Curry in a Hurry Trivia Quiz

Answer: Merle Oberon

Merle's breakthrough film was "The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933) in which she played Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. This led to a starring role alongside Leslie Howard in "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (1934) where she played Lady Blakeney, which bought her to the attention of Samuel Goldwyn who invited her to the United States. One of her first roles was that of Kitty Vane in "The Dark Angel" (1935) and it provided her with a Best Actress Oscar nomination but she was beaten by Bette Davis. Two years later she was involved in a serious car accident where she received facial injuries that, for a time, threatened her career.

She recovered and enjoyed a wonderful career before she finally stood back from the spotlight in 1973. She would pass away six years later.

Answer: Sir Francis Younghusband

If we wished to be technical, Younghusband should not be in this quiz, as borders tend to change over time. Younghusband was born in Murree which, at the time, was a part of British India but is now in Pakistan. Born in 1863, he was taken to England in 1867 and enrolled in the Royal Military College in Sandhurst in 1881.

In 1886 he would be granted leave to explore parts of Asia and he used this time to estimate the Russian threat to the British Raj, before transferring to India. In 1903 he was placed in charge of the British Expedition to Tibet, which is also known as Younghusband's Expedition or the British Invasion of Tibet.

The expedition arose from the British fears of Russia's intentions in the area and would eventually lead to the Treaty of Lhasa.

Answer: William Thackeray

Thackeray's father was a secretary of the Board of Revenue for the East India Company based in Calcutta, which is how William came to be born there. He was still young when his father passed away and was sent to England to complete his schooling. When he turned twenty one he became eligible for his father's inheritance and this took him down a path of idleness and it wasn't long before he'd squandered a good part of his fortune through gambling. This changed when he married Isabella Gethin Shawe and soon found himself with three daughters. With a growing family to support Thackeray advised he started "writing for his life".

Thackeray is best known for his satirical style and this was best exemplified in his work "Vanity Fair", published in 1848 but it was his 1844 novel, "The Luck of Barry Lyndon", which caught the eye of Stanley Kubrick, who turned it into the four time Oscar winning film "Barry Lyndon" in 1975.

Answer: Sir Colin Cowdrey

Cowdrey was born on his father's tea plantation in Ootacamund in the Madras Presidency and was virtually thrust into cricket from the moment he could walk. He was sent to England when he was five years old and made his way into the Kent Cricket Club after making a name for himself as a youngster in the Tonbridge School.

He scored a century in only his third Test and it was spoken of in such glowing terms by the Australian journalist, Bill O'Reilly, that all of Cowdrey's future Test hundreds would be measured against it. In all, Cowdrey made twenty two Test hundreds in his 114 Test matches, even celebrating his 100th Test with a century against the Australians. For a period of time he was England's most prolific Test run scorer, he held onto 120 catches and he became the first man to score a century against all six (at the time) Test playing nations.

Answer: Paddy

Born in 1941, Jeremy was better known as Paddy Ashdown. His parents left New Delhi in 1945 (when Paddy was four) and purchased a farm in Northern Ireland. When he was eleven years old he was sent to Bedford School in England and it was here that the Irish accent he'd accrued led to his newfound nickname.

Paddy led the Liberal Democrats from 1988 through to 1999 but it was his call for strong military action in Yugoslavia during the 1990s and his subsequent work as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina between 2002 and 2006 that brought him international attention.

Answer: Sir Ronald Ross

Ross was a talented individual. A gifted polymath, he also wrote poetry, composed songs and published novels. He was also an amateur artist and a natural mathematician. He only attended medical studies at the insistence of his father and, initially, was a lazy student, spending more time on his other pursuits than medicine.

He eventually joined the Indian Medical Service, with whom he served for twenty five years, and it was during this period that he discovered the malarial parasite growing in the gastrointestinal tract of a mosquito. From this discovery it was then able to be shown that malaria was transmitted by mosquitos which, in turn, would lead to the basis of a cure.

It was for this discovery that Ross earned his Nobel laureate . It made him the first British recipient of the Prize and the first to be born outside of Europe.

Answer: Julie Christie

Christie was born at the at Singlijan Tea Estate, in Chabua, Assam, British India in 1940. Early in her childhood her parents divorced and she moved to Wales where she lived with her mother. As an actress she came to notice with her work in "Billy Liar" (1963) and the irrepressible "Darling" in 1965, which earned her an Oscar and a BAFTA accolade.

It scored her a role in the star studded "Doctor Zhivago" (1965). She is the actress that Al Pacino described as "the most poetic of all actresses" and would win further praise for her work in "McCabe and Mrs Miller" (1971), "Afterglow" (1997) and "Away From Her", all roles in which she was Oscar nominated.

Answer: Sir Basil Spence

Coventry's Anglican Cathedral was extensively damaged during the German bombing raids, early in World War II. A competition for its rebuild was set up in 1950 and Spence's radical design would see him beat out a field of 200 competitors. Such was the quality of the work that it prompted the Crown to confer a knighthood on Spence in 1960, two years before the work was completed.

Spence was born in Bombay in 1807 and completed his early education there before being sent to Edinburgh. He would enrol in the Edinburgh College of Art in 1925 to study architecture and he soon secured a maintenance scholarship on the back of his "unusual brilliance". He worked, for a while, under the guidance of Sir Edwin Lutyens in London and this would have a strong influence on his future designs. World War II interrupted his progress but, upon his return from service, he set up his own operation in London and his business blossomed rapidly. In 1948 he was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his excellence in exhibition design work.

Spence passed away in 1976 but his legacy can still be seen in buildings such as the Beehive (New Zealand parliament's executive wing), the British Embassy in Rome and the Hyde Park Cavalry Barracks in London.

Answer: Engelbert Humperdinck

Born in 1936 Dorsey was one of ten children to an Army NCO, stationed in British India. He moved to England when he was ten years old and immediately took to music, especially the saxophone. Dorsey's music career stalled when he was conscripted. He released the single "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" through the Decca label upon his release from service in 1958. It didn't do well.

For a number of years he struggled to make headway, but it was a teaming up with a former roommate, Gordon Mills, that changed his fortunes. Mills suggested that he change his name and he adopted the moniker Engelbert Humperdinck, which he'd borrowed from a 19th century German composer, professionally, though not legally. Success soon followed with the launch of "Release Me" in 1967, which became a Top Ten hit in both the USA and the UK. At its peak, the song was selling 85,000 copies per day and it kept the Beatles' track, "Strawberry Fields Forever" from reaching the number one spot in the UK Singles chart. He soon followed this up with "There Goes My Everything" and "The Last Waltz" in the same year and he never looked back.

Answer: Spike Milligan

Born in 1918, Milligan spent his early childhood in Poona and Rangoon and arrived in England before his teens. In the late 1930s he changed his name to Spike (after the band Spike Jones and his City Slickers) and performed as a jazz vocalist before being called up to serve in World War II. After the war he returned to jazz before teaming up with Sellers, Secombe and Bentine to form the group that would become "The Goon Show". The show was a radio programme that combined absurdist humour with puns, catchphrases and a range of weird noises. Such was its impact that groups such as the Beatle and the Monty Python troupe cited it as a strong influence on their careers.

Milligan's wit would also surface in films, numerous books and children's verse. Even in death he had to shake out one final chuckle from us, with his tombstone epitaph reading "I told you I was ill".