Ryde - Famous Connections

Famous Connections

• Raymond Allen - TV screenwriter (Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em), attended Ryde Secondary Modern School.
• William Booth - the founder of the Salvation Army spent the first part of his honeymoon in Ryde.
• Sam Browne - the soldier after whom the belt was named, retired and lived the last years of his life in a house called Argosy on East Hill Road, Ryde.
• Sir Charles Clifford, 4th Baronet (1821–1895) - barrister and Liberal member of Parliament, lived at Westfield House, Ryde.
• William Hutt - colonial administrator, was educated in Ryde and resided at Appley Towers.
• David Icke - is a Ryde resident.
• Mark King - the Level 42 musician, originally from Gurnard, opened a pub, Joe Daflos, in Union Street, Ryde in the 1980s.
• John Lennon and Paul McCartney - the title of the song "Ticket to Ride" was inspired by a trip they took to Ryde in the 1960s supposedly visiting Paul’s cousin who worked in the Bow Bars public house in Union Street. McCartney also mentions the Isle of Wight in the song "When I'm Sixty-Four".
• F. G. Loring - writer and naval officer, born in Ryde in 1869.
• Karl Marx - visited Ryde for health reasons in the summer of 1874, staying in Nelson Street.
• Anthony Minghella - the Hollywood director was born in Ryde in 1954. His parents ran a cafe in Ryde High Street.
• Philip Norman - writer, attended Ryde School and has written about his childhood in the town.
• Albert Pollard - historian, born in Ryde on 16 December 1869.
• Michael Sheard - actor (Mr Bronson in Grange Hill; Star Wars) lived in Ryde and died there in 2005.
• M. J. Trow - military historian and detective fiction writer, taught history and politics at Ryde High School.
• Edward Vernon Utterson - lawyer, one of the Six Clerks in Chancery, litarary antiquary, collector and editor, moved from Newport to Beldornie Tower, Pelham Field, Ryde, and set up the Beldornie Press there; he and his wife have memorial tablets in St. Thomas's Church, Ryde.