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Famous People Connected to Leicestershire
Those people of note with connections to the county are listed below. Some of these connections are a little tenuous - counties like to lay claim to people of renown!
Please add information about people of renown connected to Leicestershire, England. If the person has a profile on Geni please add their profile to the project and add the link in bold.
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- Robert Bakewell Agriculturist/ farmer (1725–1795) of Dishley, near Loughborough, was a revolutionary in the field of selective breeding.
- Henry Bates, born in Leicester 98th of February 1825-16th of February 1892) - English naturalist who set off with his friend Alfred Wallace to explore the Amazon in 1848 and did not return until 1859, bringing back 14,700 specimens including 8,000 new insect species to science. In 1861 he produced Contributions to an Insect Fauna of The Amazon Valley, which provided strong evidence in favour of natural selection.
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- Thomas Cook (22 Nov 1808-18 Jul 1892) tourism pioneer, organised the world’s first package tour from Leicester in 1841 - it went to Loughborough for a temperance meeting. For just a shilling each the 570 temperance activists got their rail travel and food on the journey.
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- Ernest Gimson (21 Dec 1864-12th Aug 1919) Born in Leicester - Architect and furniture designer.
- Lady Jane Grey was born in Loughborough, Leicestershire (Bradgate Park) in 1537, the eldest daughter of Henry Grey Marquess of Dorset, and Lady Frances Brandon, who was the daughter of Henry VIII's sister, Mary.
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- Joseph Aloysius Hansom (26 October 1803 – 29 June 1882) was a prolific English architect working principally in the Gothic Revival style. He invented the Hansom cab in 1834and founded the eminent architectural journal, The Builder, in 1843. The Hansom Cab was invented in Hinckley by Joseph Hansom. His cab design was a major technical advance with innovative safety features. Hansom sold the patent for £10,000, a fortune in those times: sadly the sum was never paid.
- Sir Leonard Hastings (c.1396 – 20 October 1455), a member of the English gentry who moved his seat to Leicestershire from Yorkshire where the family had long been established.
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- Hugh Latimer born in Thurcaston, Leicestershire (1485 - 16th of October 1555) - English Protestant reformer who converted to Protestantism. He examined the legality of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Chaplain to Anne Boleyn. Later imprisioned by Henry. Under Mary I found guilty of heresy and burned at stake.
- Gary Winston Lineker OBE (born 30 November 1960) is an English former footballer, who played as a striker. After retiring, he became a sports broadcaster and has worked for the BBC, Al Jazeera Sports and Eredivisie Live.
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- Richard III was apparently brought to Leicester after the Battle of Bosworth Field. When Henry VII ’s men discovered it the body was belatedly hanged, then buried in Greyfriar’s Church in the city. Later it was said to have been exhumed and thrown in the River Soar . In August 1485 he spent the night before the Battle of Bosworth Field at the Blue Boar Inn. It was his last night alive although his body was returned to the city the next night. Legend has it he left £300 in gold hidden in the bedstead he used that night, and that more than a century later the landlady was killed for the money.
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- John Wycliffe Died in Lutterworth (c. 1320 – 31 December 1384) was an English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer and university teacher at Oxford in England. There is a memorial to him in Lutterworth Church.
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