Villaphan04 Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On 17/01/2024 at 03:40, Spoony said: I’ve been listening to a podcast called Real Dictators and they were talking briefly about Gavrilo Princip. If you don’t know who that is, he is the guy that shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand which is broadly accepted as the match that lit World War I. Granted everyone was looking for an excuse to kill the each other anyway, but it just occurred to me that the man that arguably triggered one of the deadliest conflicts in human history just isn’t a known name. Because there’s a break in Villa football and winter is boring, I was wondering what snippets people can offer up as people who are significant / ought on paper to be really well known by name but just aren’t. edit: title amended due to controversy and furious anger love that podcast. it is quite informative and goes well. 6 hours ago, Rds1983 said: Jeremy Bentham. Was born in 1748 and was a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism. He advocated individual and economic freedoms, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression, equal rights for women, the right to divorce, and (in an unpublished essay) the decriminalising of homosexual acts. He called for the abolition of slavery, capital punishment, and physical punishment, including that of children. He has also become known as an early advocate of animal rights. Hundreds of years ahead of his time and did a lot of good. Learned about him in my economics courses. Very interesting man and one of the main men behind classical liberalism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted January 18 VT Supporter Share Posted January 18 1 minute ago, Villaphan04 said: Learned about him in my economics courses. Very interesting man and one of the main men behind classical liberalism. Yeah, I learned about him at uni too. More I learnt more I admired his views and his bravery to champion them at that time. He's admittedly not perfect but nobody is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted January 18 Moderator Share Posted January 18 You’ve all heard of Arthur Ransome? The Author of Swallows and Amazons series of kids books… Yeah that’s not really the most significant thing he did in his life. I watched this last night and wondered how I never knew all this. The Secret Life of Arthur Ransome (BBC4 iPlayer) Quote The secret life of the Swallows and Amazons author He was in Russia before during and after the Russian Revolution. He brokered peace between Estonia and the Bolsheviks (that’s a mental story in itself) but he pretty much also came up with he idea for the Red Army itself. He was very close to Lenin, Trotsky and Radek. He was an asset of he secret service but they also thought he was a double agent at the same time. It’s an absolutely bonkers story. 1 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted January 18 Moderator Share Posted January 18 Caresse Crosby? Libertine, drinker, serial marry-er and scandalous Parisien, who would row down the Seine in a bikini to the delight of builders everywhere. Topless partygoer, racehorse owner, opium addict, swinger, writer of erotica, art collector, friend of Salvador Dali, anti-war protestor, founder of Women against War and founder and owner of a publishing house that published the early works by Anais Nin, Bukwoski, Miller, Joyce, Ezra Pound, Faulkner and Hemmingway, Oh and she also invented the bra. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted January 18 VT Supporter Share Posted January 18 (edited) It’s going to be difficult to say a name that absolutely no one has heard of in Off topic on VT as I sense the vast majority of us tumble down rabbit holes on Wikipedia or similar. So I’m only thinking of people whom I think probably don’t quite have the public recognition their work merited. Beryl Vertue is a name that might be recognisable to anyone who has watched a mainstream UK sitcom but her impact is probably less well known. Starts off as an admin role, typing up Goon show scripts. I can’t quite tell how it happened but it comes across to me as “We need someone to sort our contracts out…let’s ask the secretary to do it.” And then she becomes an agent to Galton & Simpson, Hancock, Spike Milligan, Eric Sykes, Frankie Howerd… And then was the person who was tasked with selling the rights to the US for versions of UK sitcoms. So basically G&S would have made a good amount from “Sanford & Son” and other writers benefit from her work. Also I’d never heard of Pauline Boty until the other day. Hers seems like the sort of life that would provoke a bio drama in one form or another. Edited January 18 by Mark Albrighton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted January 18 Moderator Share Posted January 18 2 hours ago, ender4 said: Who? And why? Vasily Arkhipov was a Russian naval officer who declined, as the last man in the chain, to authorise nuclear missile strikes against the USA during the Cuban missile crisis/ bay of pigs shenanigans. Probably wiklipeja will have rather more detail, or yahoogle, or ask altavista - whoever is your search engine of choice. An alternative spyhowhdstbmpnho…is maybe Thomas Paine. Truly staggering what he was involved in, got up to and so on. He does have a beer named after him, so that’s nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NurembergVillan Posted January 18 Moderator Share Posted January 18 I presume all you clever (and/or older) lot have already heard of Teddy Tinling - fashion designer, author, spy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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