Norwich - Notable People

Notable People

Throughout its history, Norwich has been associated with radical politics, nonconformist religion, political dissent and liberalism. It has also produced notable people in many other walks of life, particularly the Arts. Famous past names associated with the City include:

• Rev. John Abbs (1810–1888) Missionary and the author of "Twenty-two years' Missionary Experience in Travancore".
• Louisa Sewell Abbs (née Skipper) (1811–1872) Founded girls' boarding schools in Travancore, India and established the lace-making, embroidery industries during her time in Travancore.
• Michael Andrews (1928–1995), 20th-century British painter.
• Elizabeth Bentley (1767–1839), author of "Tales for Children in Verse", lived at 45 St Stephen's Square, Norwich.
• Billy Bluelight (1859/1863?–1949). Pseudonym of William Cullum, legendary folk-hero, well known for his races against steam pleasure boats.
• George Borrow (1803–1881), writer and traveller. In his youth Borrow was resident at Willow Lane. He attended the Norwich King Edward VI's Grammar School. Borrow recollects his youth in the city and conversations with the philologist and translator of German Romantic literature, William Taylor in his semi-autobiographical novel Lavengro.
• Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), medical doctor, polymath scholar, encyclopedist and philosopher with interests in Biblical scholarship and the esoteric. The stylistic purity and stupendous learning displayed in Browne's varied prose in the spheres of religion, science and art are minor classics of World literature.
• Edith Cavell (1865–1915) was born in Swardeston, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Norwich. She was a World War I nurse who was executed by firing squad by the Germans for helping allied prisoners escape in violation of military law. She is buried on Life's Green, on the east side of Norwich Cathedral.
• William Calthorpe who purchased Erpingham manor in St.Martin's at the Palace, Norwich in 1447.
• John Crome (1768–1821) and Joseph Stannard (1797–1830), along with John Sell Cotman (1782–1842), established the first British art movement outside of London. The Norwich school of painters were influenced by the achievements of Dutch landscape painting and the beauty of the rural hinterland surrounding Norwich.
• William Crotch (1775–1847). Composer, artist and teacher. Norwich's Mozart. He gave daily public organ recitals aged two and a half. Crotch played God Save the King before the King aged three. He had performed at every major town in England and Scotland by the age of seven. Crotch became Organist of Christ Church, Oxford and for fifty years he was Oxford's Professor of Music. Unlike Mozart, however, his precocious musical talents failed to mature to genius.
• Sir Thomas Erpingham (1357–1428), officer in the Battle of Agincourt and Knight of the Garter
• Pablo Fanque (1796–1871). The first black circus proprietor in Britain was born in the city.
• Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845). The prison reformer and leading Quaker was born in Gurney Court in Magdalen Street and was one of several philanthropists associated with the city. Her portrait is upon the Series E (2005) Bank of England £5 note.
• Charles Suckling Gilman (1807–1888). Businessman, philanthropist. Founder, General Hailstorm Insurance Society, Norwich Mutual Marine Assurance Society, founder (with Joseph John Gurney) Norwich District Visiting Society.
• Sir Charles Rackham Gilman (1833–c1910). Businessman, politician, philanthropist. Son of Charles Suckling Gilman. Mayor of Norwich, 1882; founder of the Norwich and London Accident Insurance Association, chairman of the conservators of Mousehold Heath. (Norwich's Gilman Road named for this family.)
• Joseph John Gurney (1788–1847) was a banker and philanthropist who worked with his sister Elizabeth Fry (see above) in prison reform. He was also active in the movement to abolish the slave trade and a member of the temperance movement.
• Richard Lewis Hearne (Mr Pastry), (1908–1979), born in Norwich,actor, comedian, producer and writer.
• Louisa Gurney Hoare, (1784–1836), diarist and writer on education.
• Sir Vyvyan Holt (1887-1960) was a diplomat, Oriental scholar and British Minister who was captured during the Korean War
• William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865) botanist and Fellow of the Royal Society.
• Robert William Bilton Hornby (1821–1884) was a noted local antiquarian, priest and lord of the manor from the City of York. He was ordained a deacon at Norwich in 1844.
• Julian of Norwich. Medieval Christian mystic and contemporary of Chaucer. Julian is the author of The revelations of Divine Love the first book written by a woman in the English language.
• Robert Kett. Norwich's very own Robin Hood or Wat Tyler. Kett was a Norfolk landowner from Wymondham who led the Kett's Rebellion in 1549 in the name of the common man against the corrupt Norfolk landowners. This eventually led to the Battle of Dussindale against the King's forces on 27 August 1549 in which 3000 of Kett's men were killed. He was hanged for treason at Norwich Castle on 7 December 1549.
• Alfred Lungley (1905–1989), awarded the George Cross after the Quetta earthquake of 1935.
• Louis Marchesi (1898–1968) Founder of the Round Table, a fellowship and community charitable organisation for young businessmen.
• James Martineau (1805–1900) Philosopher and brother to Harriet.
• Harriet Martineau (1802–1876). The daughter of a Norwich manufacturer of Huguenot descent, she suffered from ill-health and deafness throughout her life. A devout Unitarian, her writings include Illustrations of political economy (1832–34). Harriet Martineau supported the abolitionist campaign in the United States writing Society in America (1837). She translated writings by Auguste Comte. Her first novel was entitled Deerbrook (1839). A radical in religion she published the anti-theological Laws of Man's Social Nature (1851) and Biographical sketches (1869).
• Bernard Matthews, (1930–2010), founder of the eponymous meat company.
• Bernard Meadows, (1915–2005), modernist sculptor.
• Sir John Mills, (1908–2005), was born in North Elmham in Norfolk. Mills was educated at the Norwich High School for Boys. He also had Football (Soccer) trials with Norwich City F.C. in the 1920s before moving into acting.
• Thomas Morley (1558–1602) Taught by William Byrd Composer of Madrigals, Organist at Saint Paul's,Music teacher and theorist.
• R. H. Mottram (1883–1971), novelist and Lord Mayor of Norwich.
• Admiral Horatio Nelson attended the Norwich School from 1767 to 1768. He was born in nearby Burnham Thorpe.
• Amelia Opie (1769–1853), Norwich author and Quaker. In 1825 she drastically changed her life as a socialite, party-goer and attendant at literary soirées, to become a Quaker.
• Matthew Parker (1504–1575), Archbishop of Canterbury.
• William H. Scott (1863–1938), electrical engineer and founder of the Norwich-based firm Lawrence Scott & Electromotors Ltd.
• Edmund Sheffield, 1st Baron Sheffield (1521–1549), murdered near the Adam & Eve Pub off the Cathedral Close during Kett's Rebellion
• John Palgrave Simpson, (1807–1887), born in Norwich, became a prolific and successful playwright.
• George Skipper (1856–1948), architect of many fine buildings in the city and further afield.
• Sir James Edward Smith botanist, natural historian and one-time owner of the Linnean collection of Carolus Linnaeus
• William Smith (1756–1835), Whig politician, dissenter and abolitionist, M.P. for Norwich from 1807.

Contemporary names associated with Norwich include:

• Stuart Ashen, Internet critic who recently began starring in his own show on the BBC, Ashen's Tech Dump.
• Ed Balls, Labour Party MP, born in Norwich.
• Diana Burrell, Composer, born in Norwich.
• Martin Burgess, builder of the famous Gurney Clock in the Castle Mall
• Charles Clarke, a former Labour MP and Home Secretary, lives in Norwich.
• Cathy Dennis, Singer/Songwriter who was born in Norwich in 1969.
• Ralph Firman, former Formula One Driver was born in Norwich in 1975. He and his family live in nearby Attleborough, and he was educated at Gresham's School. Currently racing in the A1 Grand Prix series for Ireland, for which he qualifies through his Mother's Irish nationality.
• Stephen Fry, comedian, author, actor and filmmaker, studied at City College Norwich, and is a Norwich City F.C. fan and director.
• Mike Gascoyne, automotive engineer who is currently Technical Director of the Caterham Formula One team.
• Trisha Goddard, chat show host lives just outside the city
• Andy Green OBE, a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force, is the current holder of the world land speed record, having piloted the ThrustSSC to the first ever supersonic speed on land in the Black Rock Desert, USA on 25 September 1997.
• Jake Humphrey, TV presenter for CBBC and the BBC coverage of Formula One, moved to Norwich at the age of nine and attended The Hewett School. He also supports Norwich City F.C.
• Myleene Klass singer, model, designer, presenter, and classical music DJ, formerly a member of pop band Hear'Say; went to school in Norwich
• Marek Larwood, actor and comedian, born in Norwich.
• Ian McEwan Author, Booker Prize-winning English novelist and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his novel "Atonement". McEwan was educated at the University of East Anglia, located in Norwich, and was the first graduate of its pioneering Creative Writing course.
• Jane Manning, opera soprano, was born and brought up in Norwich and attended Norwich High School
• Professor Sir Paul Nurse, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, became President of the Royal Society in 2010, was born in Norwich, and educated at the University of East Anglia.
• Beth Orton, award-winning singer/songwriter was born in Dereham, spent much of her childhood in Norwich and attended The Hewett School.
• Steve Osborne, musician and record producer—grew up in Norwich, left in 1986 to join Trident Studios—now lives near Bath and has produced both KT Tunstall albums amongst many others.
• Ronan Parke Came 2nd in Britain's Got Talent 2011.
• David Perry, the so-called Norwich Puppet Man, street entertainer.
• Emma Pooley, British Olympic silver medal winning cyclist and winner of the 2009 Woman's Tour de France, attended The Norwich School and her family are from Norfolk.
• Philip Pullman, British writer was born in Norwich on 19 October 1946. Best-selling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy of fantasy novels and a number of other books.
• Delia Smith, celebrity chef and joint majority owner of Norwich City F.C.
• Chris Sutton, football player (striker); joint top scorer for the Premier League in 1997/8; formerly the record English transfer (at £5 million from Norwich to Blackburn in 1994); was brought up in Norwich, attending Hellesdon High School where his father, Mike Sutton (footballer), was also a teacher.
• John Tickle, contestant on Big Brother and presenter on Brainiac: Science Abuse
• Stella Vine lived in Norwich during her childhood, from the age of 7, during which time she performed at the Norwich Theatre Royal. Vine moved back to live in Norwich again later in her life with her son. Vine painted a large painting Welcome to Norwich a fine city (2006) which depicts Vine with her son and family cat in Norwich, against a clear blue sky. Her first job was at age 14 in a local Norwich cake shop.
• Tim Westwood, BBC Radio 1 Rap DJ and presenter of popular MTV show "Pimp My Ride (UK)". Grew up in and around Norwich (his father was the bishop of Peterborough, in the nearby county of Cambridgeshire) and attended Norwich School and The Hewett School.
• Jackson Williams, professional boxer, ultramarathon runner and charity fund raiser.