FURNESS movie fans can now boast not one, but two, cinema pioneers whose lives are celebrated in an esteemed biographical dictionary.

Unlike Ulverston-born silver-screen legend Stan Laurel, the name of leading British picture maker Lewin Fitzhamon - son of an Aldingham clergyman - has all but faded from view since his heyday more than a century ago.

However, film historians and academics have brought him back into the limelight by featuring his all-but-forgotten life (1869-1961) in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His face remains a mystery, though, as picture research has yet to turn up an authenticated photo of him.

Edwardian picture-goers were so entranced by Lewin Fitzhamon's silent films that he made them at the rate of two per week, says Mark Curthoys, research editor of the dictionary, which records nearly 60,000 men and women who shaped all walks of British life.

Dr Curthoys told the Gazette that the cinema pioneer was brought up in Aldingham, where his father was still rector when Stan Laurel was growing up in Ulverston.

"As the dictionary entry now reveals, Fitzhamon’s surname was actually Hayman – and he was the son of a noted and controversial clergyman, Henry Hayman, rector of Aldingham in Cumbria for 30 years," explained Dr Curthoys.

Henry Hayman had moved to the parish, then in Lancashire, in 1874 after "a stormy time" as headmaster of Rugby school. "Lewin Hayman was educated at home by his father at Aldingham rectory. But it is perhaps not surprising that he had decided on a change of name by the time that he embarked on the cinema business at the end of the 19th century," said Dr Curthoys.

Edwardian cinema-goers were captivated by the 400-plus short films made by Fitzhamon, including the Tilly Girls comedies, starring Chrissie White and Alma Taylor. His 1905 drama, Rescued by Rover, in which a family pet discovers a kidnapped baby, has been hailed as a milestone in big-screen storytelling.

Dr Curthoys told the Gazette: "Fitzhamon himself was one of those figures who rather disappeared from view in his lifetime, partly because his career ended before 1914, but whose output – now accessible through digitization – is now regarded as very significant."

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography runs to 61 volumes and 70 million words, and can be viewed online free at public libraries.