List of English people

Some notable individuals born in England, alphabetically within categories:

Table of contents

1 Actors/Actresses 2 Archaeologists and Anthropologists 3 Architects 4 Artists 5 Criminals 6 Economists 7 Engineers 8 Entrepreneurs 9 Filmmakers 10 Humourists 11 Inventors 12 Military men and women 13 Monarchs 14 Musicians 15 Philosophers 16 Politicians 17 Scientists 18 Sportsmen/sportswomen 19 Writers 20 Other Notables

Actors/Actresses

• Sir John Gielgud
• Alec Guiness
• Laurence Olivier
• Sir Ralph Richardson
• Alistair Sims
• Dame Maggie Smith

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

• Myra Hindley
• Peter Sutcliffe

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

• Richard Branson, (born 1950)
• Abraham Darby, (c. 1678-1717), ironmaster
• William Richard Morris, (Lord Nuffield), (1877-1963)
• Josiah Wedgwood, (1730-1795), industrialist

Filmmakers

• Roy Boulting

Humourists

• John Cleese
• Ben Elton
• Michael Palin

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)
• Bernard Montgomery, (1887-1976), soldier
• Louis Mountbatten, (1900-1979), sailor
• Horatio Nelson, (1758-1805), sailor, Admiral
• Siegfried Sassoon, (1886-1967), war poet
• Arthur Wellesley, (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), (later Queen Elizabeth II)
• 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

• Edward Elgar, (1857-1934), composer

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)
• Clement Attlee, (1883-1967), British prime minister
• Stanley Baldwin, British prime minister
• Margaret Bondfield
• James Callaghan
• George Canning
• 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
• Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
• David Lloyd George
• George Grenville
• 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
• Henry Pelham
• Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle
• Spencer Perceval
• William Pitt the Elder, (1708-1778), 1st Earl of Chatham
• William Pitt the Younger, (1759-1806)
• 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
• Margaret Thatcher, (born 1925), British prime minister
• Sir Robert Walpole
• Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham
• Arthur Wellesley, (1769-1852), soldier
• William Wilberforce, (1759-1833), abolitionist
• Henry Willink, (1894-1973), politician
• Harold Wilson, (1916-1995), Labour prime minister of the UK

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 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, first sub-four-minute miler
• David Beckham, (born 1975), soccer player
• Don Cockell, heavy weight boxer
• James Figg Boxing's first world champion
• Bob Fitzsimmons, (1863-1917), Boxing's first world champion in three divisions.
• Naseem Hamed world champion boxer
• Ricky Hatton highly touted boxing prospect
• Lennox Lewis, (born 1965), world champion boxer
• George Mallory, mountaineer
• Alan Minter, (born 1951), world champion boxer
• Michael Owen, (born 1979), soccer player
• Alan Shearer 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
• 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)
• 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
• John Milton, (1608-1674), poet
• William Morris, (1834-1896), architect, author
• 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

• David Attenborough, (born 1926), naturalist and broadcaster
• Robert Blake, (1599 - 1657), reforming Royal Navy Admiral
• William Camden, (1551-1623), historian
• George Canning, (1770-1827)
• 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
• 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.

• Thomas Paine, (1737-1809)

See also: List of people by nationality, List of Britons, List of Welsh people, List of Scots, UK topics