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 other top 100 are also listed.
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
- Emily Bronte (poet, author)
- 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
- John Keats
- Bradley Wiggins
- 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
- James Clerk Maxwell
- Paul McCartney
- Freddie Mercury
- Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery
- Bobby Moore
- Thomas More
- Eric Morecambe
- Isaac Newton
- Florence Nightingale
- Wilfred Owen
- Thomas Paine
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- Enoch Powell
- Sir 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
- William Wordsworth (poet)
- John Wycliffe (religious reformer of Fourteenth Century)
See also: Famous Britains by Century
If you'd like to nominate anyone, please do here
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.
After consideration, I've decided to start editing the top 100 list. I've removed John Lydon and Robbie Williams and replaced him with William Wordsworth. It was too much having a rubbish pop start take the place of the person who invented computers.
- Great Britons: The Great Debate at Amazon.co.uk
- Top 100 Welsh People
- Top 100 Scottish People
- Top 100 English People
- British Quotes
- Famous Victorians
- Famous Edwardians
- 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)
- Virginia Woolf (writer)
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