Geography of Edinburgh - Notable Residents

Notable Residents

Main article: List of Edinburgh people See also: List of University of Edinburgh people

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; Joseph Black chemist and one of the founders of thermodynamics; pioneering medical researchers Joseph Lister and James Young Simpson; chemist and discoverer of the element nitrogen Daniel Rutherford, Colin Maclaurin, mathematician and developer of the Maclaurin series, 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 Adam Smith, economist, born in Kirkcaldy, and author of The Wealth of Nations, James Boswell biographer of Samuel Johnson, Sir Walter Scott, the author of famous titles such as Rob Roy, Ivanhoe and Heart of Midlothian, James Hogg, author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Robert Louis Stevenson, creator of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting, Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus series of crime thrillers, Alexander McCall Smith, and J. K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, who began her first book in an Edinburgh coffee shop.

Edinburgh has been the birthplace of actors like Alastair Sim and Sir Sean Connery, famed as the first cinematic James Bond; the comedian and actor Ronnie Corbett, best known as one of The Two Ronnies and the impressionist Rory Bremner. It has been home to actor Brian Cox and the Irish comedian Dylan Moran. 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; The Incredible String Band; The Corries; Wattie Buchan, lead singer and founding member of punk band The Exploited; Shirley Manson, lead singer for the band Garbage; the Bay City Rollers; The Proclaimers; Boards of Canada and Idlewild.

Edinburgh is the birthplace of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who attended the city's Fettes College.

Famous criminals from Edinburgh's history include Deacon Brodie, deacon of a trades guild and an Edinburgh city councillor by day and burglar by night, who is said to have been the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's story, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and murderers Burke and Hare who provided fresh corpses for anatomical dissection by the famous surgeon Robert Knox.

Another well-known Edinburgh resident was Greyfriars Bobby. The small Skye Terrier reputedly kept vigil over his dead master's grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard for 14 years in the 1860s and '70s, giving rise to a story of canine devotion which plays a part in attracting visitors to the city.