Lichfield on the main routes from London to the north-west and Birmingham to the north-east. It also became a centre of great intellectual activity, being the home of many famous people including Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward; this prompted Johnson's remark that Lichfield was "a city of philosophers". In the 1720s Daniel Defoe described Lichfield as 'a fine, neat, well-built, and indifferent large city', the principal town in the region after Chester. During the late 18th and early 19th century much of the medieval city was rebuilt with the red-brick Georgian style buildings still to be seen
Garrick Agnew Garrick Agnew Sir Robert David Garrick Agnew, CBE (21 September 1930 – 3 August 1987) was an Australian competition swimmer and businessman. As a swimmer Agnew represented Australia at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, as well as the 1950 British Empire Games. After retiring from swimming he entered business, becoming involved in the resources industry in Western Australia. Agnew was born 21 September 1930 in the Perth suburb of Nedlands to Robert and Jean Agnew (née Dorothy Jean McHarg Wilson). As a boy he attended Perth Modern School where he was a year below then-future Prime Minister Bob Hawke.