List of Isle of Wight people

This is a list of 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
• Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères, born in St Helens
• Vivian Fuchs, Antarctic explorer
• Robert Hooke, scientist, born in Freshwater
• Jeremy Irons, actor, born in Cowes and raised in St Helens
• Sheila Hancock, actress born Newport
• Marius Goring, born Newport
• Vice Admiral Sir John Hobson, 17/18th century naval hero of the Battle of Vigo and introducer of snuff to England born in Niton.
• Phill Jupitus, comedian, born in Newport
• Anthony Minghella, film director, born in Ryde, whose parents run the Minghella's Ice Cream company on the Island. On accepting his Best Picture Oscar for The English Patient he said, "This is a great day for the Isle of Wight!"
• Brian Murphy, actor, born in Ventnor
• Brian Murphy, actor, born in Ventnor
• Albert Pollard, historian, born in Ryde
• Horace Rawlins, golfer, winner of the first U.S. Open in 1895
• Bear Grylls, climber, youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest and live, survival expert, host of Man vs. Wild.

Louis Vanassche, Head of State in Niton Roud

Raised on the Isle of Wight

• Raymond Allen, television scriptwriter best known for Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, attended Ryde Secondary Modern School
• David Batty, antiques expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow, educated at Newport Grammar School
• E. Power Biggs, concert organist
• Nicholas Dingley alias Razzle, drummer for Hanoi Rocks, raised in Binstead
• William Hutt, MP and colonial administrator, educated in Ryde
• Algernon Swinburne, poet, raised in East Dene, Bonchurch
• George, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, at St. Lawrence Hall, Ventnor.
• Fidelis Morgan, actress and writer, raised in Bonchurch

Lived on the Isle of Wight

• Sam Browne, soldier, retired to Ryde.
• Julia Margaret Cameron, photographer, lived in Freshwater Bay.
• Winston Churchill visited Ventor for extended periods throughout his life.
• Lewis Carroll lived at Sandown while working on "Alice in Wonderland".
• Sir Christopher Cockerell, inventor of the hovercraft, spent 2 years in East Cowes working on his prototypes.
• Charles Darwin lived for a period in 1867 in the Kings Head Hotel in Sandown.
• Charles Dickens, author, lived near Ventnor.
• David Gascoyne 20th century surrealist poet
• 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.
• 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.
• King Charles I was held prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle for a year.
• 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 lived in Ryde in the 1870s and in Ventor 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, who invented a shorthand system, lived for a time in Sandown.
• John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, Secretary of State for War during 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, writer, lived in Bonchurch.
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet, lived in Farringford in Freshwater Bay.
• Margaret Thatcher rented a house in Seaview.
• Dekyi Tsering, mother of the current Dalai Lama, stayed in Freshwater during a long convalescence in 1960.
• 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.
• Trevor Duncan, composer (Dr Finlay's Casebook theme), lived in Bonchurch.
• Ken Dodd , comedian, has a holiday home at Freshwater Bay.

Still resident

• David Icke, conspiracy theorist, lives in Ryde
• Geoffrey Hughes, actor, lives in Newport
• Ellen MacArthur, sailor, based in Cowes
• Mark King, Level 42 musician.
• Dick Taylor, Pretty Things Musician
• M J Trow, author and teacher
• Alan Titchmarsh, author and T.V. presenter
• The Osbournes have a holiday home in Yaverland

External links

• Mike Plumbley's IOWRock website, concentrating on music and the festivals
• A website listing many current and former renowned residents of the Isle of Wight

Articles and Categories about the Isle of Wight, England

Category:Isle of Wight | Category:Buildings and structures on the Isle of Wight | Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight | Education on the Isle of Wight | History of the Isle of Wight | List of Isle of Wight people | List of civil parishes in the Isle of Wight | List of places on the Isle of Wight | Politics of the Isle of Wight | Category:Visitor attractions on the Isle of Wight | Category:Geography of the Isle of Wight | Category:Railway stations on the Isle of Wight| Category:Heritage railway stations on the Isle of Wight| Isle of Wight (disambiguation)

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