100 Greatest Britons
In
2002, the
BBC conducted a vote to discover the
100 Greatest Britons of all time. The poll resulted in some unlikely candidates including
Guy Fawkes,
Aleister Crowley,
Boy George and
Robbie Williams. It also included two living
Irish nationals (
Bono and
Bob Geldof) and
James Connolly, the Irish nationalist who was executed by the British in
1916. The resulting series, "Great Britons", included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further opportunities to vote after each programme. It concluded with a debate.
The results, which are not statistically valid, are as follows:
- Sir Winston Churchill
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Charles Darwin
- William Shakespeare
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Elizabeth I of England
- John Lennon
- Horatio Nelson
- Oliver Cromwell
- Ernest Shackleton
- Captain James Cook
- Robert Baden-Powell
- King Alfred the Great
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
- Margaret Thatcher (Baroness Thatcher)
- Michael Crawford
- Queen Victoria
- Sir Paul McCartney
- Sir Alexander Fleming
- Alan Turing
- Michael Faraday
- Owain Glyndwr
- Queen Elizabeth II
- Professor Stephen Hawking
- William Tyndale
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- William Wilberforce
- David Bowie
- Guy Fawkes
- Leonard Cheshire (Baron Cheshire of Woodall)
- Eric Morecambe
- David Beckham
- Thomas Paine
- Boudicca
- Sir Steve Redgrave
- Sir Thomas More
- William Blake
- John Harrison
- King Henry VIII
- Charles Dickens
- Sir Frank Whittle
- John Peel
- John Logie Baird
- Aneurin Bevan
- Boy George
- Sir Douglas Bader
- William Wallace
- Sir Francis Drake
- John Wesley
- King Arthur
- Florence Nightingale
- T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
- Sir Robert Falcon Scott
- Enoch Powell
- Sir Cliff Richard
- Sir Alexander Graham Bell
- Freddie Mercury
- Dame Julie Andrews
- Edward Elgar
- Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
- George Harrison
- Sir David Attenborough
- James Connolly
- George Stephenson
- Sir Charles Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin)
- Tony Blair
- William Caxton
- Bobby Moore
- Jane Austen
- William Booth
- King Henry V
- Aleister Crowley
- King Robert the Bruce
- Bob Geldof
- The Unknown Warrior
- Robbie Williams
- Edward Jenner
- David Lloyd George (1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor)
- Charles Babbage
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- King Richard III
- J.K. Rowling
- James Watt
- Sir Richard Branson
- Bono
- John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
- Field Marshal Montgomery
- Donald Campbell
- King Henry II
- James Clerk Maxwell
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Sir Walter Raleigh
- King Edward I
- Sir Barnes Wallis
- Richard Burton
- Tony Benn
- David Livingstone
- Professor Tim Berners-Lee
- Marie Stopes
See also
External links
- BBC Great Britons Website
- 100 great British heroes - BBC News article, dated Wednesday, August 21, 2002 (contains the top 100, sorted alphabetically)
- BBC reveals 100 great British heroes - BBC News article, dated Thursday, August 22, 2002
- Ten greatest Britons chosen - BBC News article, dated Sunday, October 20, 2002