Alderman James Harmer: His Colourful Life (1777–1853)
A City of London alderman whose career in the criminal courts, and in the reform of them, made him one of the best-documented Harmers of his century.
Stories of historic Harmer's lives drawn out of the Association's research and written up in full. Every one is free to read — no membership needed, and no genealogical knowledge assumed.
Discover famous harmers as stand alone stories. There are many more availabe in our archive of newsletters
A City of London alderman whose career in the criminal courts, and in the reform of them, made him one of the best-documented Harmers of his century.
A soldier turned painter who settled in California and built a body of work recording the missions and people of the American Southwest.
She left a salon to learn to fly, and became the first woman to pilot Concorde — a career change with very little precedent in British aviation.
A working life spent on the variety stage, in an industry that left behind playbills and press notices but few personal papers.
Not one life but many — the long account of how Harmer families crossed the Atlantic and what became of them once they had.
A prizefighter in the bare-knuckle years who found himself, improbably, employed in the protection of the King.
The story of one crew, one aircraft and a name chosen in deliberate defiance of superstition.
Stone mason, potter and surveyor, whose terracotta grave plaques can still be found in East Sussex churchyards two centuries on.
A life given to an institution and the children in it, remembered by a title nobody formally conferred.
A naval career that reads like fiction, pieced together from service records, despatches and the accounts of those who sailed with him.
A Victorian woman travelling far beyond the range most of her contemporaries ever managed, and the record she left of it.
A photograph, a bundle of letters, a name that turned out to be more interesting than anyone expected. If there is a life in your family worth writing up, tell us about it — we will help with the research.
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