Notable People
Charles Avison, the leading British composer of concertos in the 18th century, was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1709 and died there in 1770. Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster (1976–1999) was born in the city in 1923. Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood (1748–1810) born in Newcastle upon Tyne; admiral of the Royal Navy, a partner with Horatio Nelson in many sea victories, and as Nelson's successor after Trafalgar, completing the destruction of the Napoleonic fleet. Other notable people born in or associated with Newcastle include: engineer and industrialist Lord Armstrong, engineer and father of the modern steam railways George Stephenson, his son, also an engineer, Robert Stephenson, engineer and inventor of the steam turbine Sir Charles Parsons, inventor of the incandescent light bulb Sir Joseph Swan, modernist poet Basil Bunting, Lord Chief Justice Peter Taylor, the Portuguese writer Eça de Queiroz who was a diplomat in Newcastle from late 1874 until April 1879—his most productive literary period, The Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, singers Eric Burdon, Sting and Brian Johnson, lead singer of AC/DC from 1980 to the present, actors Charlie Hunnam multiple circumnavigator David Scott Cowper, Neil Tennant, Alan Hull, Mark Knopfler, Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Cheryl Cole, entertainers Ant and Dec, and international footballers Peter Beardsley, Michael Carrick, Andy Carroll, Paul Gascoigne and Alan Shearer. John Dunn, inventor of keyed Northumbrian smallpipes, the most characteristic musical instrument in the region, lived and worked in the city.
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