Ludlow - Notable People

Notable People

Notable people associated with the town include Charles Badham, a Victorian scholar and professor at Sydney University. Sir Charles Hastings, a pioneering Victorian doctor and founder of the BMA, was born in Ludlow, and grew up in Worcestershire. Baron Rees of Ludlow, the current Astronomer Royal is associated with the town, and Anthony Howard, a senior British political journalist and commentator had a home there.

Born near the town in 1836 was John Marston, the founder of the Sunbeam racing car and motorcycle company. Also born in proximity to Ludlow was Henry Hill Hickman, a very early pioneer of anaesthetics, who was born at Lady Halton, near Bromfield in 1800. Later in the same century, in 1831, Pictorialist photographer Henry Peach Robinson was born in the town.

Sir John Bridgeman, a Chief Justice of The Marches in the 17th century is buried in St. Laurence's church, within a tomb monument attributed to Francesco Fanelli.

Captain Geoffrey Bennett DSC, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, naval officer and also a well-known author, writing novels as ‘Sea Lion’ and naval histories under his own name, retired to a cottage in central Ludlow in 1976, dying there in 1983.

Captain Adrian Jones M.V.O., M.R.C.V.S., F.R.B.S., the well-known sculptor. He has many works throughout the world, particularly the Peace Quadriga on the Wellington arch in London.

Sir William Jukes-Steward, later Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, had boyhood home in Ludlow, where he attended the Grammar School, at Numbers 4-5 King Street (marked by plaque).