January 22: Lord Byron

On this date in 1788 George Gordon Byron, Baron Byron of Rochdale was born.

1. Lady Caroline Lamb, one of his lovers, described him as "mad, bad and dangerous to know". Looking at his family history, it may seem hardly surprising. His father was known as Captain "Mad Jack" Byron - Byron's mother was his second wife, Catherine Gordon, the second woman he'd married for her money. (She was heiress of the Gight estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.) Byron used to claim that his father cut his own throat when Byron was three, but that might not have been true. Byron's grandfather was Vice-Admiral the Hon. John "Foulweather Jack" Byron, and the great uncle from whom he inherited his title at the age of ten was the 5th Baron Byron, known as "the Wicked Lord".
2. Lord Byron was born in a department store. Well, he was born in his mother's lodgings, but today a branch of John Lewis stands on the site on Holles Street in London.
3. He had a deformed foot since birth which meant he had a limp all his life. His mother was short and plump, and Byron inherited from her a tendency to put on weight. He'd exercise on the advice of his doctor but his disability made physical activity difficult and possibly painful. Byron, self-conscious about his limp, (he referred to himself as "the limping devil and refused to wear a brace) tried to control his weight with "violent" bouts of exercise, fad diets and purging.
4. In spite of his deformed foot, he nevertheless played Cricket for Harrow school in the first Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's in 1805, and became proficient at boxing, Horse riding and swimming. In fact the sport of open water swimming owes much to Lord Byron. His swim from Europe to Asia across the Hellespont Strait in 1810 was the first recorded notable open water swim and is seen by some as the birth of the sport.
5. His name was George Gordon Noel Byron. The Gordon comes from his mother, and had been adopted by his father in an attempt to claim her estate. When he was at school, Byron used the name "George Byron Gordon." Noel was added later, when his mother-in-law Judith Noel, the Hon. Lady Milbanke died in 1822, leaving him half her estate on condition that he adopted the name.
6. Byron was a great animal lover, and kept any number of pets as well as being a vegetarian for most of his life. He once nursed a pet Dog which had contracted rabies, with no apparent fear of catching the disease. When the dog died, he commissioned a huge memorial for the dog on his estate and stated in his will that he wanted to be buried with his dog. He wanted to take another pet dog to Cambridge university with him, but was told dogs weren't allowed. The rules didn't outlaw all pets, however. There was no mention that Bears weren't allowed, to Byron got himself a pet bear and used to take it for walks around the campus. Other pets he kept as an adult included not only horses, dogs and Cats, but monkeys, peacocks, an eagle, a Crow, a falcon, guinea hens and an Egyptian Crane.
7. He first wrote poetry with the encouragement of a childhood friend, Elizabeth Pigot. At 17, he had some poems published in a collection called Fugitive Pieces - but some of Byron's poetry was described as "amourous" and the book was recalled and burned. His breakthrough work was Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in 1812, which made him a celebrity, which, along with his good looks, made him sought after in London society until rumours about his numerous affairs forced him to leave England and never come back.
8. It was suspected he'd had an affair with his half sister Augusta and that affair had produced a daughter, Medora. He had affairs with both men and women, and stated one difference between the genders was that ‘men were cleverer but women kissed better.’ By the time he was 21, he'd contracted both gonorrhoea and syphilis. Pressure from the rumours and also because he was in debt, Byron started looking for a wife. He married Annabella Millbanke, who had a rich uncle. They had a daughter, Ada Lovelace, but due to Annabella's perception of her husband as insane and still obsessed with Augusta, Annabella left him.
9. Being a Baron meant he had a seat in the House of Lords. Before quitting Britain for good, he'd taken his seat and made a couple of speeches, which he described himself as "theatrical". He opposed the death penalty for Luddites who broke the machines which were putting them out of work. He was opposed to automation in general. He also made a speech supporting Catholic emancipation, declaring that the established religion was unfair to those of other faiths.
10. He was a bit of a war gamer, too, but on a grand scale. He built two small forts on the banks of a lake on his estate from which he would direct the movements of a fleet of toy ships. One of his servants was given the job of sitting in a small boat on the lake to move the ships around as directed.

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