Harry Evans was born in 1873 in Mertyhr Tydfil, one of ten children. He was the son of a local choirmaster and showed such talent at music that his local church appointed him as their organist when he was aged just nine. Harry’s church paid for him to remain at school until aged fourteen and […]

One of the statues in St John’s Gardens, Liverpool commemorates ship owner and politician Sir Arthur Bower Forwood. Born on 23rd June 1836, Forwood was the son of Thomas Brittain Forwood of Thornton Hough on Wirral. His middle name Bower was as a reference to his mother’s maiden name. He was educated at Liverpool College […]

The first integrated sewage system in the world was developed in Liverpool in 1848 and overseen by newly appointed Borough Engineer James Newlands. Born in Edinburgh in 1813, Newlands was one of nine children. After distinguishing himself in mathematics and natural philosophy at the High School of Edinburgh in the late 1820s he became apprenticed as […]

Hugh Walter McElroy, the chief purser on the Titanic, was born at 3 Percy Street in Liverpool’s Georgian Quarter  on 28th October 1874. Hugh’s parents were staunch Roman Catholics Richard and Jessie McElroy who originated from County Wexford in Ireland. When he was seven his parents moved to 6 Eversley Street in Toxteth. When Hugh […]

The tomb of William MacKenzie, situated in the graveyard of the former St Andrew’s Church in Rodney Street, Liverpool, is often talked about. It is said that he is not buried there, but instead sat above ground and also that his ghost roams the locality. William Mackenzie was born near Nelson in 1794, the eldest […]

William Wethered was born in Bristol in 1864, the son of a colliery proprietor. He moved to North West England in 1881 and took an interest in saltworks near Fleetwood, which was taken over by United Alkali Co in 1890. He became a director of this if this company which would later go on to […]

Former Everton player Jack Sharp, who opened a sports shop after he finished playing, is the only sportsman to appear for one of Merseyside’s big two clubs and represent England at both football and cricket. Sharp was born in Hereford in 1878 . The youngest of four brothers, he was the son of a butcher. He […]

Sir William Watson, a prominent Victorian poet, was twice overlooked for the role of Poet Laureate, in part due to the political nature of his poetry. Following his death in 1935 he was interred in a family vault at All Saints Church in Childwall, Liverpool, a city whose dignitaries he had severely criticised eleven years earlier. […]

When Liverpool became a Diocese in 1880 the first bishop was John Charles Ryle, who hadn’t intended to choose religion as a career path. Born at Henbury near Macclesfield in 1816, Ryle’s great grandfather on his mother’s side was Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the spinning jenny. He was the son of a banker and […]