Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level. It lies close to Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. In 1974, the municipal borough merged with other nearby boroughs, including Glossop, to form the local government district and borough of High Peak.
Vera Mary Brittain was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth recounted her experiences during the First World War and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism.
Testament of Youth is a memoir of British nurse and activist Vera Brittain (1893–1970), published in 1933. Brittain's memoir covers the years 1900 to 1925, and continues with Testament of Experience, published in 1957, and encompassing the years 1925 to 1950. Between these two books comes Testament of Friendship, which is essentially a memoir of Brittain's close colleague and friend Winifred Holtby. A final segment of memoir, to be called Testament of Faith or Testament of Time, was planned by Brittain but remained unfinished at her death.
Elaine Morgan OBE, FRSL, was a Welsh writer for television and the author of several books on evolutionary anthropology. She advocated the aquatic ape hypothesis, which advocated as a corrective to what she saw as theories that purveyed gendered stereotypes and failed to account for women's role in human evolution adequately. The Descent of Woman, published in 1972, became an international bestseller, translated into ten languages. In 2016, she was named one of "the 50 greatest Welsh men and women of all time" in a press survey.
Roland Aubrey Leighton was a British poet and soldier, made posthumously famous by his fiancée Vera Brittain's memoir, Testament of Youth.
Cheryl Campbell is an English actress of stage, film and television. She starred opposite Bob Hoskins in the 1978 BBC drama Pennies From Heaven, before going on to win the 1980 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Testament of Youth and Malice Aforethought, and the 1982 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival for A Doll's House. Her film appearances include Chariots of Fire (1981), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) and The Shooting Party (1985).
Winifred Holtby was an English novelist and journalist, now best known for her novel South Riding, which was posthumously published in 1936.
Judith Catherine Buxton is an English actress best known for playing Nurse Katy Shaw in General Hospital (1972–1973), Susan Protheroe in By the Sword Divided (1983–1985) and Ruth Carpenter in On the Up (1990–1992). She has also appeared in several films including Aces High (1976) and The Big Sleep (1978) as well as having an extensive stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Clare Marie Veronica Leighton, sometimes Clara Ellaline Hope Leighton or Clare Veronica Hope Leighton, was an English/American artist, writer and illustrator, best known for her wood engravings.
Mark Bostridge is a British writer and critic, known for his historical biographies.
Joanna McCallum is an English theatre, film and television actress.
South Riding is a novel by Winifred Holtby, published posthumously in 1936.
Joanna Marion Scanlan is a British actress and writer. On television, she is known for her roles in The Thick of It (2005–2012), Big School (2013–2014), Puppy Love (2014), No Offence (2015–2018), Requiem (2018), and The Larkins (2021). She was nominated for three BAFTA TV Awards for Getting On (2009–2012), including two for Best Writing.
Jane P Booker is an English actress. She was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and has over 40 television roles to her credit.
Testament of Youth is a 2014 British drama film based on the First World War memoir of the same name written by Vera Brittain. The film stars Alicia Vikander as Vera Brittain, an independent young woman who abandoned her studies at Somerville College, Oxford, to become a war nurse. The film was directed by James Kent and written by Juliette Towhidi.
Victor Richardson was a British Army officer who served during the Great War, best remembered for being immortalised in his friend Vera Brittain's First World War best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth.
Hilda Stewart Reid was an English novelist and historian. Her four novels, published between 1928 and 1939, are Phillida, Two Soldiers and a Lady, Emily, and Ashley Hamel.
Edward Harold Brittain, MC was a British Army officer who was killed in the First World War; he was immortalised by his sister Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth.
The Devonshire Royal Hospital was established as the Devonshire Hospital in 1859 in Buxton, Derbyshire by the Buxton Bath Charity for the treatment of the poor. The hospital was built in the converted stable block of The Crescent. The building is now known as the Devonshire Dome and it is the site of the Buxton Campus of the University of Derby.
