Selecting The Hundred

The biographies section contains the life stories of the folk who lived, loved, and worked in Elmbridge, including the 100 historic figures judged to be most 'significant' from our long-list of over 600.

Deciding on The Hundred involved two rounds of selection. First the long-list was divided up geographically into six regions. Local history societies considered figures from their area, creating a short-list of 175 figures. The second round saw a 'Final Selection Panel' reduce the short-list to a final 100. The panel comprised professional historians and local notables, namely:

Michael Aspel, OBE (TV presenter and Honorary Freeman of Elmbridge Borough)
Heather Hawker (Chair, Surrey History Trust)
Tony Hutchings (Archivist, Brooklands Museum)
Dr Claire Langhamer (Senior Lecturer in History, University of Sussex)
David Taylor (Historian)

© Elmbridge Museum

Decision-making was not easy, and many alternative 100s could have been chosen. How do you decide whether one person is more important, notable and worthy than another? Panels had a set of criteria to help them judge, including: how long the person spent in Elmbridge, what achievements they made, and whether they left a legacy in the area.