Ten of the greatest Victorian icons

[Beorn]

1. QUEEN VICTORIA 1819-1901

Let's not pretend the achievements in the age of Queen Victoria (right) were her creation. But she was lucky enough to take the throne in 1837, as Britain was entering its greatest years.

Our present queen has had the reverse experience, and presided over an era in which the Union Flag has been run down all over the world. It's not her fault, and nor was Britain's greatness Victoria's doing.

But she at least knew her limits. Indeed, for much of her reign, after Prince Albert died, she was virtually invisible. But you cannot begin to make a list of eminent Victorians without including her.

2. GENERAL GORDON 1833-1885

Joy's painting (below) of Charles George Gordon's last moments, standing on the steps of the palace in Khartoum, about to be speared to death by a group of Islamist warriors in 1885, once hung on classroom walls across the land, an almost Christ-like impression of sacrifice.

Gordon was apparently fearless and deeply religious, but he was also almost impossible to work with and slightly nuts. He died after holding out in Khartoum for over 300 days, a calamity seized on by the media to wind the British up into a fury for vengeance. Not for the first time, politicians bent the knee to press frenzy and eventually sent Kitchener to mow down the rebels and lop off the head of their leader.

Joy's painting of Charles George Gordon's last moments, standing on the steps of the palace in Khartoum

3. WT STEAD1849- 1912

One of the greatest newspaper editors of all time. At the Pall Mall Gazette, Stead whipped up demands to have General Gordon sent to Khartoum (see No 2). More useful were his campaigns for better housing for the poor, a universal right to vote, freedom for Ireland and better working conditions. His most famous crusade, in which he 'bought' a 13-year-old chimney-sweep's daughter for £5 to expose the extent of child prostitution, landed him in jail. Like Gordon, Stead was slightly unhinged, believing he was receiving messages from the spirit world which he passed on through 'magic writing'. Last seen leading a group of women and children to a lifeboat on the Titanic.

WT Stead was one the greatest newspaper editors of all time (top) and engineer Sir Henry Bessemer (bottom)

4.SIR HENRY BESSEMER 1813-1898

Ask anyone to name a Victorian engineer, ten-to-one they'll say Brunel, not Bessemer. But without the discovery of how to mass-produce mild steel by blowing air through his Bessemer Converter, it would have been impossible to manufacture ships, bridges and railways. Not all his ideas worked. Suffering from sea-sickness, he designed a paddle-steamer with a swinging saloon to always keep passengers perfectly upright. The SS Bessemer turned out to be unsteerable and demolished Calais Pier, also laying waste to his business plans.

Pioneering photographer Julia M Cameron (top) and painter William P Frith (bottom)

5. JULIA M CAMERON 1815-1879

If you haven't seen the pioneering photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron, you've missed a treat. Although she didn't take up a camera until she was nearly 50 - and her portraits are now getting on for 150 years old - they could still teach professionals a lesson or two. Browning, Tennyson, Darwin and Ellen Terry, the great Shakespearean actress of the age, were among the subjects who sat for her.

6. WILLIAM P FRITH 1819-1909

In the paintings of William P Frith you see the chaotic variety of Victorian life. Critics sneered at Derby Day and The Railway Station for generations. Not that Frith would have cared: his work's popularity made him rich. His pictures show story after story. In one he painted himself as a proud father seeing his boys off to Harrow; in addition to the 12 children with his wife, his mistress gave him another seven. With all those school fees to pay, you can understand why he was so prolific.

Scientist Charles Darwin (top) who devised his theory of evolution on the voyage of the Beagle (bottom)

7. CHARLES DARWIN1809-1882

The vast quantity of print that has been expended on Charles Darwin is in danger of obscuring the brilliance of the theory he devised after his natural observations on the voyage of the Beagle. His central proposition - that species were in a continual state of evolution and that only those most suited to their surroundings would survive - struck at many of the orthodoxies of the day, but resonated with a society already subject to gnawing doubts. If not the greatest scientist of all time, then certainly one of the immortals.

Writer Lewis Carroll (top) and the politicians' favourite novelist Anthony Trollope (bottom)

8. LEWIS CARROLL 1832-1898

Poor old Lewis Carroll (the pen name of Charles Dodgson) has had to contend with one modern author after another trying to present him as a sort of pervert, even if neither he nor anyone else thought him one at the time. Yet his Alice stories remain probably the greatest children's fantasy of all. I find it fascinating, in an age when people appeared so confident about conquering the world, everyone seemed to have had such a weakness for fantasy: even sensible people loved paintings of fairies.

9. ANTHONY TROLLOPE 1815-1882

Don't let the fact he is the politicians' favourite novelist stop you appreciating Trollope. The usual accusation is that politicians reach for his name when they need to exhibit some sort of hinterland, because so many of his novels are 'political' in their treatment of Church intrigue. But the Robert Maxwelllike Melmotte in The Way We Live Now is one of the great Victorian creations. Trollope embodies the frenetic sense of industry that underpins Victorian achievement: 47 novels, most knocked out while he worked full-time at the Post Office. (If you've ever used a pillar box, you've benefited from his work.)

The Earl of Shaftesbury saved children from mines, chimneys and industrialists

10. THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY 1801-1885

Even if the name doesn't register, you know the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (right) if you've ever been through Piccadilly Circus. Although now moved to make it easier for traffic to mess up London, and generally shrouded in grunge, attention-seekers and dozy tourists, the statue known as Eros commemorates his work.

He saved children from mines, chimneys and industrialists, gave them education in the Ragged Schools, and was one of the first to see that the mentally ill should be treated as patients, not prisoners or objects of amusement. A great man.

The Victorians' by Jeremy Paxman, BBC Books, £8.99

Source

[Hrimskegg]

Why is Count Dracula not on this list?