Notable Residents
Alan Turing, the driving force behind the Bombe machine for cracking the German Enigma cypher, is perhaps Wilmslow's most notable resident. Turing committed suicide in his Wilmslow home on 7 June 1954 by eating an apple laced with potassium cyanide. In 2004, a blue plaque was placed on the house in his honour. In 1999 Time Magazine named him as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century.
Antony Grey, pioneer gay rights activist, was born there in 1927. William Roache, Coronation Street actor since its inception in 1960, Roache has lived in Wilmslow for most of his adult life, though he was born in Derbyshire at Ilkeston in 1932.
Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United, lives in Wilmslow, as do United player's Nemanja Vidić Luis Nani Antonio Valencia, Phil Jones, Macheda, Patrice Evra and Ashley Young. Other footballers living in Wilmslow including Yaya Toure, Joleon Lescott, David Silva, Fabrice Muamba, Owen Hargreaves, Matthew Douglas, Joe Hart and Gareth Barry.
- Literature
Wilmslow has featured in the novels of the writer Alan Garner, (whose wife once taught at Wilmslow Grammar School), with the Black Lake on Lindow Common apparently housing a witch. Garner is perhaps best known for his books The Owl Service, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath the last two of which are set in nearby Alderley Edge.
- Music
Michael Rother, founder of influential Krautrock legends Neu, lived in Wilmslow for 11 months as a 9 year-old. Rother has mentioned fond memories of his time in Wilmslow during interviews and mentioned the town and the River Bollin during a 2009 BBC4 documentary 'Krautrock:the Rebirth of Germany'. The British indie rock band Doves met at Wilmslow High School in the 1980s. Their song "Black and White Town" was inspired by Wilmslow and its contradicting 'rich-poor' divide. Other notable residents include Simon Gregson, who plays taxi boss Steve McDonald in Coronation Street, Park Ji-Sung, Manchester United and South Korean midfielder
- Business and commerce
Ian Powell, Chairman and Senior Partner of PwC UK lives in a London flat during the week but returns to his main family home in Wilmslow at weekends. Peter Jones, the owner of the Emerson Group (a property business) is ranked 114th in the Sunday Times Rich List, he is one of the richest men in Cheshire and lives in Wilmslow. Iqbal Ahmed (OBE), the owner of the Seamark group is ranked 540th in Sunday Times Rich List. Ahmed's Asian food business is based in Manchester but he lives in Wilmslow with his family.
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Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or residents:
“a notable prince that was called King John;
And he ruled England with main and with might,
For he did great wrong, and maintained little right.”
—Unknown. King John and the Abbot of Canterbury (l. 2–4)
“In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)