History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

On Easter Sunday, Marianne watched ‘Ben Hur’ for the umpteenth time and among the support actors, she recognised a familiar face - Howard Lang. He was the man beating time – or to give his proper job description, the hortator, on the slave galley that included Ben Hur played by Charlton Heston. The hortator varied the rapidity of his drum strikes – the more beats the faster the rowers had to pull on their oars, with a little encouragement from soldiers who hit them with whips. The fastest tempo was sea battle or ‘ramming’ speed. We had a conversation about Howard Lang. He is probably best-known for another maritime role as Captain Baines in the long-running BBC series ‘The Onedin Line’. This portrayed a fictional shipping company in Liverpool from 1860 to the 1880s. It was compulsory viewing for Marianne but wasn’t a programme that appealed to Dick.     In real life Howard Lang was born in London as Donald Yarranton. At the time of the 1911 census on 2 April, his pare...