From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of notable 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
King
Arwald , last pagan king in England and last king of the Isle of Wight, died 686
Lee Bradbury , ex professional footballer, currently manager of
Havant and Waterlooville , born in
Cowes
Danny Briggs , Hampshire and England cricketer
Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères , born in
St Helens
Craig Douglas (Terry Perkins) pop singer, born 1941 in Newport, topped the charts in 1959 with
Only Sixteen
Arthur Percy Morris Fleming , born 1881 in Newport, electrical engineer and pioneer in the development of radio and submarine detection
Thomas Fleming , judge and Lord Chief Justice
Uffa Fox , yacht designer
Vivian Fuchs , Antarctic explorer
Marius Goring , born
Newport
Maxwell Gray (Mary Gleed Tuttiett), novelist
Lauran Hibberd Slacker-pop singer, born in
Newport
Sheila Hancock , actress, born in
Blackgang
Robert Hooke , scientist, born in
Freshwater
Jeremy Irons , actor, born in
Cowes and raised in
St Helens
Phill Jupitus , comedian, born in
Newport
Mark King , born in Gurnard nr. Cowes, bass player and vocalist in pop/funk band
Level 42
Suri Krishnamma , film director and writer, born in
Shanklin
Cliff Michelmore , television presenter and producer born in
Cowes
Albert Midlane , failed ironmonger, poet and hymn-writer was born in
Newport
Anthony Minghella , film director; born in
Ryde ; his parents run the Minghella's Ice Cream company on the Island; his film
The English Patient includes footage of
Shanklin Pier; on accepting his Best Picture
Oscar , he said, "This is a great day for the Isle of Wight!"
Loretta Minghella , charity executive and solicitor
Brian Murphy , actor, born in
Ventnor
Noel Odell , geologist and mountaineer, born in
St Lawrence
Queen
Osburga , daughter of Oslac, Chief Butler of England and mother of King
Alfred the Great
Adam Pacitti , Leader of Cultaholic, born in
Ryde
Arthur Cecil Pigou , economist and proponent of
pigouvian taxes , born in
Ryde
Albert Pollard , historian, born in Ryde
Horace Rawlins , golfer, winner of the first
U.S. Open in 1895
Jake Scrimshaw , professional footballer
Henry Sewell , first
Prime Minister of
New Zealand , born on the island in 1807 and lived there until emigrating to New Zealand at the age of 45
Kelly Sotherton , heptathlete, born in Newport
Polly Toynbee , journalist, born at Yafford
[1]
George Westmore , founder of Hollywood's first make-up department, born 1879 in Newport. His son Bud Westmore is credited as make-up artist on over 450 movies
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
E. Power Biggs ,
concert organist
Frank Cadogan Cowper , artist, raised at Lisle Court, Wootton
Uffa Fox , raised in
Cowes
William Hutt , MP and colonial administrator, educated in Ryde
George, 2nd Earl Jellicoe , at St. Lawrence Hall,
Ventnor
Donna Langley , film executive and chairwoman of
Universal Pictures , raised on the island.
Fidelis Morgan , actress and writer, raised in Bonchurch
Nicholas Dingley alias
Razzle , drummer for
Hanoi Rocks , raised in
Binstead
Algernon Charles Swinburne , poet, raised in East Dene,
Bonchurch
Bear Grylls , climber, youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest and live; survival expert; host of Man vs. Wild
Lived on the Isle of Wight
Sam Browne , soldier, retired to
Ryde
Master Gunner
Daniel Cambridge
VC (later
Yeoman of the Guard ), stationed at
Redoubt Battery ,
Fort Redoubt ,
Freshwater Bay , until 1871 (Census)
Julia Margaret Cameron , photographer, lived in
Freshwater Bay
Lewis Carroll , author, lived at
Sandown while working on
Alice in Wonderland
Winston Churchill , visited
Ventnor for extended periods throughout his life
Helen Clare , soprano singer
Sir Christopher Cockerell , inventor of the hovercraft, spent two years in
East Cowes working on his prototypes
E. E. Cowper , novelist, lived at Lisle Court, Wootton
Frank Cowper , yachtsman and author; designed and lived at Lisle Court, Wootton
Charles Darwin , naturalist, lived for a period in 1867 in the Kings Head Hotel in
Sandown
Charles Dickens , author, lived in Bonchurch for 3 months in 1849
King Charles I , held prisoner in
Carisbrooke Castle for a year
Ken Dodd , comedian, had a holiday home at
Freshwater Bay
Jack Douglas , actor from a series of Carry On films
Trevor Duncan , composer (known for the
Dr Finlay's Casebook theme), lived in
Bonchurch
King
Ethelred the Unready , fled to the Isle of Wight in 1012 from the Danes under
Sweyn Forkbeard
Gertrude Fenton , novelist and editor of the Carisbrooke magazine
Uffa Fox , yacht designer, lived in
Puckaster
David Gascoyne , 20th-century surrealist poet
Pamela Green , infamous nude model of the 1950s and 1960s, lived in
Yarmouth with the dambuster
Douglas Webb , DFM
King
Harold II and his brother
Tostig Godwinson , have estates at Kern and
Nunwell respectively
Jet Harris , musician with
The Shadows
Peter de Heyno , defended the
Carisbrooke Castle 1377 against French–Castilian troops
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
John Oliver Hobbes (Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie), novelist, lived part-time in
Steephill , 1900–1906
Geoffrey Hughes , actor, lived in
Newport
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir
Samuel Raymond Jarvis died at his home,
Cove Cottage in
Ventnor , in 1868
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
Kenneth Kendall , journalist and TV presenter, lived in Cowes where his partner owned an art gallery
Charles Kingsley , spent childhood there
Marek Larwood , actor and comedian
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 , lodged in
Ryde in the 1870s and in
Ventnor 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 , invented a shorthand system, lived for a time in
Sandown
J.B. Priestley , author, playwright and broadcaster, lived at Brook for over a decade from 1948
John Morgan Richards , cigarette and patent medicine entrepreneur, lived in
Steephill , 1903–1918
Legh Richmond , preacher and writer of the religious tract
The Dairyman's Daughter ,
curate for
Yaverland and
Brading
Frederick Riddle , viola player, died in
Newport
John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone ,
Secretary of State for War in 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 , poet, lived in
Bonchurch
Shaw Taylor , television presenter, known for the catchphrase "keep 'em peeled", lived in Totland
Alfred, Lord Tennyson , poet, lived in
Farringford in
Freshwater Bay
Former Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher , rented a house in
Seaview
Edward Upward , long-lived author and part of the
Auden Group in the 1930s, lived in
Sandown from 1961 to 2004
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
Douglas Webb , DFM air gunner with 617 Squadron on the Dambusters raid; partner of the infamous nude model
Pamela Green ; lived in
Yarmouth
Raymond Allen , television scriptwriter best known for
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em , born and lives in
Ryde
Keegan Brown , professional darts player
Patrick Buckland , CEO of
Stainless Games , creator of
Carmageddon
Hester Chambers , founding member of
Wet Leg
Sarah Close , singer-songwriter and YouTuber, born and lives on the island
Melvyn Hayes , actor, lives in Ryde
David Icke , conspiracy theorist, lives in Ryde
Mark King ,
Level 42 musician
Dame Ellen MacArthur , sailor, based in Cowes
The Osbourne family have a holiday home in
Yaverland
Dick Taylor , founding member of
The Rolling Stones and the
Pretty Things
Rhian Teasdale , founding member of
Wet Leg
Alan Titchmarsh , author and TV presenter
M J Trow , author and teacher
Unitary authorities Major settlements (cities in italics) Rivers Topics