Great Britons: The Greatest Britons List
A poll by the BBC, asked the nation, who they thought were the Greatest Britons.
The winner was Winston Churchill. The Top 10 were:
Top 10 Greatest Britons
| 1. Winston Churchill (28.1%) | |
| 2. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (24.6%) | |
| 3. Princess Diana (13.9%) | |
| 4. Charles Darwin (6.9%) | |
| 5. William Shakespeare (6.8%) | |
| 6. Sir Isaac Newton (5.2%) | |
| 7. Queen Elizabeth I (4.4%) | |
| 8. John Lennon (4.2%) | |
| 9. Horatio Nelson (3%) | |
| 10. Oliver Cromwell (2.8%) |
Top 100 Greatest Britons in alphabetical order
- Alfred the Great
- Julie Andrews
- King Arthur
- David Attenborough
- Jane Austen
- Charles Babbage
- Lord Baden Powell
- Douglas Bader
- David Beckham
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Tony Benn
- Tim Berners Lee
- John M Keynes
- Aneurin Bevan
- Tony Blair
- William Blake
- William Booth
- Boudicca
- David Bowie
- Richard Branson
- Robert the Bruce
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- Richard Burton
- Donald Campbell
- William Caxton
- Charlie Chaplin
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Leonard Cheshire
- Winston Churchill
- James Connolly
- Captain James Cook
- Michael Crawford
- Aleister Crowley
- Charles Darwin
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Charles Dickens
- Benjamin Disraeli
- Francis Drake
- King Edward I
- Edward Elgar
- Queen Elizabeth I
- Queen Elizabeth II
- the Queen Mother
- Michael Faraday
- Guy Fawkes
- Alexander Fleming
- Bob Geldof
- William Tyndale
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Harrison
- John Harrison
- Stephen Hawking
- King Henry II
- King Henry V
- King Henry VIII
- Paul Hewson (Bono)
- Edward Jenner
- Samuel Johnson
- D H Lawrence
- T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
- John Lennon
- David Livingstone
- David Lloyd George
- John Logie Baird
- John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
- James Clerk Maxwell
- Paul McCartney
- Freddie Mercury
- Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery
- Bobby Moore
- Thomas More
- Eric Morecambe
- Isaac Newton
- Florence Nightingale
- George O'Dowd (Boy George)
- Thomas Paine
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- John Peel
- Enoch Powell
- Walter Raleigh
- Steve Redgrave
- King Richard III
- Cliff Richard
- J K Rowling
- Robert Falcon Scott
- Ernest Shackleton
- George Stephenson
- Marie Stopes
- Margaret Thatcher
- William Tyndale
- J R R Tolkien
- Alan Turing
- Unknown soldier
- Queen Victoria
- William Wallace
- Barnes Wallis
- James Watt
- Duke of Wellington
- John Wesley
- Frank Whittle
- William Wilberforce
- Robbie Williams
Commentary on List
In a way, the BBC list would be better to be called 'most famous Britons'. There is also an inevitable bias to those who lived recently.
From a personal perspective, I feel the Greatest 100 Britons should include great poets like John Keats and William Wordsworth. In fifty years time, I can't see people feeling the cultural contribution of Robbie Williams to Britain is greater than the immortal poets like Keats, Wordsworth and Shelley. Also, I would want to include some who epitomised certain events like the First World War; perhaps Vera Brittain and Wilfred Owen.
- Great Britons: The Great Debate at Amazon.co.uk
- Top 100 Welsh People
- Top 100 Scottish People
- Top 100 English People
- British Quotes
- Top 10 Greatest Britons chosen at BBC
- 100 Great British Heroes
- top 100 Greatest Britons at Wikipedia
Other Notable Britons missing out on the list
- Clement Attlee (politician)
- William Wordsworth (poet)
- Vera Brittain (author)
- Emily Bronte (poet, author)
- Richard Attenborough (actor)
- Sir Roger Bannister (sportsman)
- Thomas A Beckett (religious figure)
- Nurse Edith Cavell
- Jeremy Clarkson (TV presenter, journalist)
- Betty Boothroyd (politician)
- Vera Brittain (author)
- Gordon Brown (politician)
- Michael Caine (actor)
- Brian Clough (football manager)
- John Constable (artist)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (writer)
- Frederick Delius (musician)
- Boris Johnson (politician)
- Jane Goodall
- Robert Graves (poet)
- Sir Alec Guinness (actor)
- John Keats (poets)
- Sir Douglas Haig (General)
- Geoff Hamilton (gardener)
- Len Hutton (sportsman)
- David Hockney (artist)
- Spike Milligan (comic)
- Henry Moore (artist)
- Wilfred Owen (poet)
- Fred Perry (sportsman)
- Siegfried Sassoon (poet)
- Mary Seacole (humanitarian)
- Alan Titchmarsh (gardener)
- Mary Whitehouse
- P.G.Wodehouse (writer)
- John Wycliffe (religious figure)
- William Wordsworth (poet)
Legends of Great Briton
Categories
- Great British gardeners
- Great Yorkshire People
- Great English football players
- Greatest English Cricket team of all time
- People of First World War