Great Britons?! So they say (1 Viewer)

[Grant B]

So Boner, I mean Bono is from Ireland, thought that was not Part of GB???
No Peter Sellers and John, Paul George but no Ringo?????
No Cleese???? BOLLOCKS!

Alfred the Great
Andrews, Julie
Attenborough, David
Austen, Jane
Babbage, Charles
Baden Powell
Bader, Douglas
Beckham, David
Bell, Alexander Graham
Benn, Tony
Berners Lee, Tim
Bevan, Aneurin
Blair, Tony
Blake, William
Bono
Booth, William
Boudicca
Bowie, David
Boy George
Branson, Richard
Bruce, Robert
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom
Burton, Richard
Campbell, Donald
Caxton, William
Chaplin, Charlie
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Cheshire, Leonard
Churchill, Winston
Connelly, James
Cook, Captain
Crawford, Michael
Cromwell, Oliver
Crowley, Aleister
Darwin, Charles
Diana, Princess of Wales
Dickens, Charles
Drake, Francis
Edward I
Elgar, Edward
Elizabeth I
Faraday, Michael
Fawkes, Guy
Fleming, Alexander
Geldof, Bob
Glyndwr, Owain
Harrison, George
Harrison, John
Hawking, Stephen
Henry II
Henry V
Henry VIII
Jenner, Edward
King Arthur
Lawrence, TE (L of Arabia)
Lennon, John
Livingstone, David
Lloyd George, David
Logie Baird, John
Lydon, John
Maxwell, James Clerk
McCartney, Paul
Mercury, Freddie
Montgomery
Moore, Bobby
More, Thomas
Morecambe, Eric
Nelson, Horatio
Newton, Isaac
Nightingale, Florence
Paine, Thomas
Pankhurst, Emmeline
Peel, John
Powell, Enoch
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Mother
Queen Victoria
Raleigh, Walter
Redgrave, Steve
Richard III
Richard, Cliff
Rowling, JK
Scott, Captain
Shackleton, Ernest
Shakespeare, William
Stephenson, George
Stopes, Marie
Thatcher, Margaret
The Unknown Soldier
Tindale/Tyndale, William
Tolkien, JRR
Turing, Alan
Wallace, William
Wallis, Barnes
Watt, James
Wellington, Duke of
Wesley, John
Whittle, Frank
Wilberforce, William
Williams, Robbie

 

[Julian Lalor]

Look at the last name on that list. Probably a poll from Teen Beat. I just want to know where the Spice Girls and Ozzie are.

 

[Grant B]

the ozzie kids will get it over dad

 

[Rob Gillespie]

John Lydon, for godssake :rolleyes

 

[andrew markworthy]

I think Owen Glendwyr would be offended to be called part of Great Britain, since he wanted Wales to stay independent (why is he there, anyway? - he was a failure in his aims and got a lot of ordinary people killed). Ditto William Wallace (who was far less appealing and heroic in real life than as portrayed in the movie).

Good grief, I'm taking this list seriously. Where's it from? At first glance, it's a list that a group of not very bright teenagers might have put together from their own prejudices and a very cursory reading of an encyclopaedia.

 

[Steve Christou]

I can't believe I'm not on that list.
But seriously where's the Monty Python team? No John Cleese? The Knights of ni?
Laurence Olivier? Alec Guinness? Sean Connery? Michael Caine? Austin Powers??

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Didn't Guy Fawkes try and blow up parliment? This is a strange list. Boy George? They're really proud of him?

 

[Paul_D]

[Mark Wahlberg voice]Where the fu*k is Ringo?[/Mark Wahlberg voice]

 

[Grant B]

Lists like this generally suck, then again this one sucks more than normal

Fawkes, Guy ????A belated we are sorry for religous intolerance and never mind we killed you for your botched bombing - now you are on 'top of the pops'

Guess Gary Glitter got chopped off the list for those nagging kiddy porn charges

 

[andrew markworthy]

Didn't Guy Fawkes try and blow up parliment? This is a strange list. Boy George? They're really proud of him?

Guy Fawkes is only remembered these days as an excuse for Bonfire Night, and in historical terms is a very minor figure. And no, Boy George is not somebody we're particularly proud of.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Boy George

Are they kidding? I'm not even a Brit, and I could think of ten others that should be on this list besides Boy!

 

[Grant B]

I don't for a second believe Boy George belongs on the list, but give him a break. I was in the midwest when culture club's 1st came out.
I loved it when very hetrosexual boys would say,'that chick isn't bad looking' . I would tell them to look closely, "that ain't no chick". Boy did they become quiet!

 

[Jon_Are]

Where is the Minister of Silly Walks??

Hmmm?

Jon

 

[Bill Cowmeadow]

Narrowing the list;
My top ten:

Boudicca
Chaucer
Churchill
Darwin
Dickens
Elizabeth I
Henry VIII
Raleigh
Shakespeare
Watt

I think the above members had more impact on our life today than all the rest.
Any one else want to take a stab at the top ten?

Bill

 

[CharlesD]

I narrowed it down to about 25 who had some effect (IMO) on the lives of the 'Engish Speaking Peoples' and to a lesser extent the entire world. I narrowed that down to a list of 10 who I think directly or indirectly have had an effect on everyone's lives:

Churchill, Winston
Cromwell, Oliver
Darwin, Charles
Faraday, Michael
Fleming, Alexander
Nelson, Horatio
Newton, Isaac
Shakespeare, William
Turing, Alan
Watt, James

 

[TheoGB]

I'm guessing you might find the homosexual population feel Boy George is a very important figure. I am certainly impressed at how much he's managed to keep in the media due to musical accomplishments. More power to him.
The list is obviously nutsy, but such lists always are!!

 

[Paul_D]

I am certainly impressed at how much he's managed to keep in the media due to musical accomplishments. More power to him.

He used to live about 10 mins. away from me, and I remember driving past his house by Hampstead Heath when I a kid and being amazed at how many people were permanently camped outside. Whether you like his music or not, you can't deny his influence. Certainly not as worthy as some others on that list though.

 

[TheoGB]

Yeah, Paul, I know the house. There's tonnes of cool grafitti all over the walls. Always impressive to read, and not nearly as much homophobic stuff as I would have imagined, thankfully...

 

[JasenP]

If I were a citizen of Great Britain I would sue for the inclusion of Bono on any list associated with my country.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Is this the BBC's list of 100 most important Brits? If so, it illustrates the dumbing down of the Western mind perfectly. First, because of the mistaken nationalities (Bono is as has already been noted Irish, Alexander Graham Bell was American by the time he made his great discoveries). Second, because peripheral but well-known figures have been chosen instead of the true movers and shakers (e.g. Fleming - it was Ernst Chain who did the real work; Guy Fawkes - a peripheral figure in the plot). Third, because transitory figures from pop culture have been included on the whim of the moment (Lennon and McCartney arguably deserve a mention as a duo but Boy George and Robbie Williams? - give me a break!). The surest sign of a list thought up by middlebrow thought is the inclusion of current pop culture.

Having way too much time on my hands, I took the list and first removed all those names which fall foul of the above criteria. Then I excluded people who were famous but who were famous just because they were in the right place at the right time. E.g. Queen Victoria could just as well have been any other person with a crown on their head - she didn't do much personally. This leaves the following who *by their own actions* fundamentally changed Britain and in many cases the world to a significant degree in one or more fields:

Alfred the Great
Babbage, Charles
Baden Powell
Bevan, Aneurin
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom
Caxton, William
Chaplin, Charlie
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Churchill, Winston
Cromwell, Oliver
Darwin, Charles
Dickens, Charles
Elizabeth I
Faraday, Michael
Hawking, Stephen
Henry VIII
Jenner, Edward
Lennon, John
Maxwell, James Clerk
McCartney, Paul
Nelson, Horatio
Newton, Isaac
Nightingale, Florence
Paine, Thomas
Pankhurst, Emmeline
Shakespeare, William
Tindale/Tyndale, William
Turing, Alan
Wellington, Duke of
Wesley, John
Whittle, Frank
Wilberforce, William

There's a lot of people missing: John Maynard Keynes, Turner, Ernst Chain, Balfour, Warwick the Kingmaker, Huxley, Gibbon, etc, etc.