List of famous English people
This is partial list of some notable individuals born in England, alphabetically within categories:
Actors/Actresses
Archaeologists and Anthropologists
- Mick Aston
- Richard Atkinson
- Churchill Babington
- Howard Carter
- Grahame Clark
- David Clarke
- Barry Cunliffe
- Glyn Daniel
- John Disney, (1779-1857), barrister and archaeologist
- E. E. Evans-Pritchard, (1902-1973), social anthropologist
- Cyril Fox
- Dorothy Garrod
- William Greenwell
- Kathleen Kenyon
- John Leland, (1502-1552), antiquary
- John Lubbock, (1834-1913), banker, politician, naturalist and archaeologist
- John Robert Mortimer
- Colin Renfrew, (born 1937), archaeologist
- E.B. Tylor, (1832-1917), anthropologist
- Mortimer Wheeler
Architects
- George Basevi
- Nicholas Hawksmoor, (1661-1736), architect
- Inigo Jones, (1573-1652), architect
- Edwin Lutyens, (1869-1944), architect
- William Morris, (1834-1896), architect, author
- August Pugin, (1812-1852), architect
- Christopher Wren, (1632-1723), architect
Artists
- William Blake, (1757-1827), painter, poet
- Thomas Gainsborough, (1727-1788), painter
- Elizabeth Gaskell, novelist
- David Hockney, (1937-), painter
- Henry Moore, (1898-1986), sculptor
- Sir Joshua Reynolds, artist
- Flora Twort, (1893-1985)
Criminals
Economists
- William Beveridge, (1879-1963), economist and social reformer
- John Maynard Keynes, (1883-1946), economist
- Thomas Malthus, (1766-1834), demographer
- Alfred Marshall, (1842-1924), economist
- John Stuart Mill, (1806-1873), economist, philosopher
Engineers
- Benjamin Baker, (1840-1907), engineer
- Henry Bessemer, (1813-1898), engineer
- James Brindley, (1716-1772), engineer
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel, (1806-1859), engineer
- Sidney Camm, engineer
- William Tierney Clark, (1783-1852), civil engineer
- Geoffrey de Havilland, (1882 - 1965), aeronautical engineer
- John Ambrose Fleming, (1848-1945), electrical engineer
- R.J. Mitchell, (1895-1937), aeronautical engineer
- Samuel Morton Peto, (1809-1889), railways, harbours
- Henry Royce, (1863-1933), engineer
- Nevil Shute, (1899-1960), aeronautical engineer and author
- George Stephenson, (1781-1848), engineer
- Richard Trevithick, (1771-1833), engineer
- Barnes Wallis, (1887-1978), engineer
- Frank Whittle, (1907-1996), co-inventor of the jet engine
- Joseph Whitworth, (1803-1887), engineer
Entrepreneurs
Filmmakers
Humourists
Inventors
- Christopher Cockerell, (1910-1999), inventor of the hovercraft
- Abraham Darby, (c. 1678-1717), ironmaster
- James Hargreaves, (1720-1778), weaver and inventor
- John Harrison, (1693-1776), clockmaker
- Rowland Hill, (1795-1879), inventor of the modern postal service
- Thomas Newcomen, (1664-1729), inventor
- Isaac Newton, (1642-1727), founder of modern physics, inventor of the reflector telescope
- James Starley, (1831-1881), bicycle pioneer
- George Stephenson, (1781-1848), engineer
- Charles Wheatstone, (1802-1975), inventor
- Frank Whittle, (1907-1996), co-inventor of the jet engine
Military men and women
- Robert Baden-Powell, (1857-1941), soldier
- Douglas Bader, (1910-1982), fighter pilot
- Robert Blake, (1599 - 1657), reforming Royal Navy Admiral
- Rupert Brooke, (1887-1925), poet
- Winston Churchill, (1874-1965), British prime minister
- Francis Drake, (1540-1596), sailor
- Arthur Harris, (1892-1984), airman
- John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, (1650-1722), soldier
- Bernard Montgomery ("The Desert Rat"), (1887-1976), soldier
- Louis Mountbatten, (1900-1979), sailor
- Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson of the Nile, (1758-1805), sailor, Admiral
- Siegfried Sassoon, (1886-1967), war poet
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington ("The Iron Duke"), (1769-1852), soldier
Monarchs
- Queen Anne, (1665-1714), also Queen of Scotland, then Queen of Great Britain after 1707
- King Charles II, (1660-1685), also King of Scotland
- King Edward I, (1272-1307), English monarch
- King Edward III, (1327-1377), English monarch
- King Edward IV, (1461-1470 and 1471-1483), English monarch
- King Edward V, (1470-1483?), English monarch
- King Edward VI, (1547-1553), first English Protestant monarch
- King Edward VII, (1841-1910)
- King Edward VIII, (1894-1972), (formerly Edward VIII)
- Queen Elizabeth I, (1558-1603), Protestant queen and first Supreme Governor of the Church of England
- Queen Elizabeth II, (born 1926) reigning monarch
- King George III, (1801-1820), English, British monarch
- King George IV, (1762-1830)
- King George V, (1910-1936), English, British monarch
- King George VI, (1895-1952), of England
- King Henry III, (1207-1272), English monarch
- King Henry IV, (1367-1413), English monarch
- King Henry VI, (1421-1471), English monarch
- King Henry VIII, (1491-1547), separated English Catholicism from link with the Roman Catholic Church
- King James II, (1685-1688), also King James VII of Scotland
- Queen Mary I, (1553-1558), Roman Catholic queen
- Queen Mary II, (1662-1694)
- Queen Victoria, (1819-1901)
Musicians
- Malcolm Arnold, (born 1921), composer
- John Barbirolli, (1899-1970), conductor
- David Bedford, (born 1937), composer and musician
- Thomas Beecham, (1879-1961), conductor
- Harrison Birtwistle, (born 1934), composer
- Adrian Boult, (1889-1983), conductor
- Havergal Brian, (1876-1972), composer
- Benjamin Britten, (1913-1976), composer and pianist
- Andrew Davis, (born 1944), conductor
- Colin Davis, (born 1927), conductor
- Frederick Delius, (1862-1934), composer
- Edward Elgar, (1857-1934), composer
- Ron Goodwin, (1925-2003) composer and conductor
- Gustav Holst, (1874-1934)), composer
- Nigel Kennedy, (born 1956), violinist
- Andrew Lloyd Webber, (born 1948), composer of musicals
- Peter Maxwell Davies, (born 1934), composer
- Peter Pears, (1910-1986), tenor
- Jacqueline du Pré, (1945-1987), cellist
- Henry Purcell, (1659-1695), composer
- Simon Rattle, (born 1955), conductor
- Malcolm Sargent, (1895-1967), conductor
- Michael Tippett, (1905-1998), composer
- Ralph Vaughan Williams, (1872-1958), composer
- Henry Wood, (1869-1944), conductor
Philosophers
- Jeremy Bentham, (1748-1832), philosopher
- Robert Boyle, (1627-1691), philosopher and physicist
- Thomas Hobbes, (1588-1679), philosopher
- John Locke, (1632-1704), philosopher
- John Stuart Mill, (1806-1873), economist, philosopher
- William of Ockham (c. 1285-1349), philosopher
- Bertrand Russell, (1872-1970), philosopher
- William Whewell, (1794-1866), philosopher
- Alfred North Whitehead, (1861-1947), mathematician
Politicians
- Henry Addington
- Herbert Henry Asquith, (1852-1928), British prime minister
- Clement Attlee, (1883-1967), British prime minister
- Stanley Baldwin, British prime minister
- Tony Blair, (born 1953), British prime minister
- Margaret Bondfield
- James Callaghan, British prime minister
- George Canning, (1770-1827), politician
- William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire
- William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
- Joseph Chamberlain, (1836-1914)
- Neville Chamberlain, (1869-1940), British prime minister
- Winston Churchill, (1874-1965), British prime minister
- Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington
- Archibald Dalzel, (1740-1811), Governor of the Gold Coast
- Benjamin Disraeli, (1804-1881), British prime minister
- Alec Douglas-Home
- Anthony Eden, (1897-1977), British prime minister
- Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
- William Ewart Gladstone, (1809-1898), British prime minister
- Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton
- Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
- Edward Heath, British prime minister
- Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
- David Lloyd George, British prime minister
- George Grenville, British prime minister
- William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Lord Grenville
- William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
- John Lubbock, (1834-1913), banker, politician, naturalist and archaeologist
- Harold Macmillan, British prime minister
- John Major, (born 1943), British prime minister
- Frederick North, Lord North
- Sir Robert Peel, British prime minister
- Henry Pelham
- Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle
- Spencer Perceval
- William Pitt (the Elder), 1st Earl of Chatham, (1708-1778)
- William Pitt the Younger, (1759-1806), British prime minister
- Cecil Rhodes, (1853-1902), imperialist
- Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich
- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham
- Lord Russell
- Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
- Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, British prime minister
- Margaret Thatcher, (born 1925), British prime minister
- Sir Robert Walpole, British prime minister
- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham
- Arthur Wellesley, (1769-1852), British prime minister
- William Wilberforce, (1759-1833), abolitionist
- Henry Willink, (1894-1973), politician
- Harold Wilson, (1916-1995), British prime minister
Scientists
- Arthur Aikin, (1773-1854), chemist and mineralogist
- Charles Babbage, (1791-1871), mathematician
- Joseph Banks, (1743-1820), naturalist
- Thomas Bayes, (c. 1702-1761), mathematician
- Tim Berners-Lee, (born 1955), computer scientist
- George Boole, (1815-1864), mathematician
- Robert Boyle, (1627-1691), philosopher and physicist
- Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, (1897-1974), physicist
- Isaac Barrow, (1630-1677), mathematician
- Henry Cavendish, (1731-1810), scientist
- Sir George Cayley, (1773-1857), polymath and aviator
- Francis Crick, (born 1916), molecular biologist
- John Dalton, (1766-1844), chemist and physicist
- Charles Darwin, (1809-1882), Founder of The Theory of Evolution
- Humphry Davy, (1778-1829), chemist
- Richard Dawkins, (born 1941), biologist
- Horace Donisthorpe (1870-1951), entomologist, myrmecologist and coleopterist
- Paul Dirac, (1902-1984), physicist
- Arthur Eddington, (1882-1944), physicist
- Michael Faraday, (1791-1867), scientist
- Ronald Fisher, (1890-1962), geneticist and statistician
- Rosalind Franklin, (1920-1958), molecular biologist
- J. B. S. Haldane, (1892-1964), geneticist
- Stephen Hawking, (born 1942), cosmologist
- Oliver Heaviside, (1850-1925), physicist
- C. A. R. Hoare, computer scientist
- Robert Hooke, (1635-1703), scientist
- John Herschel, (1792-1871), mathematician and astronomer
- Edward Jenner, (1749-1823), doctor
- R. V. Jones, (1911-1997), physicist
- James Prescott Joule, (1818-1889), physicist
- Joseph Lister, (1827-1912), surgeon
- Bernard Lovell, astronomer
- James Lovelock, (born 1919), scientist
- Martin Lowry, (1874-1936), chemist
- John William Lubbock, (1803-1865), banker, mathematician and astronomer
- Sir Charles Lyell, (1797-1875), geologist
- John Maynard Smith, geneticist
- Desmond Morris, (born 1928), zoologist
- Roger Needham, (1935-2003), computer scientist
- Isaac Newton, (1642-1727), founder of modern physics, last of the alchemists
- Roger Penrose, (born 1931), cosmologist
- Joseph Priestley, (1733-1804), chemist
- Adam Sedgwick, (1785-1873), geologist
- Joseph Wilson Swan, (1828-1914), physicist and chemist
- J. J. Thomson, (1856-1940), physicist
- Henry Tizard, scientist
- Alan Turing, (1912-1954), mathematician
- Alfred Russel Wallace, (1823-1913), naturalist
- Robert Watson-Watt, (1892-1973), scientist
- Alfred North Whitehead, (1861-1947), mathematician
- Maurice Vincent Wilkes, (born 1913), computer scientist
- James Wilkinson, (1919-1986), mathematician
- William Hyde Wollaston, (1766-1828), chemist
- Thomas Young, (1773-1829), scientist
Sportsmen/sportswomen
- Roger Bannister, (born 1929), first sub-four-minute miler
- Alan Ball, (born 1945), 1966 soccer World Cup winner
- Gordon Banks, (born 1937), goalkeeper of 1966 soccer World Cup winning team
- David Beckham, (born 1975), soccer player
- Ian Botham, (born 1955), cricketer
- Geoffrey Boycott, (born 1940), cricketer
- Sir Bobby Charlton, (born 1937), 1966 soccer World Cup winner
- Jack Charlton, (born 1935), 1966 soccer World Cup winner
- Don Cockell, (born 1928), heavyweight boxer
- Sir Henry Cooper, (born 1930), heavyweight boxer
- James Figg, Boxing's first world champion
- Bob Fitzsimmons, (1863-1917), Boxing's first world champion in three divisions.
- Paul Gascoigne, (born 1970), soccer player
- Sir Steve Redgrave, (born 1962), rower, winner of gold medal in five consecutive Olympics
- W.G. Grace, (1848-1915), cricketer
- Naseem Hamed, (born 1974), world champion featherweight boxer
- Ricky Hatton, (born 1978), highly touted boxing prospect
- Sir Geoff Hurst, (born 1941), 1966 soccer World Cup winner
- Len Hutton, (1916-1990), cricketer
- Lennox Lewis, (born 1965), world champion heavyweight boxer
- Gary Lineker, (born 1960), soccer player
- George Mallory, (1886-1924), mountaineer
- Nigel Mansell, (born 1953), racing driver, F1 and CART champion
- Alan Minter, (born 1951), world champion boxer
- Bobby Moore, (1941-1993), captain of 1966 soccer World Cup winning team
- Michael Owen, (born 1979), soccer player
- Fred Perry, (1909-1995), Wimbledon champion tennis player
- Martin Peters, (born 1943), 1966 soccer World Cup winner
- Alan Shearer, (born 1970), soccer player
- Randolph Turpin, (1928-1966), middleweight boxer
Writers
- Matthew Arnold, (1822-1888), poet
- David Attenborough, (born 1926), naturalist and broadcaster
- W. H. Auden, (1907-1973), poet
- Jane Austen, (1775-1817), novelist
- Pam Ayres, (born 1947), poet
- William Blake, (1757-1827), painter, poet
- Anne Bronte, (1820-1849), author
- Charlotte Bronte, (1816-1855), author
- Emily Bronte, (1818-1848), author
- Rupert Brooke, (1887-1925), poet
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, (1806-1861), poet
- Robert Browning, (1812-1889), poet
- George Gordon, Lord Byron
- Lewis Carroll, (1832-1898), author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- Winston Churchill, (1874-1965), British prime minister, author
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (1772-1834), poet
- William Congreve, (1670-1729), poet
- Charles Dickens, (1812-1870), author
- John Dryden, (1631-1700), poet
- George Eliot, (1819-1880), (Mary Ann Evans)
- E.M. Forster, (1879-1970), author
- Elizabeth Gaskell, novelist
- Robert Graves, (1895-1985), author
- Thomas Gray, (1716-1771), poet
- Thomas Hardy, (1840-1928), poet
- William Hazlitt, (1778-1830)
- Nick Hornby, (born 1957), novelist
- Leigh Hunt, (1784-1859), poet
- Aldous Huxley, (1884-1963), writer
- Thomas Henry Huxley, (1825-1895), coiner of the term agnosticism
- Samuel Johnson, (1709-1784), poet
- Ben Jonson, (1573-1637), poet
- D.H. Lawrence, (1885-1930), poet
- Thomas Malory, (c. 1430-c. 1471), author of Le Morte d'Arthur
- Christopher Marlowe, (1564-1593), playwright
- Eric Maschwitz, (1901-1969), writer, lyricist and entertainer
- John Milton, (1608-1674), poet
- William Morris, (1834-1896), architect, author
- William Ralph Inge, clergyman, writer, mysticist
- George Orwell, (1903-1950), (Eric Blair), journalist and novelist
- Wilfred Owen, (1893-1918), war poet
- Samuel Pepys, (1633-1703), diarist and public official in 17th century England
- Alexander Pope, (1688-1744), poet
- Philip Pullman, (born 1946), author
- Christina Rossetti, (1830-1894), poet
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (1828-1882), poet
- John Ruskin, (1819-1900)
- Siegfried Sassoon, (1886-1967), war poet
- William Shakespeare, (c. 1564-1616), poet
- Mary Shelley, (1797-1851), author
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, (1792-1822), poet
- Nevil Shute, (1899-1960), aeronautical engineer and author
- Robert Southey, (1774-1843), Poet Laureate 1813
- Algernon Swinburne, (1837-1909), poet
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Anthony Trollope, (1815-1882), novellist
- John Webster, (died 1630), poet
- Gilbert White, (1720-1795)
- Mary Wollstonecraft, (1759-1797), pioneer feminist known for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Virginia Woolf, (1882-1941), author and feminist.
- William Wordsworth, (1770-1850), Romantic poet
Other Notables
- Pope Adrian IV (c. 1100 - 1159)
- David Attenborough, (born 1926), naturalist and broadcaster
- Robert Blake, (1599 - 1657), reforming Royal Navy Admiral
- William Camden, (1551-1623), historian
- William Caxton, (c. 1422-c. 1491), printer
- James Cook, (1728-1779), British explorer
- Grace Darling, (1815-1842), heroine
- Thomas de Quincey
- Edward Gibbon, (1737-1794), historian
- Gildas, (c. 510 - c.570), monk
- William Godwin, (1756-1836)
- Ebenezer Howard, (1850-1928), urban planner
- Florence Nightingale, (1820-1910), nurse
- John Reith, (1889-1971), broadcaster
- Mark Roberts (born 1965), streaker
- John Speed, (1542-1629), historian and cartographer
- William Wakefield, (1801-1848), founder of Wellington, New Zealand
- William Wilberforce, (1759-1833), abolitionist
The following were born English, but changed nationality later in their life.
See also: List of people by nationality, List of Britons, List of Welsh people, List of Scots, UK topics
|
