Weymouth Holidays - Weymouth's Famous Historical People
In 1675, Painter Sir James Thornhill was born at the White Hart pub in Weymouth's town centre. Although he was elected the town's MP in 1722, he was more well known for his interior design work at Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, Chatsworth House and St Pauls Cathedral. Closer to home, he painted The Last Supper over the altar in St Mary's Church, Weymouth as well as a portrait of Jack Sheppard, the infamous highwayman who was hanged at Tyburn in 1724.
In 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson finally defeated Napolean's fleet at the battle of Trafalgar but was killed in the battle and died in the arms of Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy, a Dorset man who lived just outside Weymouth at Portesham.
Landscape artist John Constable and his wife Maria lived briefly in Weymouth in 1816 when they spent six weeks on honeymoon at Osmington. During this time Constable painted several views of Weymouth Bay, the most famous being a view from Osmington looking across to Weymouth and Portland.
Although novelist Thomas Hardy is usually associated with nearby Dorchester (Hardy's Casterbridge), he lived at 3 Wooperton Street, Weymouth (Hardy's Budmouth Regis) in 1870 when the architect's firm he had been working for in Dorchester was bought out by Weymouth architects and builders G. R. Crickmay. However, Budmouth is mentioned in Hardy's novels much more frequently than Casterbridge. In 'Under the Greenwood Tree', written partly while Hardy was staying in Weymouth, we are told "The scene was the corner of Mary Street in Budmouth-Regis, near the King's statue". In 'Far From the Madding Crowd', Sergeant Troy visits Budmouth Races on several occasions. Weymouth races used to be held on Lodmoor, which is now part of an RSPB nature reserve. Similarly, there is a village called Overcombe, which overlooks Lodmoor. However, the village of Overcombe that features in Hardy's 'The Trumpet Major' is based on Sutton Poyntz, a village a few miles to the east. In 'The Return of the Native', the heroine Eustacia Vye says "I was happy enough at Budmouth. O the times, O the days at Budmouth!"
Thomas Burberry, the man who invented the Burberry coat (a weatherproof made of gaberdine), lived at Abbotts Court in Radipole during the First World War.
Marie Stopes, made famous for her liberated views on birth control, sex and marriage, died in 1958 at the age of 78 and had her ashes scattered off of Portland Bill. In the early 1920s, she bought Avice's Cottage at Wakeham on Portland and also lived at the disused Higher Lighthouse at Portland Bill. Her son Harry married the daughter of scientist Barnes Wallace, whose famous 'bouncing bombs' used in the Second World War Dambusters raid were tested at the Fleet, just round the coast from Weymouth.