Bristol

:This article is about the English city of Bristol. For other uses please see Bristol (disambiguation).

Famous People

Bristol has many famous personalities and former residents, ranging from engineers and scientists to sailors and explorers.

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• Isambard Kingdom Brunel came to Bristol to build the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and went on to be the engineer of the Great Western Railway and the designer of the SS Great Western.
• Edmund Burke was Member of Parliament for the city for six years from 1774. He famously insisted that he was a Member of Parliament first, rather than a representative of his constituents' interests.
• John Cabot set sail in 1497 in search of exotic goods from the far east, but instead discovered North America. He first sighted Newfoundland, today a province of Canada.
• Sir Humphry Davy was a scientist who worked in Hotwells who discovered laughing gas.
• Paul Dirac was born in Bishopston, and made many crucial contributions to quantum mechanics and shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics 'for the discovery of new and productive forms of atomic theory'
• Francis Greenway was an architect and convict who was transported to Australia in 1814 and subsequently built many of the early iconic buildings of the city of Sydney.
• John Harvey founded the Bristol wine merchants John Harvey & Sons, and their sherry brand Harvey's Bristol Cream has taken the name of Bristol all over the world.
• Famous musicians native to Bristol include Roni Size, Tricky and Massive Attack. The group Portishead is often associated with the city since the band's name and roots come from the neighbouring town.
• Samuel Plimsoll, 'the Sailor's friend' campaigned fearlessly to make the seas safer. He was shocked by the scandal of overloaded cargoes and successfully fought for a compulsory loadline on ships - the Plimsoll line during Disraeli's Conservative Government (1874-80).
• Wallace and Gromit; heroes of the animation world and stars of the Oscar-winning 'The Wrong Trousers', 'A Grand Day Out' and 'A Close Shave' were created in Bristol by Aardman Animations.
• Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, lived briefly in Bristol in the early 1990s.
• John Wesley founded the very first Methodist Chapel in Bristol in 1739, which you can still visit today.
• Matt Lucas, comedy actor and star of the highly acclaimed Little Britain television sketch show, studied Drama at Bristol University.
• Tony Robinson actor, trained with Bristol Old Vic and has lived in Bristol and also been active politically there, for nearly thirty years.
• Richard Gregory, psychologist, resides in Bristol.
• Keith Floyd, TV chef, ran several restaurants in Bristol, and got his start in TV at BBC Bristol.
• Johnny Morris, TV celebrity, resided in Bristol, and made his television programmes at Bristol Zoo.