famous peasgoods

Julie Peasgood
Julie Peasgood was born in Lincolnshire. She works as an actress and has appeared in numerous UK TV shows including the long-running soap opera Emmerdale.

Emma Peasgood (nee Manby) and John Frederick Peasgood
Emma Manby was the accidental creator of the Peasgood Nonsuch apple. She was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1844. When she was 16 she planted 5 pips of an unknown cooking apple variety in her garden. Only one pip germinated but it grew into a healthy tree. 5 years later she married John Francis Peasgood and moved to Stamford taking her still fruitless tree with her. The tree didn't produce any apples until 1870 but when it did eventually fruit each apple was of such a size; each one over a pound in weight that on 6th September 1872 Emma entered the apples in the Agricultural show at Burghley Park. She won first prize.

The fruit was presented to the Royal Horticultural Society and was awarded a first class certificate. The notoriety of the fruit increased and during a show at the Guildhall, London a specimen weighing 1lb 12 Oz was presented to Queen Victoria.

Laxton's marketed the fruit from 1872 and described it as "one of the most handsome apples in cultivation".

The Peasgood Nonsuch has since spread the world and been hybridised to create varieties such as the Crimson Peasgood. Legend has it that there was once a Peasgood in the USA known as "Johnny Appleseed" who whizzed about all over the place planting the things.

Not to be outdone by his wife, John F Peasgood invented a new version of Tiddly winks called Bagatelle. The patent was registered in London on 30th May 1891

The first fruit on the Peasgood Nonsuch in my mother's garden near Manchester, England.

Osborne Harold Peasgood
Osborne Harold Peasgood was born in Willesden, Middlesex and was descended from the Stamford Peasgoods. He was Deputy Organist at Westminster Abbey but acted as Organist and Master of the choristers during the war when Sir William McKie was on war service. He was much loved by successive generations of choirboys, and notorious for harmless pranks.

He played the organ at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In addition to playing the organ he arranged music for the instrument. His memorial is in the western cloister at the Abbey.

Thanks to John Peasgood for the character description and the portrait.

Osborne Harold in 1944

The tomb in Westminster Abbey

Harold Peasgood
Harold won an Oscar in 1961 so I think he must count as famous in his time. The citation was:

Scientific or Technical Awards (Class II) 1961: For a process of automatic selective printing. (with James Dale, S. Wilson, H.E. Rice, John Rude, Wadsworth E. Pohl & Laurie Atkin and the Technicolor Corporation.)

"This process employs a unique cueing distance counter combined with an automatic optical printer whereby scenes may be selectively deleted, shortened, or interchanged for different versions of a motion picture without recutting the negative. The system is also applicable to the automatic production of fades and dissolves. "