I was talking to Hobbes this morning and we stumbled across the subject of people who lived in my town. I was born in Beckenham, which isn't very big, but has quite a number of famous people:
Enid Blyton
The author of more than 700 books for children from born in 1897 and grew up in and around Beckenham in fact moving many times, living in a number of houses in Clock House Road. When she was 14, Enid Blyton after winning a poetry competition began to submit articles, stories and poems to various magazines. Her first book, a poetry book for children was called Child Whispers, was published in 1922. Her major series of books included Noddy, Brer Rabbit, The Famous Five, The Secret Series, Malory Towers, St Clare's, The Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair. Enid Blyton dead in 1968 the most prolific childrens author of all time. Her books have been translated in to over 40 languages and have sold over 400 million copies throughout the world.
David Bowie
(born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947) The singer/songwriter, real name David Jones, grew up in Beckenham and played some of his first gigs at The Rat and Parrot (formerly The Three Tuns) pub. Part of the Beckenham Arts Lab he had repeat performances and put on a free festival at the Croydon Road Recreation Ground. David Bowie move on from Beckenham and his career moved quickly through the 1970's with his Ziggy Stardust creations, his worldwide hit of "Space Oddity" sent him to superstardum. In the British Broadcasting Corporation's list of 100 greatest Britons, Bowie ranked 29. He has sold an estimated 136 million albums in his career and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace, known to his family as Gilbert, was born in 1848. An outstanding cricketer of his day, and many years following. Even as the years went on, his energy for the game was unabashed. He was also a founder of the Bowls Association. In 1913 at Crystal Palace is captained England against Scotland in the first international bowls matches. W.G. Grace died in 1915 and is buried in Elmers End Cemetery.
Thomas Crapper
Thomas Crapper was born in Yorkshire in 1836. At 14 he was apprenticed to a Master Plumber in Chelsea, London. In 1861, after his apprenticeship and then working as a journeyman, he set up in his own right as a plumber in Robert Street, Chelsea. It is popularly thought that Mr. Crapper invented the W.C., and that the vulgar word for faeces is a derivative of his name, but neither belief is true. He relentlessly promoted sanitary fittings to a somewhat dirty and sceptical world and championed the 'water-waste-preventing cistern syphon' in particular. Thomas Crapper died in 1910 and is buried near the grave of the cricketer, W.G. Grace, in Elmers End Cemetery.
Frederick York Wolseley
Famous for the first completely mechanical sheep sheering machine back in 1888. Born in County Dublin in 1837, he moved to Australia in the 1850's and began work on his inventions in the 1870's. Fredrick died in London in 1899.
Carey Blyton
Composer of 'Bananas in Pyjamas' Millions more people have heard something of Carey Blyton's music than realise it. He wrote widely for television, film and advertising, and his nonsense song "Bananas in Pyjamas" was taken up by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1973 and eventually became a huge international success in The Great Banana Phenomenon, a series of some 200 five-minute TV shows each topped and tailed by Blyton's song.
Dame Julie Andrews
DBE (born October 1, 1935) is an Academy Award-winning English actor, singer, and author, best known for her starring roles in the musical films Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965).
Floella Benjamin
OBE (born September 23, 1949) is known to a generation of Britons as a presenter of popular children's programmes such as Play School and Playaway. She was born in Trinidad and Tobago and emigrated to the UK in the 1960s. After a spell as an actress, she began presenting children's television programmes in the 1980s. She was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to broadcasting. At that time she was chairman of BAFTA. Her autobiography, Coming To England was a success.
Nigel Benn
(born January 22, 1964) is a British former boxer who held world titles at both Middleweight and Super Middleweight. Benn was known as The Dark Destroyer, a nickname that would, ironically, later come back to haunt him.
Walter John de la Mare,
OM (April 25, 1873 - June 22, 1956), was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist, probably best remembered (though not necessarily justly so) for his works for children.
Peter Frampton
(born April 22, 1950 in Beckenham, Kent) is a British musician, best known today for his solo work in the mid-1970s as an "arena rocker". He originally became famous, however, as a member of The Herd and became a teen idol in Britain. He then worked with Steve Marriott (of the Small Faces) in Humble Pie, as well as on albums by Harry Nilsson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and George Harrison. His solo debut was 1972's Wind of Change.
Duncan Goodhew
(born May 27, 1957) is one of the most respected and instantly recognisable UK swimming athletes. He was an Olympic gold and bronze medallist at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. He was the England Swimming team captain, and multi-Olympics champion. His congenitally bald head made him instantly recognisable. He in fact has alopecia universalis (total lack of hair, not just on head), which gives him a hydrodynamic advantage when swimming.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
(born 17 March 1939) was the first man to perform a single-handed (i.e. solo) non-stop circumnavigation and was the second winner of the Jules Verne Trophy (together with Sir Peter Blake). He was knighted in 1995.
Kate Louise Lawler
(born May 6, 1980 in Beckenham, London) is a minor British celebrity. She became famous in July 2002 when she won the third British season of Big Brother, the first female winner of Big Brother UK. She was 22 at the time and received over 3 million votes, one million more than runner up Jonny.
Robert (Bob) Allen Monkhouse
OBE (June 1, 1928 - December 29, 2003), was a British entertainer in the traditional sense, though primarily known as a comedian and game show host. Bob Monkhouse was born in Beckenham, Kent, and educated at Dulwich College, from which he was expelled; he worked briefly as an animator before his national service. On leaving the RAF in 1948, he was one of the first comedians to be given a contract by the BBC.
Christopher "Buster" Mottram
(b. 25 April 1955 in Kingston-on-Thames) is a former British tennis player, who achieved a highest lifetime world ranking of 15th. Mottram is noted for his extreme right-wing views. He endorsed the British National Front and applied, unsuccesfully, for the Conservative parliamentary candidacy in several constituencies.
David Sylvian
(born David Alan Batt, February 23, 1958) is an English singer/songwriter who first rose to fame as the lead vocalist of the band Japan, and whose subsequent solo career has been influenced by a variety of musical styles, including jazz and electronic music (primarily ambient and electronica).
Colour Sergeant Bourne
DCM, (2459 B Co. 24th. Regiment) Fought at Rorke's Drift. The result was that on 22nd January a British force of seventeen hundred strong, was attacked and only some four hundred men, of whom only some eighty Europeans, survived at a place called Isandhlwana.
Samuel Birley Rowbotham
In 1838, Samuel Birley Rowbotham made observations along a six mile stretch of the Old Bedford, between Welney and Old Bedford Bridges, which he claimed to show the earth was flat, leading to the formation of the 'Flat Earth Society' which survived until the 1980s!
Richmal Crompton Lamburn
(November 15, 1890–January 11, 1969) was a British writer, most famous for her Just William short stories.
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger
(born 26 July 1943) is an English rock musician, actor, writer, songwriter, record and film producer and businessman. He is most famous for being the lead singer and co-founder (with guitarist Brian Jones) of the British rock and roll band The Rolling Stones. He is also the songwriting partner of Stones guitarist Keith Richards, and the pair have composed almost all the Rolling Stones' original material, as well as numerous songs for other artists including "As Tears Go By" (for Marianne Faithfull) and "Out Of Time" (for Chris Farlowe).
Interesting list huh? So who's famous from your town/village?
Rob
Enid Blyton
The author of more than 700 books for children from born in 1897 and grew up in and around Beckenham in fact moving many times, living in a number of houses in Clock House Road. When she was 14, Enid Blyton after winning a poetry competition began to submit articles, stories and poems to various magazines. Her first book, a poetry book for children was called Child Whispers, was published in 1922. Her major series of books included Noddy, Brer Rabbit, The Famous Five, The Secret Series, Malory Towers, St Clare's, The Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair. Enid Blyton dead in 1968 the most prolific childrens author of all time. Her books have been translated in to over 40 languages and have sold over 400 million copies throughout the world.
David Bowie
(born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947) The singer/songwriter, real name David Jones, grew up in Beckenham and played some of his first gigs at The Rat and Parrot (formerly The Three Tuns) pub. Part of the Beckenham Arts Lab he had repeat performances and put on a free festival at the Croydon Road Recreation Ground. David Bowie move on from Beckenham and his career moved quickly through the 1970's with his Ziggy Stardust creations, his worldwide hit of "Space Oddity" sent him to superstardum. In the British Broadcasting Corporation's list of 100 greatest Britons, Bowie ranked 29. He has sold an estimated 136 million albums in his career and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace, known to his family as Gilbert, was born in 1848. An outstanding cricketer of his day, and many years following. Even as the years went on, his energy for the game was unabashed. He was also a founder of the Bowls Association. In 1913 at Crystal Palace is captained England against Scotland in the first international bowls matches. W.G. Grace died in 1915 and is buried in Elmers End Cemetery.
Thomas Crapper
Thomas Crapper was born in Yorkshire in 1836. At 14 he was apprenticed to a Master Plumber in Chelsea, London. In 1861, after his apprenticeship and then working as a journeyman, he set up in his own right as a plumber in Robert Street, Chelsea. It is popularly thought that Mr. Crapper invented the W.C., and that the vulgar word for faeces is a derivative of his name, but neither belief is true. He relentlessly promoted sanitary fittings to a somewhat dirty and sceptical world and championed the 'water-waste-preventing cistern syphon' in particular. Thomas Crapper died in 1910 and is buried near the grave of the cricketer, W.G. Grace, in Elmers End Cemetery.
Frederick York Wolseley
Famous for the first completely mechanical sheep sheering machine back in 1888. Born in County Dublin in 1837, he moved to Australia in the 1850's and began work on his inventions in the 1870's. Fredrick died in London in 1899.
Carey Blyton
Composer of 'Bananas in Pyjamas' Millions more people have heard something of Carey Blyton's music than realise it. He wrote widely for television, film and advertising, and his nonsense song "Bananas in Pyjamas" was taken up by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1973 and eventually became a huge international success in The Great Banana Phenomenon, a series of some 200 five-minute TV shows each topped and tailed by Blyton's song.
Dame Julie Andrews
DBE (born October 1, 1935) is an Academy Award-winning English actor, singer, and author, best known for her starring roles in the musical films Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965).
Floella Benjamin
OBE (born September 23, 1949) is known to a generation of Britons as a presenter of popular children's programmes such as Play School and Playaway. She was born in Trinidad and Tobago and emigrated to the UK in the 1960s. After a spell as an actress, she began presenting children's television programmes in the 1980s. She was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to broadcasting. At that time she was chairman of BAFTA. Her autobiography, Coming To England was a success.
Nigel Benn
(born January 22, 1964) is a British former boxer who held world titles at both Middleweight and Super Middleweight. Benn was known as The Dark Destroyer, a nickname that would, ironically, later come back to haunt him.
Walter John de la Mare,
OM (April 25, 1873 - June 22, 1956), was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist, probably best remembered (though not necessarily justly so) for his works for children.
Peter Frampton
(born April 22, 1950 in Beckenham, Kent) is a British musician, best known today for his solo work in the mid-1970s as an "arena rocker". He originally became famous, however, as a member of The Herd and became a teen idol in Britain. He then worked with Steve Marriott (of the Small Faces) in Humble Pie, as well as on albums by Harry Nilsson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and George Harrison. His solo debut was 1972's Wind of Change.
Duncan Goodhew
(born May 27, 1957) is one of the most respected and instantly recognisable UK swimming athletes. He was an Olympic gold and bronze medallist at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. He was the England Swimming team captain, and multi-Olympics champion. His congenitally bald head made him instantly recognisable. He in fact has alopecia universalis (total lack of hair, not just on head), which gives him a hydrodynamic advantage when swimming.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston
(born 17 March 1939) was the first man to perform a single-handed (i.e. solo) non-stop circumnavigation and was the second winner of the Jules Verne Trophy (together with Sir Peter Blake). He was knighted in 1995.
Kate Louise Lawler
(born May 6, 1980 in Beckenham, London) is a minor British celebrity. She became famous in July 2002 when she won the third British season of Big Brother, the first female winner of Big Brother UK. She was 22 at the time and received over 3 million votes, one million more than runner up Jonny.
Robert (Bob) Allen Monkhouse
OBE (June 1, 1928 - December 29, 2003), was a British entertainer in the traditional sense, though primarily known as a comedian and game show host. Bob Monkhouse was born in Beckenham, Kent, and educated at Dulwich College, from which he was expelled; he worked briefly as an animator before his national service. On leaving the RAF in 1948, he was one of the first comedians to be given a contract by the BBC.
Christopher "Buster" Mottram
(b. 25 April 1955 in Kingston-on-Thames) is a former British tennis player, who achieved a highest lifetime world ranking of 15th. Mottram is noted for his extreme right-wing views. He endorsed the British National Front and applied, unsuccesfully, for the Conservative parliamentary candidacy in several constituencies.
David Sylvian
(born David Alan Batt, February 23, 1958) is an English singer/songwriter who first rose to fame as the lead vocalist of the band Japan, and whose subsequent solo career has been influenced by a variety of musical styles, including jazz and electronic music (primarily ambient and electronica).
Colour Sergeant Bourne
DCM, (2459 B Co. 24th. Regiment) Fought at Rorke's Drift. The result was that on 22nd January a British force of seventeen hundred strong, was attacked and only some four hundred men, of whom only some eighty Europeans, survived at a place called Isandhlwana.
Samuel Birley Rowbotham
In 1838, Samuel Birley Rowbotham made observations along a six mile stretch of the Old Bedford, between Welney and Old Bedford Bridges, which he claimed to show the earth was flat, leading to the formation of the 'Flat Earth Society' which survived until the 1980s!
Richmal Crompton Lamburn
(November 15, 1890–January 11, 1969) was a British writer, most famous for her Just William short stories.
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger
(born 26 July 1943) is an English rock musician, actor, writer, songwriter, record and film producer and businessman. He is most famous for being the lead singer and co-founder (with guitarist Brian Jones) of the British rock and roll band The Rolling Stones. He is also the songwriting partner of Stones guitarist Keith Richards, and the pair have composed almost all the Rolling Stones' original material, as well as numerous songs for other artists including "As Tears Go By" (for Marianne Faithfull) and "Out Of Time" (for Chris Farlowe).
Interesting list huh? So who's famous from your town/village?
Rob
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