1640) Alan Rufus

Alan Rufus, alternatively Alanus Rufus (Latin), Alan ar Rouz (Breton), Alain le Roux (French) or Alan the Red (c. 1040 – 1093), 1st Lord of Richmond. Breton nobleman, kinsman and companion of William the Conqueror (Duke William II of Normandy) during the Norman Conquest of England. He was the second son of Eozen Penteur (also known as Eudon, Eudo or Odo, Count of Penthièvre) by Orguen Kernev (also known as Agnes of Cornouaille). William the Conqueror granted Alan Rufus a significant English fief, later known as the Honour of Richmond, in about 1071.

He was one of the richest and most powerful men of England. Alan is mentioned as a lord or tenant-in-chief in 1,017 entries of the Domesday Book, behind only King William I and Robert, Count of Mortain in the number of holdings. The most powerful magnate in East Anglia and Yorkshire, he also possessed property in London, in Normandy (e.g. in Rouen and Richemont), and in Brittany. Alan Rufus is third (not including the King and his immediate family) among the barons in terms of annual income, which was about £1,200. His income in the year of his death, 1093, was £1,100.
Alan donated large sums to a number of religious houses, but most famously founded, with King William II, the Benedictine St Mary's Abbey in York in early 1088.

 

- "Il est appelé le Roux à cause de la couleur de ses cheveux et pour le distinguer de son neveu Alain le Noir." [He is called the Red for the colour of his hair and to distinguish him from his nephew Alan the Black.]" https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_le_Roux

- "A little known French immigrant, Alan Rufus, also known as Alan the Red (Alain le Roux) due to the color of his hair, was the wealthiest person in British history, according to a book entitled The Richest of The Rich, by Philip Beresford and William D Rubinstein, 2007." https://www.bbsa2z.com/blog/post/alan-rufus--one-of-historys-wealthiest

 

1639) Ninian Beall

Ninian Beall (1625-1717). Founder of Georgetown.
Born in Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, he fought in the battle of Dunbar (3 Sept. 1650) against Cromwell, but he was made prisoner and sentenced to five years' servitude. He was sent with 150 other Scottish men to Barbadoes, West Indies.
In 1652, Beall entered into another indentured servant arrangement and migrated to Maryland. After his term was over, he ended up with a large stretch of land and began to gain power and influence. He became a member of the Maryland House of Burgesses and held a high position in Maryland’s Provincial Forces. He also was one of the first settlers of the area now known as Georgetown, owning nearly 800 acres of land, which he named the Rock of Dumbarton in homage to his home country.
At 42, Beall married 16-year-old Ruth Moore and fathered twelve children.

 

- "Ninian lived well into his 90s and his grave was exhumed sometime during the 1970s and they found that he stood at 6 foot 7 inches tall and there was evidence that he had red hair." https://dunaganfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/07/asa-griggs-candler-founder-of-coke.html

- "When his body was removed, his skeleton was found to be perfect, and measured six feet seven inches and his hair had grown long and retained its youthful color of red." https://it.findagrave.com/memorial/25527218/ninian-beall

 

1638) Juana Alfonsa Milán y Quiñones de León

 Juana Alfonsa Milán y Quiñones de León (1916-2005). Illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who had her from the Irish nanny Beatrice Noon (but some claim she was Scottish).
After her birth, she was sent to Paris to be educated by José María Quiñones de León, ambassador of Spain in France, great friend of the King and later his executor. The child was registered with the name Jeanne-Alphonsine Milán and her birth was placed in the capital of France. The surname has an uncertain origin. Some believe that it is a memory of the duque de Milán, one of the titles that Alfonso XIII used in his sentimental escapades.
She was endowed with great intelligence and a prodigious memory, so she acquired an extensive culture, learned to speak five languages ​​without an accent and to play the piano. Later, when she reached the appropriate age, she was sent to a very strict school in Grenoble where young girls belonging to the great French families were educated.
Juana Alfonsa always thought that the ambassador was her grandfather, although she also professed a certain affection for a very special friend, Alfonso XIII, who visited the faithful Quiñones de León a couple of times a year.
In 1936, when she was 21 years old, she found out that she was the daughter of the King of Spain. During the occupation of Paris she settled in Geneva and when Alfonso XIII died in 1941 she received one million pesetas, a fortune at that time.
She began to behave erratically and squander the money bequeathed by her father. However, happiness, like money, seemed to slip through her fingers. And so did love. Lovers followed one another. She had four children - from different fathers - whom she barely cared for. One of the children died in a French hospice.
In 1972 she was in Spain, where she was sentenced to six years of prison for falsification of commercial documents. In 1993, Juana Alfonsa was living in Madrid. Her father's fortune had long since been lost in the excesses of a life without direction. She barely received 50,000 pesetas a month (300 euros) from the administrators of her father's estate.
One day in 1994 she suffered a fall. The social workers and the people who looked after her managed to admit her to the Hospital de la Fuenfría in Cercedilla. There, given her condition as a patient with a long recovery period, she shares a corridor with terminally ill patients. She faces the human drama although she is happy there because she discovers that the centre was inaugurated by her father. She was never able to take care of herself again. In 2001 she got a place in a nursing home in Mirasierra. She did not go unnoticed: she frequented the cafeteria and even wrote some articles in Ecos de Mirasierra, the center's magazine.

 

- "Debió de ser un bebé robusto, rubensino, de piel blanquísima y pelusilla pelirroja como lo era el cabello de su madre Beatriz Noon... Según el historiador Ramón de Franch, el exilio especuló con que aquella joven de abundante cabello pelirrojo y ademanes refinados era la nueva amante del Rey." [She must have been a robust bay, ruddy, with white skin and red hair like her mother Beatrice Noon... According to the historian Ramón de Franch, the exiles speculated that this young woman with abundant red hair and refined manners was the King's new lover.] https://www.elmundo.es/loc/famosos/2023/05/02/6450c4ade4d4d8eb0f8b4576.html 

 

1637) Marie Thérèse Antoinette Raphaëlle, Dauphine of France

Marie Thérèse Antoinette Raphaëlle, Dauphine of France (1726 – 1746). Daughter of King Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese and wife of Louis, Dauphin of France, son of King Louis XV. The Dauphine died aged 20, three days after giving birth to a daughter who died in 1748.

 

- "Although the Dauphine was described as beautiful, dignified, pious and well educated, negative remarks were made because of her red hair." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Teresa_Rafaela_of_Spain

 

1636) José Ruiz y Blasco

José Ruiz y Blasco (1838 – 1913). Spanish painter, art teacher, and father of artist Pablo Picasso.

He was born in Málaga, Spain and grew up in a middle-class family. At 42 years of age, he married María Picasso López (1855-1938), who was 17 years younger than him. The couple had three children; Pablo, Dolores and Concepción.

From 1875 to 1890, José Ruiz y Blasco worked as an art teacher at the Escuela Provincial de Bellas Artes San Telmo. He specialised in still lifes, landscapes, and images of doves and pigeons. He also worked as curator and restorer at the Museo Municipal in Málaga. In 1891 he moved his family to A Coruña and taught at the Escuela de Bellas Artes.

Ruiz y Blasco attempted to achieve an income from his paintings, but was unsuccessful. He exhibited his work twice in A Coruña but received lukewarm reviews. As a result, he decided to give up these aspirations. In 1895 he moved to Barcelona and taught at the Escuela de Bellas Artes ("La Lonja").

Early in his son's life, Ruiz y Blasco recognised the artistic talent of Pablo. He began to teach him art at the age of seven. In Barcelona, Ruiz y Blasco was a model for his son's artwork and Pablo made numerous portraits of his father. Ruiz y Blasco also helped his son to create some of his artworks, including Science and Charity. He also rented a studio to help Picasso to work.

Later in life, Picasso admitted to the photographer Brassaï the reason why he painted so many bearded men: "Yes, they are all bearded, do you know why? Every time I draw a man, I accidentally think of my father. For me, the man is Don José and he will be like that all my life..."

 

- "José Ruiz Blasco (Málaga, 1838-Barcelona, 1913), padre de Picasso, era muy alto y delgado, pelirrojo, pálido, pecoso; estas características hicieron que fuera apodado “el inglés”. [José Ruiz Blasco, father of Picasso, was very tall and thin, red-haired, pale and freckled. These features earned him the nickname of "the Englishman"] https://www.diariosur.es/.../vidas-obras-sombra-genio...

 

 

1635) Sergey Petrovich Botkin

Sergey Petrovich Botkin (1832 – 1889). Russian clinician, therapist, and activist, one of the founders of modern Russian medical science and education. He introduced triage, pathological anatomy, and post mortem diagnostics into Russian medical practice.
In early 1860s, Botkin was assigned as an advising member of the medical board of the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1873 he was also made Head Surgeon to the Emperor, having been among the court physicians for Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III. Furthermore, the same year he was elected president of the Medical Association of St. Petersburg.
His brother Vasily was a prominent writer and his brother Mikhail was a painter and well-known art collector. His son, Dr. Eugene Botkin, was murdered with Nicholas II and the Tsar's family on 16/17 July 1918 by the Bolsheviks.

- "His head... being quite big, was fringed by strands of very thin light auburn hair with some gray..." https://historymedjournal.com/HOM/index.php/medicine/article/download/182/155/301 

 

1634) Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith (born Margaret Natalie Smith, 1934 – 2024). British actress known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles.
She had an extensive career on stage and screen for over seven decades and was one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for six Olivier Awards. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.
Smith began her stage career as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. Over the following decades she established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. On Broadway, she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and Tom Stoppard's Night and Day (1979), and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990).
Smith won Academy Awards for Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978). She was Oscar-nominated for Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985) and Gosford Park (2001).
She married actor Robert Stephens in 1967. They had two sons, actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens and were divorced in 1975. Later that year Smith married playwright Alan Beverly Cross and they remained married until his death in 1998.
Smith was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.

- "She was very striking with that red hair, very thin, very tall." https://www.vogue.com/article/dame-maggie-smith-obituary

- "Smith was red-haired, wore braces as a kid and had a lot of freckles." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/maggie-smith-oscar-favourite-is-a-glorious-antidote-to-the-selfabsorption-of-so-many-in-her-profession-a6734096.html

- "“Maggie Smith’s red-haired Desdemona is a beautifully vibrant, sensitive lass who accepts the realization of her doom with pathetic submissiveness.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/maggie-smith-has-died-at-89-after-iconic-career-in-harry-potter-movies-and-downton-abbey

- "A master at classical and contemporary roles who was as renowned for her subtlety as for her broad-stroke mannerisms, the red-haired Smith delighted several generations of theatergoers on both sides of the Atlantic..." https://variety.com/2024/legit/news/maggie-smith-dead-harry-potter-1236157839/

- "The girl who effects this contrast is a British actress with dark red hair, a smile that could win a war or at least make one worth losing, and “a light in her eye” https://time.com/archive/6833053/actresses-maggie-maggie/

 

1633) Françoise Gilot

 Françoise Gaime Gilot (1921 – 2023). French painter. Gilot was an accomplished artist, notably in watercolors and ceramics, and a bestselling memoirist of the book Life with Picasso.
Gilot's artwork is showcased in more than a dozen leading museums including the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2021 her painting Paloma à la guitare, a 1965 portrait of her daughter, sold for $1.3 million at Sotheby's in London.
Gilot is also known for her romantic partnership with Pablo Picasso as well as her later marriage to Jonas Salk, the American researcher who developed the first safe polio vaccine.

- “I arrived on time wearing a black velvet dress with a high white lace collar, my dark red hair done up in a coiffure I had taken from a painting of the Infanta by Velázquez.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/style/francoise-gilot-it-girl.html

- "Matisse declares that he wishes to make a portrait of Françoise in which her auburn hair would become green and her complexion light blue." http://www.francoisegilot.com/bio40s.php

 

 

1632) Ebenezer Denny

Ebenezer Denny (1761 – 1822). Soldier during the American Revolutionary War whose journal is one of the most frequently quoted accounts of the surrender of the British at the siege of Yorktown.
He rejoined the army as a lieutenant in the First American Regiment[5] in August 1784, and was active in the Northwest Indian War.
In 1816 he became the first mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.

- "He had red hair and blue eyes." https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/drink-it-in-the-best-place-to-get-drunk-on-pittsburghs-history/

- "He is described at this time as “a slender, fair, blue-eyed, red-headed boy”. https://denneyhomeplace.wordpress.com/2018/10/26/remember-our-ancestors-ebenezer-denny/

- "He was a Revolutionary War hero with red hair and blue eyes..." https://positivelypittsburgh.com/mayors-of-pittsburgh/

 

1631) Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster

Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster (1879 – 1953). Biritish aristocrat and landowner. One of the wealthiest men in the world, he was the son of Victor Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, son of the 1st Duke of Westminster, and Lady Sibell Lumley, the daughter of the 9th Earl of Scarborough.
From his childhood and during his adult life he was known within family circles as "Bendor", which was also the name of the racehorse Bend Or owned by his grandfather the first Duke, which won The Derby in 1880, the year following his grandson's birth. The name is a jovial reference to the ancient lost armorials of the family: Azure, a bend or.
His ancestral country estate in Cheshire, the 54-bedroom Eaton Hall, consisted of 11,000 acres (45 km2) of parkland, gardens and stables. The main residence had its walls hung with master works, paintings by Goya, Rubens, Raphael, Rembrandt, Hals, and Velázquez. An avid participant in the hunting life, the Duke owned lodges reserved for the sport in Scotland and France (the Château Woolsack). For sea excursions, he had his choice of two yachts, Cutty Sark and Flying Cloud. For ground transportation he had 17 Rolls-Royce motor cars and a private train built to facilitate travel from Eaton Hall directly into London, where his townhouse Grosvenor House was located. Grosvenor House was later leased to the United States for use as the American Embassy.
In the First World War the Duke volunteered for front-line combat and served with distinction, showing both initiative in battle and technical skill with motor-cars. While attached to the Cheshire Yeomanry he developed a prototype Rolls-Royce Armoured Car for their use in France and Egypt.
The Duke received the DSO for his exploits in 1916. He was subsequently promoted colonel and on 26 May 1917, he was named honorary colonel of the regiment.
He was appointed Knight Grand Cross, Royal Victorian Order (G.C.V.O.) in 1907.
In Monte Carlo in 1923, Grosvenor was introduced to Coco Chanel by Vera Bate Lombardi. His affair with Chanel lasted ten years. The duke gave her extravagant jewels, costly art, and purchased a home for Chanel in London's prestigious Mayfair district, and in 1927 gave her a parcel of land on the French Riviera at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin where Chanel built her villa, La Pausa.
The Duke married four times and was divorced three times. He left two daughters from his first wife, Constance Edwina (Shelagh) Cornwallis-West. His titles and the entailed Westminster estate passed to his cousin, William Grosvenor, and thence to the two sons of his youngest half-uncle Lord Hugh Grosvenor (killed in action in 1914).

- "There is much that Henry VIII and Bend’Or had in common.... physically they were big men with red hair... Your mother tells me that the baby’s hair is red but she does not think it will stay as his eyelashes are dark’. The reddish hair stayed, as did his family nickname, Bend’Or. Bend’Or told a Cheshire squire that the name came about because his hair matched the light-chestnut forelock and tail of his grandfather’s 1880 Derby winner Bend’Or... He was tall (six foot two) with a dignified bearing, he had fine hair tinged with red, pale-blue eyes in a well-set face, and a manly figure." http://bear.buckingham.ac.uk/550/1/1302467%20Hugh%20Richard%20Arthur%20Grosvenor.pdf

 

1630) Gracie Fields

Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 1898 – 1979). British actress, singer and comedian.

A star of cinema and music hall, she was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the highest paid film star in the world in 1937. Fields was known affectionately as Our Gracie and the Lancashire Lass for never losing her strong, native Lancashire accent.

She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and an Officer of the Venerable Order of St John (OStJ) in 1938, and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1979.

 

- "She was 55 years old, and her famous golden red hair was touched with gray..." https://www.nytimes.com/.../gracie-fields-is-dead-at-81...

 

 

1629) Edna O'Brien

Josephine Edna O'Brien (1930 – 2024). Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet, and short-story writer.

Her works often revolve around the inner feelings of women and their problems relating to men and society as a whole.

In 2015 she was elected to Aosdána by her fellow artists and honoured with the title Saoi. She was the recipient of many other awards and honours, winning the Irish PEN Award in 2001 and the biennial David Cohen Prize in 2019. France made her a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2021. Her short story collection Saints and Sinners won the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the world's richest prize for a short story collection.

 

- "... beautifully dressed in black jacket and skirt with an intricate silver necklace, her red hair perfectly styled." https://www.theguardian.com/.../edna-obrien-90-ireland...

 

- "With her auburn hair, green eyes and Irish country lilt..." https://www.nytimes.com/.../obitua.../edna-o-brien-dead.html

 

-"... the memory of a previous face-to-face conversation allows me easily to summon up images of her auburn hair, flashing green eyes..." https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/201/edited_volume/chapter/1045005

 

- "O’Brien is known for reddish-brown hair that is abundant but not curly." https://www.newyorker.com/.../edna-obrien-is-still...

 

- "Ms. O’Brien was an ageless Celtic beauty, a point not lost on a procession of feature writers who described her as auburn-haired and milky-skinned, with soulful gray-blue eyes.

Robert Gottlieb, Ms. O’Brien’s longtime editor at Alfred A. Knopf in New York, wrote that she “was a glory … with her pale white skin, spectacular red hair, and exotic outfits..." https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/07/28/edna-obrien-irish-novelist-country-girls-dead/

 

 

1628) James A. Reed

James Alexander Reed (1861 – 1944). American Democratic Party politician from Missouri.

Reed served as a city councilor of Kansas City from 1897 to 1898 and as prosecutor of Jackson County from 1898 to 1900. He unsuccessfully prosecuted Jesse E. James, son of the bandit Jesse James, for train robbery in 1899. He was elected Kansas City mayor from 1900 to 1904.

In 1910, he was elected to the US Senate from Missouri as a Democrat. He served in the Senate for three terms, from 1911 to 1929, when he decided to retire. Unlike many members of his party, he opposed the League of Nations. He sought and failed to receive the Democratic nomination for president. He served as chairman of the Committee on Weights and Measures from 1917 to 1921.

One of his biggest contributions to the State of Missouri came in 1913 when as a member of the Senate Banking Committee, he changed his vote to break a deadlock to pass the Federal Reserve Act, which resulted in Missouri getting 2 of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks (in St. Louis and Kansas City). Missouri is the only state with multiple headquarters of the Federal Reserve. Reed was very involved in the Senate Banking Committee's work to improve the Federal Reserve Act, including amendments to strengthen the power and independence of the Federal Reserve Board. President Wilson acknowledged the value of Reed's contributions in a letter sent to him while the bill was pending in committee.

 

- "In the spring of my senior year a little one-room law office sprang up among the sand burrs opposite the college to house a tall virile, red-headed young attorney we knew as “Jim” Reed... Soon he removed to Kansas City and eventually became for eighteen years United States senator from Missouri." http://digamoo.free.fr/ross1936.pdf

 

 

1627) Arthur Harrison “Red” Motley

Arthur Harrison “Red” Motley (1900-1984). American salesman and publisher.

He began his business carreer with an advertising position with Crowell-Collier Publishers in 1928, moved on to become the Detroit Manager in 1935, and then in 1941 he became publisher of American Magazine.

 His success at American Magazine led him to become the president of Parade Magazine (1946–76), where he revived the business by following the recipe for success he developed at American. In 1946 Parade was 5 years old, losing money, and had a circulation of about 2.1 million. When he retired, it was distributed by 116 newspapers, and had a circulation of about 21 million.

He raised millions of dollars for his favorite causes, including the Desert Hospital Foundation in Palm Springs, the Palm Spring Boy’s Club, United Way and his alma mater, University of Minnesota. He was also a hardworking member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

He is the namesake of the Arthur Motley Exemplary Teaching Award at the University of Minnesota. This award recognizes faculty who exemplify the highest standards of teaching and scholarship and who have enhanced the lives of the University’s Liberal Arts students. Red received the University of Minnesota’s highest honor, the Regents Award, and was a charter member of the University of Minnesota Foundation.

He was an important member of the Zeta Psi collegiate fraternity.

In 1985, he was Inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.

His motto was “Nothing Happens Until Somebody Sells Something.” 

 

- "Red, who earned his nickname for his thatch of flaming red hair..." https://zetapsi.org/phi-alpha.../arthur-harrison-red-motley/

 

 

1626) Van Heflin

Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin Jr. (1908 – 1971). American theatre, radio, and film actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. Heflin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Johnny Eager (1942). He also had memorable roles in Westerns such as Shane (1953), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), and Gunman's Walk (1958).

Heflin was the grandfather of actor Ben O'Brien and actress Eleanor O'Brien. He was also the uncle of Marta Heflin and Mady Kaplan, both actresses, and director Jonathan Kaplan. 

 

- "If you prefer your leading men to be conventionally handsome and “by-the numbers” actors, then Heflin, with his unruly red hair and restless protruding eyes, probably won’t appeal." https://filmstruck.tumblr.com/.../fall-in-love-with-van...

 

 

1625) Clive Sinclair

Sir Clive Sinclair (July 1940 - September 2021). English inventor. Perhaps most famous for the much-loved Sinclair Spectrum home computer. He was also an early pioneer of electric vehicles with his Sinclair C5.

After spending several years as assistant editor of Instrument Practice, Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics Ltd in 1961. He produced the world's first slimline electronic pocket calculator (the Sinclair Executive) in 1972. Sinclair then moved into the production of home computers in 1980 with Sinclair Research Ltd, producing the Sinclair ZX80 (the UK's first mass-market home computer for less than £100) and in the early 1980s, the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and the Sinclair QL. Sinclair Research is widely recognised for its importance in the early days of the British and European home computer industry, as well as helping to give rise to the British video game industry.
Sinclair also had several commercial failures, including the Sinclair Radionics Black Watch wristwatch, the Sinclair Vehicles C5 battery electric vehicle, and the Sinclair Research TV80 flatscreen CRT handheld television set. The failure of the C5, along with a weakened computer market, forced Sinclair to sell most of his companies by 1986. Through 2010, Sinclair concentrated on personal transport, including the A-bike, a folding bicycle for commuters which was small enough to fit in a handbag. He also developed the Sinclair X-1, a revised version of the C5 electric vehicle, which never made it to the market.
Sinclair was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 1983 Birthday Honours for his contributions to the personal computer industry in the UK.

1624) Peter Beneson

Peter Benenson (born Peter James Henry Solomon; 1921 – 2005). British barrister, human rights activist and the co-founder, in 1961, of the human rights group Amnesty International along with Seàn MacBride.

Benenson was born in London to a large Jewish family, the only son of British-born Harold Solomon and Russian-born Flora Benenson. His father, an army officer, died from a long-term injury when Benenson was nine, and he was privately tutored by W. H. Auden before attending Eton College. He took his mother's maiden name of Benenson acceding to his dying grandfather’s wishes, the Russian financier Grigori Benenson (1860–1939).

 

- "He was also inordinately modest (rejecting honours, save for belatedly accepting an honorary fellowship of his Oxford college, Balliol), as well as engagingly eccentric, with a twinkle in his eye and a crop of red hair." https://www.theguardian.com/.../dec/04/features.magazine97

 

 

1623) Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux, (1090 – 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard. Abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through the nascent Cistercian Order.

He was sent to found Clairvaux Abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. In the year 1128, Bernard attended the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar, which soon became an ideal of Christian nobility.

Bernard was canonized just 21 years after his death by Pope Alexander III. In 1830 Pope Pius VIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.

 

- "His body was so wasted and worn away, that he seemed to be nothing but skin and bones; his face was ruddie, his hair and beard red, and in his old age white, of a middle stature, rather tall then low." https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VO1BAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1...

 

San Bernardo by Juan Correa de Vivar

 

1622) Pamela Ann Davy

Pamela Ann Davy (1933 – 2018). Australian actress, best known for her roles on British television during the 1960s, such as Doctor Who, The Avengers, No Hiding Place, The Saint and The First Churchills.

After graduating from RADA in 1960, and after early repertory experience, she appeared in many popular TV shows of the day. She married racing car driver Geoffrey Lyndon Archer in 1971, and lived latterly in suburban Hobart, Tasmania, Australia until her death.

 

- "There are other similarities: both are 28, both have red hair, and both wear the trouser suits..." https://www.newspapers.com/.../the-sydney.../16660041/

 

- "Hair color: Red." https://www.famousfix.com/topic/pamela-ann-davy...

 

1621) Keke Geladze

Ekaterine "Keke" Giorgis asuli Geladze (1856/1858 – 1937). Mother of Joseph Stalin.

Born into a family of peasants outside of Gori, in modern Georgia, she married Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, and had three sons; only the youngest, Ioseb, lived. Besarion would leave the family, leaving Geladze to raise her son. Deeply religious, she wanted Ioseb to become a priest, working as a seamstress in Gori in order to pay for his education. Geladze remained in Gori when Ioseb moved to the Tbilisi Spiritual Seminary, and stayed there until his rise to power in the Soviet Union as Joseph Stalin. In her older age Geladze lived in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia; while Stalin wrote to her, he visited rarely, with the last visit in 1935. She died in 1937, and was buried in the Mtatsminda Pantheon in Tbilisi.

 

- "As a teenager, Geladze was apparently quite "an attractive freckled girl with auburn hair." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keke_Geladze

 

- "He adored her: her freckles and red hair resembled those of his mother Keke..." https://erenow.org/biog.../stalinthecourtoftheredtsar/64.php

 

(PS: Stalin's daughter too,  Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva, had red hair)

 

 

1620) Sarah Lawson

Sarah Elizabeth Lawson (1928 – 2023). English actress, best known for her film and television roles.

Lawson trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, then worked in Perth, Ipswich, Felixstowe and London's West End.

Lawson's films have included The Browning Version (1951), The World Ten Times Over and The Devil Rides Out. Her radio work included The Hostage, Inspector West and Kind Sir.

Lawson's work on television included Time and the Conways, An Ideal Husband, Rupert of Hentzau, Corridors of Power, The White Guard, Crown Court (TV series), Bergerac, and Zero One. She made guest appearances in such series as The Avengers, The Saint, Gideon's Way, The Professionals, The Persuaders! and Danger Man. Lawson's most significant television work was in the Granada TV series The Odd Man, starring Moultrie Kelsall and Edwin Richfield.

 

- "Auburn-haired and high-cheekboned, with a beauty described as “copper and cream”..." https://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../sarah-lawson-actress.../

 

- "Auburn-haired British actress of stage and screen, the youngest of three siblings..." https://www.amazon.com/.../amzn1.dv.gti.f823c59e-695e.../

 

 

1619) Enid Lindeman

Enid Lindeman (1892 - 1973). Australian socialite and heiress.

She was the daughter of a wine merchant.

At 21, she married the 45-year-old American shipping tycoon Roderick Cameron. They had a son, Roderick, but soon after Cameron fell ill with cancer and died. He had left everything from his enormous estate to Enid, and she was now a millionaire.

When WWI broke out, Enid moved to Paris to drive an ambulance for the allies.

In 1917 she married the General Frederick Cavendish. They had two childre, Patricia and Frederick, but in 1931 Cavendish died of brain hemorrhage.

In 1933 Enid married again, this time to Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness, a British shipping magnate and the sixth richest man in the world. The marriage was not happy, but by 1940, Furness was seriously ill from cirrhosis of the liver (a consequence of his overindulgence in drink) and died in the month of October in the south of France, turning Enid into a widow for the third time.

At the height of WWII, she managed to get back to England and while she awaited her inheritance from Furness to be settled she met an old boyfriend, the Anglo-Irish aristocrat Valentine Browne, Earl of Kenmare once the most famous gossip columnist in London. The two married in 1943 and moved to Killarney, in Co. Kerry. Eight months later, she was, once again, a widow after Valentine suffered a fatal heart attack. As he died without an heir, Enid, who was fifty-one at the time, fabricated a story that she was pregnant. Remaining at Killarney she kept up the ruse for a year, during which time a baby failed to materialise.

Having been gossiped about the rumour that she had killed four husbands, Somerset Maugham nicknamed her "Lady Killmore".

In her old age Enid lived at Broadlands, a farm in South Africa, from where she bred race horses.

 

- "Standing almost six-feet-tall with red hair and emerald green eyes..." https://themitfordsociety.wordpress.com/tag/enid-cavendish/

 

- "The 21-year-old Enid, nearly six feet tall and with green eyes and red hair..." https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-enid-lindeman

 

 

1618) Ada Nield Chew

Ada Nield Chew (1870 – 1945). Campaigning socialist and British suffragist.

She was one of 13 children and left school at the age of 11 to help her mother take care of the house and family.

In 1897 she married George Chew, an organiser of the Independent Labour Party. Their daughter (and only child), Doris, was born in the following year. Chew then became an organiser for the Women's Trade Union League in 1900, working alongside Mary Macarthur.

In the years leading up to the First World War, Chew became an active supporter of the movement for women's suffrage and became a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. She worked for this body as an organiser from 1911 to 1914.

After the end of the war, and the achievement of women's suffrage in 1918, Chew withdrew from any major involvement in politics, but still worked to improve the working conditions, diet and health of working-class women. She retired from the business in 1930 and undertook a round-the-world tour in 1935.

 

- "Ada’s first public appearance was made the same year: she would have made quite an impression with her handsome look and stunning red hair." https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/lifestyle/23252373.campaign-statue-ada-nield-chew-forgotten-suffragist/

 

- "Ada Nield Chew was very diffident about her personal appearance, but contemporaries record that she was very good-looking, with striking red hair." https://openlearnlive-s3bucket.s3.eu

 

 

 

1617) Madeline Kahn

Madeline Gail Kahn (née Wolfson; 1942 – 1999). American actress, comedian, and singer.
She is known for comedic roles in films directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, including What's Up, Doc? (1972), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), and her Academy Award–nominated role in Paper Moon (1973).
Kahn made her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1968, and received Tony Award nominations for the play In the Boom Boom Room in 1974 and for the original production of the musical On the Twentieth Century in 1978. She starred as Madeline Wayne on the short-lived sitcom Oh Madeline (1983–84) and won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1987 for an ABC Afterschool Special. She received a third Tony Award nomination for the revival of the play Born Yesterday in 1989, before winning the 1993 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the comedy The Sisters Rosensweig. Her other film appearances included The Cheap Detective (1978), City Heat (1984), Clue (1985), and Nixon (1995).
Kahn was born in Boston, the daughter of Bernard B. Wolfson, a garment manufacturer, and his wife Freda (née Goldberg). She was raised in a nonobservant Jewish family. Her parents divorced when Kahn was two, and she moved with her mother to New York City. In 1953, Freda married Hiller Kahn, who later adopted Madeline; Freda eventually changed her own name to Paula Kahn.

- "She had beautiful skin and auburn hair, high cheekbones." https://moviestvnetwork.com/lists/mel-brooks-remembers-young-frankenstein

- "She was in her early 50s at the time, her red hair was curled and styled, not long..." https://madeline-kahn-being-the-music.blogspot.com/2009/ 

- "In the school-of-Brooks comedy, The Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975), directed and starring Gene Wilder, she was a red-haired mystery woman..." https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/dec/06/guardianobituaries2