Other notable alumni include writers ( including Lord Byron, Sir Terence Rattigan and Richard Curtis ), numerous aristocrats ( including the current richest British subject, the Duke of Westminster and the prominent reformist Lord Shaftesbury ) and business people ( including DeBeers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer, Pret a Manger founder Julian Metcalfe ) and the big game hunter and artist General Douglas Hamilton, as well as Island Records founder Chris Blackwell.

The idea that in a state of nature humans are essentially good is often attributed to the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, a Whig supporter of constitutional monarchy.

The Whig party was born during the Exclusion Crisis, and Shaftesbury was one of the party's most prominent leaders.

On 7 December 1679, a petition signed by Shaftesbury and fifteen other Whig peers calling on Charles to meet parliament, followed up with a 20, 000-name petition on 13 January 1680.

This, combined with the fact that the jury was handpicked by the Whig Sheriff of London, meant the government had little chance of securing a conviction and on 13 February 1682, the case against Shaftesbury was dropped.

He represented Shaftesbury in Parliament as a Whig from 1841 to 1845.

Otway ’ s invitation to find a “ such another man ” has allowed several critics to connect Senator Antonio with Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury who was a Whig politician.

Hyde's Whig arch-rival, Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, also had property in Purton parish.

The movement was led by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury ( 1801 – 1885 ) who was strongly supported by Tory radicals.

It was then that Lord Shaftesbury was approached to lead the movement.

In 1844, the movement spread to England, with the establishment of the London Ragged School Union under the chairmanship of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.

The leaders of the movement were Richard Oastler ( who led the campaign outside Parliament ), as well as John Fielden and Lord Shaftesbury ( who led the campaign inside Parliament ).

He also drafted a pamphlet that was never published, entitled " The Present State of the Kingdom ": in this pamphlet, Shaftesbury expressed concern about the power of France, the Popish Plot, and the bad influence exerted on the king by Danby, the royal mistress Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth ( a Catholic ), and the Duke of York, who, according to Shaftesbury was now attempting " to introduce a military and arbitrary government in his brother's time.

His body was reburied with great ceremony at Shaftesbury Abbey early in 980.

He, however, separated himself from the Whigs on the exclusion question, probably on account of his dislike of the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Shaftesbury, was absent from the great debate in the Lords on 15 November 1680, and was restored to the king's favour in 1684.

On February 20, 981 the relics of St Edward the Martyr were transferred from Wareham and received at the abbey with great ceremony, thereafter turning Shaftesbury into a major site of pilgrimage for miracles of healing.

This occurred in a great procession beginning on February 13, 981 ; the relics arrived at Shaftesbury seven days later.

Shaftesbury was now gaining a great reputation amongst the common people as a Protestant hero.

The announcement prompted great celebrations in London, with crowds yelling " No Popish Successor, No York, A Monmouth " and " God bless the Earl of Shaftesbury ".

The estate at Wimborne St Giles came into the ownership of the Ashley family around the year 1460, through the marriage of Egidia Hamelyn and Robert Ashley, the 5th great grandfather of the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury.

Shaftesbury took great pains in the elaboration of his style, and he succeeded so far as to make his meaning transparent.

Under such conditions, it was unlikely that Waller's hopes of a great battle at Shaftesbury would be realised.

In 1892-1893 Gilbert was occupied with the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, in Piccadilly Circus, London, a work of great originality and beauty representing Anteros, yet shorn of some of the intended effect through restrictions put upon the artist.

Shaftesbury attempted to neutralise the influence of the episcopal bench in favour of Danby by introducing a bill moving that the bishops should not be able to sit in the House of Lords during capital trials.

It was only when, in July of the same year, Oates's accusation against the Queen's physician, Sir George Wakeman, appeared likely to involve the Queen herself in the ramifications of the plot, that Scroggs began to think matters were going too far ; he was probably also influenced by the discovery that the court regarded the plot with discredit and disfavour, and that the country party led by Shaftesbury had less influence than he had supposed with the King.

" On 16 June, he accompanied Shaftesbury when the latter indicted James at Westminster as a popish recusant ; and on 26 October, he took the extreme step of moving to suppress popery and prevent a popish successor ; while on 2 November, now at the height of his influence, he went still further by seconding the motion for exclusion in its most emphatic shape, and on the 19th carried the exclusion bill to the House of Lords.

The failure to carry the Exclusion Bill, one of the favourite projects of the faction, was a blow to its influence, which declined rapidly after the flight of Shaftesbury, the confiscation of the city of London's charter, and the discovery of the Rye House Plot, in which many of its members were implicated.

Mountbatten was married on 18 July 1922 to Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley, daughter of Wilfred William Ashley, later 1st Baron Mount Temple, himself a grandson of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.

* Lyric Theatre, London, a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster

Noting its significance, Lord Shaftesbury said, " It is a new thing and a very serious thing to see the Prime Minister on the stump.

In his Inquiry Concerning Virtue ( 1699 ), Shaftesbury had postulated that the moral sense in humans is natural and innate and based on feelings rather than resulting from the indoctrination of a particular religion.

Shaftesbury countered that, contrary to Hobbes, humans in a state of nature were neither good nor bad, but that they possessed a moral sense based on the emotion of sympathy, and that this emotion was the source and foundation of human goodness and benevolence.

King Æthelred, preoccupied with the threat of a Danish invasion, did not attend in person, but he issued a charter to the Shaftesbury nuns late in 1001 granting them lands at Bradford on Avon, which is thought to be related.

Before the Industrial Revolution, much of the area was farmland, providing food for the City of London and surrounding population centres ; and with particular specialisms, such as growing lavender on Lavender Hill ( nowadays denoted by the road of the same name ), asparagus, sold as " Battersea Bundles " or pig breeding on Pig Hill ( later the site of the Shaftesbury Park Estate ).

Following on from this the Fox Poker Club opened its doors on 24 September 2010 on Shaftesbury Avenue, London's only fully licensed poker club.

Rupert allied himself with Lord Shaftesbury on matters of foreign policy, but remained loyal to King Charles II on other issues, and was passionate about protecting the Royal Prerogative.

* Just a Kiss London production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on September 8

* Wildflower London production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on February 17 and ran for 114 performances

* Katinka London production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on August 30 and ran for 108 performances

* Stop Flirting London production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on May 30 and ran for 418 performances

* The Pearl Girl London production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on September 25 and ran for 254 performances

* In Dahomey London production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on May 16 and ran for 251 performances

* The Fortune Teller London production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on April 7.

* Morocco Bound ( music Frank Osmond Carr lyrics: Adrian Ross ) London production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on April 13 and transferred to the Trafalgar Square Theatre on January 8, 1894 for a total run of 295 performances.

A magnificent speech by Macaulay heaping scorn on the " freedom of contract " arguments of Bright, Cobden and Pease was of immense importance in the debate but all the humanitarians – Shaftesbury, Oastler, Fielden and others were instrumental in securing passage of the Bill.

His standpoint has a negative and a positive aspect ; he is in strong opposition to Thomas Hobbes and Mandeville, and in fundamental agreement with Shaftesbury, whose name he very properly coupled with his own on the title page of the first two essays.