Researching John Nicholson

Nicholson was the 1973 and 1974 British Formula Atlantic champion, using a Lyncar chassis and in his 'day job' was an engine-builder for McLaren. Nicholson also worked for Cosworth, Lotus and Embassy Hill, and he prepared a Saab engine for use in a Reynard Formula Three car.

Following his Formula Atlantic success, Nicholson commissioned Martin Slater of Lyncar to build him a Formula One car, despite, by this time, having established his own engine building business, which meant he was unable to commit to a full grand prix season. His race entries, therefore, were mainly in non-championship races. He entered the British Grand Prix in 1974 and 1975 and qualified for the latter race. He was classified 17th, five laps behind, despite crashing in the heavy storm towards the end of the race. Nicholson subsequently planned a further and stronger attempt at Formula One with a privateer McLaren M23 but the purchase of the chassis fell through. He did continue in both Formula Two and Formula 5000 in 1976 before racing in his native New Zealand in January 1977.

After retiring from racing, Nicholson turned his sporting attention to powerboat racing as well as continuing with his business interests.

He died in 2017 at the age of 75.

The son of Joseph and Hannah Scott Nicholson, he was born in Chestertown, Maryland. John Nicholson entered the Continental Navy as Lieutenant in October 1776 and the next month was promoted to Captain to command sloop Hornet.

After the war, he was elected as a member of The Society of the Cincinnati in the state of Maryland in 1786. He was active in public affairs for many years in Maryland, where he died in the summer of 1844.

The ships named USS Nicholson were named for him, his older brothers, James Nicholson and Samuel Nicholson, his son, William Nicholson and his grandnephew, James W. Nicholson.

A charismatic and authoritarian figure, Nicholson led a life whose controversial exploits have created a polarized legacy with contemporary descriptions of Nicholson ranging from him as the man who was crucial in suppressing the Indian Rebellion to him as an "imperial psychopath". However, he was certainly a man of his time, whose stern but fair governance gained him both fear and respect in equal measure from the various groups of people who lived under his rule. His imposing physical appearance and noted deeds of valor and violence created an almost mythical status and even religious worship among the numerous tribes of the North-West Frontier whom Nicholson brought into the British Empire.

Born in Newcastle, New Brunswick (now Miramichi), he graduated from the Dalhousie University law school in Halifax. In 1924, he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia and practised law.

During World War II, he was a deputy controller in the Department of Munitions and Supplies. From 1942 to 1951, he was the head of a crown corporation, Polymer Corporation, and from 1952 to 1956, the head of Brazilian Light and Power Co in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1962, Nicholson was elected to Canadian House of Commons for the riding of Vancouver Centre and was re-elected in 1963 and 1965. From 1963 to 1964, he was the Minister of Forestry. From 1964 to 1965, he was the Postmaster General. In 1965, he was the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. From 1965 to 1968, he was the Minister of Labour.

From 1968 to 1973, he served as the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

Nicholson was the son of John Nicholson, an oriental scholar of distinction, and the first English friend of Ludwig Leichhardt. Nicholson was born at Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, was educated at Croft House academy, and emigrated to New South Wales in 1854. He went to Queensland in 1859, opened a private school at Toowoomba in 1860, and in 1863 had a school at Warwick. He joined the Queensland education department in May 1865 as an assistant teacher. He resigned in 1868 in order to visit England, rejoined the department in June 1869, and later had charge of several country state schools.

Between 1867 and in 1878 he published three little books of miscellaneous prose and verse, facetious and satirical in character and not of much merit. So far back as 1856, however, he had begun to brood over the idea of writing an allegorical history of a man's life on the earth, and in 1873 he wrote the early chapters of The Adventures of Halek, which was published in London in 1882. He resigned from the education department in April 1885 but rejoined some years later and was head teacher of the state school at Cambooya from September 1893 to the end of 1894 when he finally gave up teaching. He was then appointed registrar of births, marriages and deaths at Nundah near Brisbane. A second edition of Halek was published in 1896 at Brisbane, and a third appeared in 1904. In the same year Almoni, described as a companion volume to Halek, was also published at Brisbane.

When Nicholson was approaching 70 years of age a Swedish literary woman, who had been attracted by his work, came to Australia from California and married him. In his later years Nicholson, who had always been inclined to be erratic, would sometimes voluntarily go to the mental hospital at Goodna until he felt fit to face the world again. He died at Brisbane on 30 June 1923 at the age of 85. His wife survived him. There were no children.

Born in Kensington, London, the son of William Nicholson and his wife Isabella. He was educated at Harrow and then in 1882 to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He was commissioned in 7th Hussars in February 1884 and in 1886 he spent eight years in India with his regiment before in 1894 being sent to Natal.

The 7th Hussars joined a force at Mafeking to suppress a native rising in Matabeleland. During these operations he raised and commanded a corps of British South Africa Police (BSAP). He became Commandant-General of the BSAP and Inspector-General of Volunteers in Rhodesia from 1898 until 1903. The Second Boer War took place in neighbouring South Africa from 1899 to June 1902, and to recognize his contribution, Nicholson was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the South Africa honours list published on 26 June 1902. In 1903 he succeeded Baden-Powell as Inspector-General of South African Constabulary and retired from the post as a colonel in 1907.

With a father and brother both being members of parliament Nicholson contested a seat in East Dorset in the 1910 general election. He lost by 426 votes to Captain Guest but after a petition Guest was unseated. Nicholson stood again as a Conservative candidate in a by-election against Guests brother Henry Guest but was defeated again by a small margin. In the second general election of 1910 in December, he tried to get elected at Stafford but was defeated by 755 votes.

During the First World War he joined the British Expeditionary Force and from April 1915 to December 1918 was base commandant at Calais. He had been promoted to brigadier-general in 1916 and retired from the Army in 1920.

In In 1921, he was elected the Member of Parliament for the Westminster Abbey constituency in a by-election following the death of the incumbent MP William Burdett-Coutts. He was re-elected in the following two general elections in 1922 and 1923. Nicholson, who had never married, died on 21 February 1924 of pneumonia at his house at South Audley Street, Mayfair aged 60. A by-election was held to replace him as an MP.

After finishing his athletics career, Nicholson went on to become a track coach. He coached at DePauw University, Sewanee:The University of the South, Rice University, and the University of Notre Dame. He died suddenly on April 2, 1940.

He competed for Australia in the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, Germany in the individual sprint event where he finished in second place. He also competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He won Gold at the 1970 Commonwealth Games and the 1974 Commonwealth Games also in the sprint. He turned professional in 1975 and won the world championships in that year and also in 1976.

Nicholson was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1986.

Nicholson is currently (2009) the president and a life member of the Blackburn Cycling Club in Melbourne, Australia.

Born in Attercliffe in Sheffield, Nicholson was originally a lawyer's clerk who was active with the Sheffield and Hallamshire FA as well as secretary of Attercliffe F.C.

In 1899 he was offered the post of club secretary at Sheffield United when the club became a Limited Company and remained in the role until his death. Although the team was coached by a trainer and selected by a committee, Nicholson ran the club on a day-to-day basis, dealing with transfers and other finances, liaising with the Football Association and looking after the players' general affairs. Regarded as one of the most respected men in football at the time he had a vast number of contacts throughout the game and was an expert in the rules, laws and regulations of the sport.

Nicholson presided over the most successful period in The Blades history, winning four FA Cups in 1899, 1902, 1915 and 1925 (also reaching the final in 1901,1936) and maintaining United as a dominant league force, winning the old 1st division Championship in 1898. Despite never holding the post of manager at The Blades, he was offered just such a position at Manchester City in 1926 but turned it down, preferring to remain in his home town.

Nicholson died in 1932 after being knocked down by a lorry whilst crossing the road outside Sheffield Midland Station on his way to join the team, who were heading off to Birmingham to play a match against Aston Villa. Local newspaper reports estimated that over 6,000 people attended his funeral.

Nicholson was educated at Rugby School and at Harrow School and was at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1842 to his graduation in 1846. He appeared for the university in two cricket matches against the Marylebone Cricket Club and then in a low-scoring University Match which was won by Cambridge.

John Nicholson was followed at Cambridge by his younger brother, William, who became a better-known cricketer (though not playing for the University team) and, through the family firm of J&W Nicholson & Co, the gin distiller, a significant benefactor to Lord's and the MCC, which adopted the company colours.

He was born at Biglands in Cumbria to farmer John Nicholson and Mary Lightfoot. He worked as a coalminer from a young age, travelling widely to Vancouver and California before settling in New South Wales in 1882. He mined at Newcastle and then at Bulli, and was a local secretary of the Miners' Union. In February 1891 he married Ellen Brodie in Sydney; they had four children.

A foundation member of the Labour Party, he was one of the first group of Labour MLAs when he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Illawarra in 1891. He refused to take the pledge in 1893 and was elected to Woronora as an independent Labor member in 1894. He was a Free Trader briefly around 1898, but in 1904 rejoined the Labor Party. He transferred to the seat of Wollongong in 1904 and held it until 1917, when he was defeated after defecting to the Nationalist Party in the 1916 conscription split. Nicholson died in Woonona in 1919.

Dr John H Nicholson was educated at the University of Oxford, where he gained a 'double first' in theology. His scholarly interests centred on 'extra-mural education'. He taught at the University of Bristol and later was made a professor at what was to become Newcastle University (then part of the University of Durham). Nicholson was the second Principal of University College Hull, from 1935 to 1954. He guided the college through the difficult years of World War II, and oversaw the transition of the university college to the status of a fully independent university, becoming the new university's first vice-chancellor (1954-1956). He had a slight and rather hunched appearance and a heavy smoking habit, even smoking through committee meetings. Nicholson was a bachelor throughout his career, on leaving the university he retired to the city of York.

Nicholson was born at Langwathby in 1866, the son of Isaac Nicholson, and was educated at St Bees School. His family was stated to be from Bolton, Cumbria. He entered the works of Black, Hawthorn and Co. in Gateshead in 1883. He was resident engineer in charge of the erection of the first generating station of the Newcastle Electric Supply Company at Pandon Dene in 1889. He then went to Venezuela, and returned to London in 1894 to join P. W. and C. S. Meek consulting engineers, and was engaged on dock and railway undertakings, including at the Port Talbot docks. From there he went to Ellesmere Works at Worsley, near Manchester.

After his marriage in 1902, he moved with his wife to Singapore, where he was engaged as managing director of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, and on its nationalization by the government in 1905 became chairman and chief engineer of the new Singapore Harbour Board. For his service in Singapore, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1913 Birthday Honours list, and knighted in the 1919 Birthday Honours list.

He returned to the United Kingdom in 1918, and after working a year on government work in France, was appointed chief engineer for docks on the North Eastern Railway in 1919. Following the formation of the London and North Eastern Railway group (LNER) in 1923, he continued as chief engineer for docks of the North-Eastern area. He retired late 1927.

He died on 1939 at his home Red House, Underskiddaw, near Keswick, Cumbria.