Edinburgh - Notable Residents

Notable Residents

Scotland has a rich history in science and engineering, with Edinburgh contributing its fair share of famous names. James Clerk Maxwell, the founder of the modern theory of electromagnetism, was born here and educated at the Edinburgh Academy and University of Edinburgh, as was the engineer and telephone pioneer Alexander Graham Bell. Other names connected to the city include Max Born, physicist and Nobel laureate; Charles Darwin, the biologist who discovered natural selection; David Hume, a philosopher, economist and historian; James Hutton, regarded as the "Father of Geology"; John Napier inventor of logarithms; chemist and one of the founders of thermodynamics Joseph Black; pioneering medical researchers Joseph Lister and James Young Simpson; chemist and discoverer of the element nitrogen, Daniel Rutherford; mathematician and developer of the Maclaurin series, Colin Maclaurin and Ian Wilmut, the geneticist involved in the cloning of Dolly the sheep just outside Edinburgh. The stuffed carcass of Dolly the sheep is now on display in the National Museum of Scotland.

Famous authors of the city include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, James Hogg, author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus series of crime thrillers, J. K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, who began her first book in an Edinburgh coffee shop, Adam Smith, economist, born in Kirkcaldy, and author of The Wealth of Nations, Sir Walter Scott, the author of famous titles such as Rob Roy, Ivanhoe and Heart of Midlothian, Robert Louis Stevenson, creator of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting.

Edinburgh has been home to the actor Sir Sean Connery, famed as the first cinematic James Bond; Ronnie Corbett, a comedian and actor, best known as one of The Two Ronnies;, actor Brian Cox and Dylan Moran, the Irish comedian. Famous city artists include the portrait painters Sir Henry Raeburn, Sir David Wilkie and Allan Ramsay. Historians such as Douglas Johnson and Arthur Marwick had roots here.

The city has produced or been home to musicians that have been extremely successful in modern times, particularly Ian Anderson, frontman of the band Jethro Tull; Wattie Buchan, lead singer and founding member of punk band The Exploited; Shirley Manson, lead singer for the band Garbage; The Proclaimers; the Bay City Rollers; Boards of Canada and Idlewild.

Edinburgh is the home town of the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, who was born in the city and attended Fettes College; Robin Harper the co-convener of the Scottish Green Party; and John Witherspoon, the only clergyman to sign the United States Declaration of Independence, and later president of Princeton University.

On the more sinister side, famous criminals from Edinburgh's history include Deacon Brodie, pillar of society by day and burglar by night, who is said to have influenced Robert Louis Stevenson's story, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the murderers Burke and Hare who provided fresh corpses for anatomical dissection by the famous surgeon Robert Knox and Major Weir a notorious warlock.

Another Edinburgh resident in the past, and arguably its most famous, known throughout the world, was Greyfriars Bobby. The small Skye Terrier reputedly kept vigil over his deceased master's grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard for 14 years in the 1870s and 80s, giving rise to a heart-warming story of canine devotion which plays its part in attracting visitors to the city.