Famous British People

Top 10 Famous Britons

1. Winston Churchill (28.1%)
british 2. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (24.6%)
british 3. Princess Diana (13.9%)
british 4. Charles Darwin (6.9%)
british 5. William Shakespeare (6.8%)
british 6. Sir Isaac Newton (5.2%)
british 7. Queen Elizabeth I (4.4%)
british 8. John Lennon (4.2%)
british 9. Horatio Nelson (3%)
british 10. Oliver Cromwell (2.8%)


Famous British People Living in 21st Century include:


Famous British People 20th Century


Famous British People 19th Century

see also: famous Victorians

Famous British People 18th Century

Famous British People 17th Century


Famous British People  16th Century 

Famous British People 15th Century

Famous British People 14th Century

Famous British People before 13th Century


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Who Deserves to be in the Top 100 Greatest Britons?

The BBC did a great job in setting up a poll to discover the top 100 Greatest Britons. Apart from Oliver Cromwell, The top 10 are all worthy figures.

However, from a personal perspective, I felt there were some in the top 100 who were there because of fame, rather than any useful contribution. Therefore, I've decided to remove some modern figures, who I don't believe will stand the test of time, and replace them with people who are much more deserving of making a worthwhile contribution to the nation. (Wordsworth, Emily Bronte, John Keats and John Wycliffe)

If you'd like to nominate someone for inclusion or exclusion, leave a comment

Removed From BBC Top 100
  • John Peel
  • John Lydon
  • Robbie Williams
  • Boy George
Put in Top 100
  • William Wordsworth (poet)
  • John Wycliffe 
  • Emily Bronte (poet, author)
  • John Keats
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%)
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Lance Armstrong Quotes

July 1999: "I have been on my deathbed, and I'm not stupid. I can emphatically say I am not on drugs."
“Anyone who imagines they can work alone winds up surrounded by nothing but rivals, without companions. The fact is, no one ascends alone.”
― Lance Armstrong, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life


Jan 2004: "I have never had a single positive doping test, and I do not take performance-enhancing drugs."
“This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it; Study it; Tweak it; Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day; What are YOU on?”
- Lance Armstrong (Nike advert)
July 2004: "We're sick and tired of these allegations and we're going to do everything we can to fight them. They're absolutely untrue."

“If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on.”
- Lance Armstrong
Nov 2005: "How many times do I have to say it? … Well, it can't be any clearer than 'I've never taken drugs.'"
“My mother told me...if you're going to get anywhere, you're going to have to do it yourself, because no one is going to do it for you.”
― Lance Armstrong, It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
“The riskiest thing you can do is get greedy.”
― Lance Armstrong
Jan 2011: "If you're trying to hide something, you wouldn't keep getting away with it for 10 years. Nobody is that clever."

“Hard work, sacrifice and focus will never show up in tests.”
― Lance Armstrong

May 2011: "Twenty-plus-year career, 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case."

Quotes from Oprah Winfrey Interview Jan 2013:

"All the fault and all the blame here falls on me. I viewed this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times. I made my decisions. They are my mistakes, and I am sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say I'm sorry for that."
"I think this just ruthless desire to win. Win at all costs, truly. Serves me well on the bike, served me well during the disease, but the level that it went to, for whatever reason, is a flaw. Then that defiance, that attitude, that arrogance, you cannot deny it. "
I'll spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologize to people for the rest of my life

Hey, she's one of these people that I have to apologise to. She's one of these people that got run over, got bullied. On Emma O'Reilly
Why admit it now?

I don't know that I have a great answer. I will start my answer by saying that this is too late. It's too late for probably most people, and that's my fault. I viewed this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times, and as you said, it wasn't as if I just said no and I moved off it"

My generation was no different than any other. The 'help' has evolved over the years but the fact remains that our sport is damn hard, the Tour was invented as a 'stunt, and very tough mother f**kers have competed for a century and all looked for advantages. From hopping on trains a 100 years ago to EPO now. No generation was exempt or 'clean'. Not Merckx's, not Hinault's, not LeMond's, not Coppi's, not Gimondi's, not Indurain's, not Anquetil's, not Bartali's, and not mine. (interview Jan 30, 2013)

- Lance Armstrong Biography 

Armstrong Quotes at Telegraph
Armstrong Doping denials at Guardian
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30 Facts about J.R.R. Tolkien

Merton College. Tolkien was professor of English Language and Lit at Merton from 1945-59


  1. The Tolkien name was derived from German. Tolkien (who was fascinated with languages said the  surname came from the German word tollkühn, meaning "foolhardy"
  2. Tolkien was born in Orange Free State, South Africa, but moved to England aged three.
  3. When he was a baby, the young Tolkien was kidnapped for a day, by a house boy, who was captivated by the baby.
  4. Tolkien  became a Catholic in 1900, this caused a family rift with his Baptist relatives.
  5. Tokien remained a Catholic throughout his life. C.S.Lewis credits Tolkien with his decision to become a Christian in the 1930s.
  6. From his early teens, Tolkien invented several languages. Quenya became an important aspect of his middle earth Legendarium. In a letter published in Observer, 1981, Tolkien wrote: The stories were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me name comes first and the story follows.'
  7. Aged 16, he met his future wife Edith. But, his guardian Father Francis Morgan prohibited Tolkien seeing her until Tolkien came of age, aged 21. 
  8. As a young student at Exeter college, Oxford University, he spent his first few years often getting into debt trying to keep up with richer students, who had more disposable income. Tolkien admits he had a great love of beer and talking into the early hours of the morning.
  9. Initially, Tolkien studied the classics, but switched to English Literature when he found he could study Middle English.
  10. Tolkien served as an officer in the Battle of the Somme.

  11. Tolkien said his character of Sam Gamgee was based on the ordinary solidiers who he commanded and who faced so much hardship without rancour. 
  12. The first work that Tolkien wrote was The Silmarillion; this wasn't published until after his death, and was revised at different periods throughout his life.
  13. In 1918, he got a job working on the Oxford English Dictionary, which had begun in 1879. 
  14. Tolkien was saved from further fighting through developing trench fever. Though he later recalled that most of his friends died in the First World War.
  15. Tolkien was a great lecturer. When giving lectures on Beowulf, he would often startle students by exclaiming in Anglo-Saxon, and speaking in the manner of an old bar.
  16. W.H.Auden later said, he thought the voice of Tolkien giving lectures, was the voice of Gandalf!
  17. The Hobbit was written initially for his own children.
  18. The first famous lines to the hobbit were written down on a blank, empty exam paper he was once marking. 'In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit"
  19. When agents from Nazi Germany wished to translate the Hobbit into German, they sent a letter asking to prove he was 'Aryan'. Tolkien gave a scathing reply, saying amongst other thing that he wished he had Jewish ancestors.   
  20. Tolkien had a dislike for cars, and spent most of his adult life relying on bicycles and trains. He had a particular love of the Oxfordshire countryside and was dismayed when it was covered with new roads.
  21. When an American company published an authorised copy of 'Lord of the Rings' It became a best-seller. But, because Tolkien maintained a long correspondence with many fans, he helped to encourage people to boycott the pirated copy. This boycott proved successful and eventually the company made donation to Tolkien and dropped the edition. 
  22. Tolkien left a significant body of work unpublished, which is son Christopher Tolkien later published. This included, The Silmarillion, The History of Middle Earth and Unfinished Tales.
  23. Initially, Tolkien only wanted The Lord of the Rings to be published alongside the Simlarillion, almost going to another publisher.
  24. When Tolkien's son joined the army, he listed his father's occupation as 'Wizard!'
  25. In one sense Tolkien was a typical conservative. He was highly critical of the Stalinist and Hitler regime's. But, he also had a strong libertarian streak and once said: 'My political opinions lean more and more to anarchy.'
  26. Tolkien credited the works of William Morris as being a great inspiration. 
  27. In 1999 Amazon.com customers voted Lord of the Rings as the most popular book of the Millenium
  28. Tolkien was voted 94th on the list of Greatest Britons
  29. One of his favourite sayings was: Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!
  30. He was buried at Wolvercote cemetery with his wife Edith. The description reads:
 Edith Mary Tolkien, Lúthien, 1889-1971 
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892-1973

Read More: J.R.R.Tolkien Biography
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Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo

Two of the greatest players of the modern generation, perhaps of all time. Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi At another time, Cristiano Ronaldo or even Iniest could have been good enough to be the greatest player, but who can compare with Lionel Messi? When the Duke of Wellington was asked who was the greatest general of all time. The Duke did not hesitate to say of his great rival.
In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon!"
Who is the greatest footballer of all times?
In this age, in past ages, in any age, Messi!
"Messi has his personality and I have mine. He has his game and I have mine. I also play in a big club like him. We are different in every aspect. But right now, he is the best."
 —Christiano Ronaldo, in September 2011

 “I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi. Messi is a genius and he can become an even better player.”
 - Diego Maradona

“Nobody was so wonderful at 19 years, neither Pele nor Maradona.”
- Karl-Heinz Rummenigge  

"Once he's on the run, Messi is unstoppable. He's the only player who can change direction at such a pace. He is the best player in the world by some distance. He's (like) a PlayStation. He can take advantage of every mistake we make."

 Arsène Wenger


Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi 
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Hate is Never Conquered by Hate


For hate is never conquered by hate.
Hate is conquered by love.
This is an eternal law.
- Lord Buddha

Buddha Biography 

Related

Photo: Tejvan Pettinger
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Gretel Mahoney - Mrs Mahoney's Secret War

There are not too many books about life in Nazi Germany written from the perspective of an ordinary German.

Recent books such as 'Hitler's Willing Executioners' expressed the extent of collaboration between ordinary German citizens and the the Nazi agenda.

Mrs Mahoney's Secret War is a fascinating glimpse into life in Nazi Germany -  from the perspective of a German who dislike the Nazi regime.

Gretel Mahoney's story is very readable and fascinating. You get a real feel for her character - not a saint or resistance hero - but someone who saw through the Fascist propaganda and was able to resist in small ways.

She tells of how she came to hate the Nazi Regime. Firstly her socialist grandfather was a principled and staunch critic of the Nazi's - even when the stormtroopers would come to terrorize the neighbour hood. Gretel then tells of how she saw the increased victimisation and persecution of her Jewish friends. For Gretel, Kristalnacht in 1938, was a painful realisation of the extent to which the Nazi's went to persecute the Jewish population of Germany.The loss of her Jewish friend Lydia was a key factor in cementing her hatred of the Nazi's.

Gretel comes across as both carefree and wilful. She found it difficult to keep her mouth closed and often walked on a thin border of risking arrest.

A particularly interesting chapter was the occasion when the Bomb plot to Hitler played out. At first there was real uncertainty about what had happened. To see everything from her perspective was quite interesting.

In the end, Gretel was arrested and placed in a camp, where she survived the war. After the war she met a British officer, who was posted to Hamburg. They eventually got married and Gretel moved to England.

The book is an interesting insight into life in Nazi Germany - it shows the daily dilemma's faced by those living in Nazi Germany but opposed to the Nazi ideology. It is also an interesting insight into the personality of Gretel Mahoney - an unlikely hero, but someone who could see through the Nazi propaganda.


Book Cover Mrs Mahoney's Secret War at Amazon.com Mrs Mahoney's Secret War at Amazon.co.uk

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Great Aeroplane Pioneers

aeroplane

The Wright brothers Wilbur and Orville who made the first recorded flight using their 'Flyer' model in December 1903. Over the next several years, they developed aircraft leading to increasing levels of sophistication, gaining records for the first flights lasting more than one hour, and later two hours. They played a critical role in the development of modern aeroplanes. Their greatest contribution was the development of better plane control, based on the three-axis control system.


Amelia Earhart. First women to successfully fly solo across the Atlantic. Set many records and encouraged women to take up flying. Went missing, presumed dead during a trans-global record attempt.

Other Early Aeroplane Pioneers

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith - Made the first trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Australia in 1928 and the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland.

Karl Jatho. Developed a motorised glider.

Hiram Stevens Maxim - famous for his wind tunnel tests, though his test plane never took off.

Giacomo D'Angelis was a Corsic-Indian aviation pioneer who became famous for the probably first flight of an own-built aircraft in 1910.


Richard Pearse A group of aviation historians in New Zealand claims that Pearse flew about a kilometer by the end of March 1902 and a similar distance in 1903. However, no proof of this flight has been presented although the topic has been researched since 1958.

Czesław Zbierański - First single wing planes. With Stanislaw Cywiński in the years of 1910–1911 constructed plane with 1 pairs of wings. On September 25, 1911 in Warsaw, the plane piloted by Michal Scipio del Campio flew distance around 15–20 kilometers.

Diego Marín Aguilera (Spain) flew a flying machine on May 15, 1793, of his own invention for approximately 360 meters at a height of 5–6 meters. Unfortunately, the residents of his town, believing him to be a lunatic, heretic, or a fraud, burned his creation and Marín Aguilera never attempted another flight.

Giuseppe Mario Bellanca of Sciacca, Sicily (later New York City), was an airplane designer and builder who created the first monoplane in the United States with an enclosed cabin.

Charles Lindbergh (US), the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, New York to Paris, in 1927.

E. Lilian Todd (US), first woman to design an airplane.
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Quotes on Courage


"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
Winston Churchill

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
Winston Churchill

"Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others."
Winston Churchill

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."
Mark Twain

"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."
Mark Twain

"Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage."
Confucius

"Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?"
William Shakespeare

"One man with courage is a majority."
Thomas Jefferson

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nominate a courageous person in comments below.
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Walt Whitman Quotes



I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
- Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman

"Talk not so much, then, young artist, of the great old masters, who but painted and chisell’d. Study not only their productions. There is a still higher school for him who would kindle his fire with coal from the altar of the loftiest and purest art. It is the school of all grand actions and grand virtues, of heroism, of the death of patriots and martyrs — of all the mighty deeds written in the pages of history — deeds of daring, and enthusiasm, devotion, and fortitude. "
Walt Whitman
I think of few heroic actions, which cannot be traced to the artistical impulse. He who does great deeds, does them from his innate sensitiveness to moral beauty.
 - Walt Whitman

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

 - Walt Whitman , Song Of The Open Road
O to make the most jubilant song!
Full of music-full of manhood, womanhood, infancy!
Full of common employments-full of grain and trees.
 - Walt Whitman , Song Of Joys
Come said the Muse,
Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted,
Sing me the universal.
 - Walt Whitman , Song Of The Universal
Let me have my own way,
Let others promulge the laws, I will make no account of the laws,
Let others praise eminent men and hold up peace, I hold up agitation
and conflict,
I praise no eminent man, I rebuke to his face the one that was
thought most worthy.
 - Walt Whitman , Myself And Mine

Young man I think I know you- I think this face is the face of the
Christ himself,
Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.
 - Walt Whitman , A Sight In Camp In The Daybreak Grey And Dim

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Suggest Someone Who Has Made A Difference

Suggest someone who has made a positive contribution to the world.

It can be in any field

  • Arts
  • Politics
  • Music
  • Literature
  • Sport
  • Humanitarian


They can be a nomination for:


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Famous Charity Quotes

"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go. "
- Mother Teresa


“The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering."
- Audrey Hepburn

"It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive."
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British politician.

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Winston Churchill

“Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.”
St. Francis of Assisi

"Charity begins at home, but should not end there."
Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) British clergyman and author.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in."
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) Politician. President of the United States.


"Charity. To love human beings in so far as they are nothing. That is to love them as God does."
Simone Weil (1910-1943) French Philosopher

"You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity."
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) British author.

"Charity sees the need, not the cause."
German proverb

"Every charitable act is a stepping stone towards heaven.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American politician.

"Be charitable and indulge to everyone, but thyself."
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Mahatma Gandhi

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Steve Jobs Quotes

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”
- Steve Jobs

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” – Steve Jobs as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993).

“We’ve gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time.” – ABC News, Jobs on Mac OS X Beta

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

"We're gambling on our vision, and we would rather do that than make "me too" products. Let some other companies do that. For us, it's always the next dream."

- Interview about the release of the Macintosh (24 January 1984)
"What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."
- Memory and Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of Congress (1991)

"Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don’t know any better."
- Interview in Rolling Stone magazine, no. 684 (16 June 1994)

"We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on."
- Interview in Macworld magazine (February 2004)

“I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.”

“Bill Gates‘d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” – The New York Times, Creating Jobs, 1997

“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.” – YouTube

“It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.” – CNNMoney

“So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things.” – CNNMoney

“When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else.”

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.” – Fortune
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Funny Sign Photos

Idle is a town in Yorkshire.

Funny Sign

This page is not blank

Funny Sign

Anorexic's are not needed here.

Funny Sign in Portland

So which part of free don't you understand? A whole new meaning of the world free

Funny traffic signs

Careful does it.

Funny sign

A child is not just for Christmas.

here-it-is
the old internet classic.

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Bizarre Facts

  • In October 2006, Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, a 35-year-old Japanese office worker, fell down a snowy slope while attending a work party near Kobe. His body was found 24 days later, during which time doctors estimated his core temperature had fallen to 71F (22C) (as opposed to the normal 96-98F (36-37C). He made a full recovery.[1]
  • If you feed canaries a diet of red peppers they will turn orange.
  • Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
  • Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
  • The black box flight recorders on aircraft are actually bright orange so that they can be found more easily
  • More relatively interesting but useless facts
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