Maria Branwell was born in 15 April 1783 in Penzance, Cornwall. She was the mother of writers Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë and Charlotte Brontë and of their brother, Branwell Brontë, who was a poet and painter.

Maria Branwell was the eighth child of twelve born to Thomas Branwell and Anne Carne in Penzance, Cornwall, although only five daughters and one son grew to adulthood. Thomas Branwell was a successful merchant and owned many properties throughout Penzance. The men of the Branwell family took part in the town's local public life, several serving as Mayor in the 19th century and also in other civic offices. The family were prominent Methodists, Thomas's sister and two of his daughters marrying clergymen of Wesleyan leanings. With the Carne family and others, they initiated and developed the first Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Penzance.

Not many realise that it was the British who invented the concentration camp system. Emily Hobhouse, referred to by the British Establishment as 'that bloody woman' did and set out to do something about the evil. Regarded as a traitor by the British, she is honoured in South Africa.

Emily Hobhouse was born in St Ive near Liskeard, Cornwall on 9th April 1860, the daughter of Reginald Hobhouse and Caroline Trelawny.  She was the sister of Leonard Hobhouse 1864-1929, the social philosopher and both were active members of the Adult Suffrage Society.  She was educated at home and lived with her parents until she was 35.  In 1895 she travelled to Minnesota to work amongst Cornish miners and their families who had migrated to America and fallen on hard times

Like many liberals, she was opposed to the Boer War and she denounced the government's actions in going to war.

Towards the end of 1900 she received information on how women and children were being treated by the British Army.  She wrote "poor women who were being driven from pillar to post, needed protection and organized assistance.  And from that moment I was determined to go to South Africa in order to render assistance to them".  In October 1900, she formed the Relief Fund for South African Women and Children.  The aim of the organisation was to "To feed, clothe, harbour and save women and children - Boer, British and other - who were left destitute and ragged as a result of the destruction of property, the eviction of families or other incidents resulting from the military operations".  She struggled to raise funds for her new organisation.

Michael Adams was born in Truro, Cornwall on 17 November 1971.

In 1981, aged nine, he entered the Cornwall Under-9 Championship and won it. At the same event, he won the Under-13, Under-15 and Under-18 Championships. For one day, the latter two contests clashed and he had to play the simultaneously, commuting cautiously between different rooms, some thirty metres apart.

He became a Grandmaster at the age of 17 and has been a professional chess player for over 20 years. His highest ranking is world No. 4.

In 2006 he began writing a chess column in the Saturday London Telegraph Weekend section.

The old Cornish mining town of Redruth in Cornwall once again celebrates its ever popular Mining and Pasty Festival with celebrations taking place from Friday 11th September until Sunday 13th September, 2015.

The Mining and Pasty Festival is a three day event celebrating the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Redruth through pasties, mining and music.  The event is focussed around the town centre and is completely free to attend.

Friday 11th, which is Miners’ Day, sees Murdoch House opened, the home of the Scottish engineer and inventor William Murdoch (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) with themed displays touching on Redruth’s close links with Real del Monte in Mexico where many Cornish miners made their home in search of mining work and with research material made available by the Cornish Global Migration Project.

Kresen Kernow - The Cornish Studies Centre is hosting events staged by the Trevithick Society highlighting the industrial trailblazers of Redruth and including a tour of the new multi million pound Cornish National Library and Archive Centre development currently under construction whilst the town centre will be alive with music and tales from the past including one of a miner who auctioned off his wife and emigrated!