Person    | Male  Born 1810  Died 22/6/1874

Howard Staunton

Categories: Sport / Games

British World Chess Champion. Promoted the use of standardised chess pieces, the ones still in use today. Saw the international nature of the 1851 Great Exhibition as an opportunity and organised the first international chess tournament to coincide. At BillWall we lean that this took place at St. George’s Chess Club, Polytechnic Building, Cavendish Square, which we think must be 5 Cavendish Square, the building acquired by the Regent Street Polytechnic in about 1838. Someone needs to erect a plaque there.

No details of his early life are known for certain though it is thought he received little education. He came to London in 1836 and claimed that it was only then that he took an interest in chess.

In later life wrote extensively on Shakespeare. Died at home in Lansdowne Road, at his desk.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Howard Staunton

Commemorated ati

Howard Staunton

Howard Staunton, 1810 - 1874, British World Chess Champion, lived here, 1871 ...

Read More

Other Subjects

William Kinnear

William Kinnear

Oarsman. Born William Nicoll Duthie Kinnear at Balmanno in the Parish of Marykirk, Kincardine, Scotland. He worked as a draper's assistant before moving to Debenhams in London. His colleagues intro...

Person, Sport / Games, Scotland, Sweden

1 memorial
Tom Sayers

Tom Sayers

Boxer Born Pimlico. Worked as a bricklayer building King's Cross Station. Became the first "world champion" boxer. Defeated only once, in a fight that lasted 61 rounds. His 1860 fight with the Amer...

Person, Sport / Games

2 memorials
James Hunt

James Hunt

Racing driver. Born James Simon Wallis Hunt in Belmont, Surrey. Known for his daring on the race track, he was nicknamed 'Hunt the Shunt' (Shunt being a racing term for a crash). He won the Formula...

Person, Sport / Games

1 memorial
Greenman Street Baths / Tibberton Baths

Greenman Street Baths / Tibberton Baths

From London Gardens On-line: "... Tibberton Square until the 1890s when the west side with Wontner's Villa was purchased for new public baths, after the Baths and Wash-Houses Act of 1846-7, which r...

Building, Sport / Games

1 memorial
Hopkin Thomas Maddock

Hopkin Thomas Maddock

A player at the London Welsh Rugby Football Club who was killed in WW1.

Person, Sport / Games

War dead, WW1
1 memorial

Previously viewed

Lady Hetta Empson

Lady Hetta Empson

Sculptor and political activist. Born as Hester Henrietta Crouse in South Africa. Studied art and sculpture. Supported Communism and the black workers in South Africa. Travelled to Europe and drove...

Person, Sculpture, China/Hong Kong, South Africa

1 memorial