Richard Hillary: Battle of Britain pilot and author
The Anglo-Australian RAF fighter pilot survived devastating burns, wrote The Last Enemy and returned to flying before his death in 1943.
Read the entryGeneral Sir Herbert Kitchener: campaigns, command and legacy
From the Sudan campaign to the First World War, Kitchener became a defining figure in Britain’s military history, remembered for both achievement and controversy.
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Lord Mountbatten: naval command, India and a contested legacy
From wartime operations in Europe and South-East Asia to the hurried partition of British India, Louis Mountbatten’s career combined influence with enduring controversy.
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General Sir Archibald Wavell: command in war and empire
From the Black Watch to the Middle East and India, Wavell’s career spanned two world wars and the end of British rule in India.
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