List of people from the Isle of Wight

This is a list of people born in or strongly associated with the Isle of Wight, alphabetically within categories.

Born on the Isle of Wight

* Dr Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School and immortalised in "Tom Brown's Schooldays", born in Cowes
* Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères, born in St Helens
* Thomas Fleming, judge and Lord Chief Justice
* Uffa Fox, yacht designer
* Vivian Fuchs, Antarctic explorer
* Marius Goring, born Newport
* Bear Grylls, climber, youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest and live, survival expert, host of Man vs. Wild.
* Sheila Hancock, actress born Newport
* Vice Admiral Sir John Hobson, 17/18th century naval hero of the Battle of Vigo Bay and introducer of snuff to English public [ [http://www.schnupftabak.ch/en/geschichte.html McChrystals History of Snuff] ] was born in Bonchurch. [ also spelt Hopsonn. [http://www.ihaystack.com/authors/b/george_brannon/00016356_brannons_picture_of_the_isle_of_wight_the_expeditiou/00016356_english_iso646us_p001.htm "BRANNON'S PICTURE OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT; Or The Expeditious Traveller's Index to Its Prominent Beauties & Objects of Interest. Compiled Especially with Reference to Those Numerous Visitors Who Can Spare but Two or Three Days to Make the Tour of the Island"] , Printed and Published by George Brannon, Wootton, Isle of Wight, 1843 (various sources give dates of 1844, 1848, 1849, etc, possibly of other editions)]
*Robert Hooke, scientist, born in Freshwater
*Jeremy Irons, actor, born in Cowes and raised in St Helens
*Phill Jupitus, comedian, born in Newport
*Anthony Minghella, film director, born in Ryde, whose parents run the [http://www.minghella.co.uk Minghella's Ice Cream] company on the Island. On accepting his Best Picture Oscar for "The English Patient" he said, "This is a great day for the Isle of Wight!" The film includes footage of Shanklin Pier
*Brian Murphy, actor, born in Ventnor
* Queen Osburga, daughter of Oslac, Chief Butler of England and mother of King Alfred the Great.
*Albert Pollard, historian, born in Ryde
*Horace Rawlins, golfer, winner of the first U.S. Open in 1895
*Henry Sewell, first Prime Minister of New Zealand was born on the island in 1807 and lived there until emigrating to New Zealand at the age of 45.
*Harry Frederick Whitchurch V.C. born in Sandown
*Eric Charles Twelves Wilson V.C. born in Sandown in 1912

Raised on the Isle of Wight

*Raymond Allen, television scriptwriter best known for "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em", attended Ryde Secondary Modern School
*E. Power Biggs, concert organist
*Nicholas Dingley alias Razzle, drummer for Hanoi Rocks, raised in Binstead
*Uffa Fox was raised in Cowes
*William Hutt, MP and colonial administrator, educated in Ryde
*George, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, at St. Lawrence Hall, Ventnor.
*Fidelis Morgan, actress and writer, raised in Bonchurch
*Algernon Swinburne, poet, raised in East Dene, Bonchurch

Lived on the Isle of Wight

*Sam Browne, soldier, retired to Ryde.
*Julia Margaret Cameron, photographer, lived in Freshwater Bay.
*Winston Churchill visited Ventnor for extended periods throughout his life.
*Lewis Carroll lived at Sandown while working on "Alice in Wonderland".
*Sir Christopher Cockerell, inventor of the hovercraft, spent 2 years in East Cowes working on his prototypes.
*Charles Darwin lived for a period in 1867 in the Kings Head Hotel in Sandown.
*Charles Dickens, author, lived near Ventnor.
*Uffa Fox, yacht designer, lived in Puckaster
*David Gascoyne 20th century surrealist poet
*Robyn Hitchcock, musician, lived in Yarmouth from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, and cited it in many of his works of the period.
*Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, lived at St. Lawrence Hall, Ventnor.
*John Keats, poet, moved to the Island in 1814; areas of Shanklin are named after him.
*King Charles I was held prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle for a year.
*Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, spent the summer in Shanklin in 1868.
*Guglielmo Marconi did radio experiments in Alum Bay and Niton around 1900.
*Karl Marx lived in Ryde in the 1870s and in Ventor in the 1880s.
*John Milne, inventor of the horizontal pendulum seismograph, retired from the Japanese Imperial College of Engineering in Shide, Isle of Wight
*David Niven, actor, lived in Bembridge as a child.
*Isaac Pitman, who invented a shorthand system, lived for a time in Sandown.
*Legh Richmond, preacher and writer of the famous religious tract The Dairyman's Daughter, was curate for Yaverland and Brading.
*John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, Secretary of State for War during the years leading up to the First World War; MP and Justice of the Peace for the Isle of Wight.
*Michael Sheard, actor, lived in Ryde.
*Algernon Charles Swinburne, writer, lived in Bonchurch.
*Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet, lived in Farringford in Freshwater Bay.
*Margaret Thatcher rented a house in Seaview.
*Queen Victoria, had one of her residences at Osborne House in East Cowes.
*Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, lived and worked in Cowes.
*Trevor Duncan, composer (Dr Finlay's Casebook theme), lived in Bonchurch.
*Ken Dodd , comedian, has a holiday home at Freshwater Bay.
*Master Gunner Daniel Cambridge VC (later Yeoman of the Guard) was stationed at Redout Battery, Fort Redout, Freshwater Bay, until 1871 (Census)
*King Ethelred the Unready fled to the Isle of Wight in 1012 from the Danes under Sweyn Forkbeard.
*King Harold II and his brother Tostig Godwinsson has estates at Kern and Nunwell respectively.

Still resident

* David Icke, conspiracy theorist, lives in Ryde
* Geoffrey Hughes, actor, lives in Newport
* Ellen MacArthur, sailor, based in Cowes
* Mark King, Level 42 musician.
* Dick Taylor, Pretty Things Musician
* M J Trow, author and teacher
* Alan Titchmarsh, author and T.V. presenter
* The Osbournes have a holiday home in Yaverland.
* Shaw Taylor , t.v.presenter,"keep 'em peeled", lives at Alum Bay
* Edward Upward, socialist novellist lives in Sandown

References

External links

* [http://www.iowrock.demon.co.uk/nothing/intro.html Mike Plumbley's IOWRock website] , concentrating on music and the festivals
* [http://www.invectis.co.uk/iow/people.htm A website listing many current and former renowned residents of the Isle of Wight]