Notable residents and connections from Hastings/St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex and environs

People of Note

William the Conquerer is the most famous person linked to Hastings, but many people of repute have had connections with the area!

This project is a gathering of prominent and notable people with connections to Hastings and St. Leonards-on-Sea and environs, East Sussex.

Related Projects on Geni

• Sussex - Main Page
• Historic Sussex
• People Connected to Sussex
• Sussex Famous People
• World war One - Servicemen and Women from Sussex

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• John Logie Baird (1888-1946) a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube.
• Archibald Stansfeld Belaney (Grey Owl) (1888-1938) Born in Hastings - used the name "Grey Owl" when he took on a First Nations identity as an adult
• Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) The first female doctor in the United States. She moved to Rock House, Exmouth Place, Hastings where she practised medicine while in Hastings and continued her efforts to advance women in the field of medicine until her death on May 31 1910.
• Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake (21 January 1840 – 7 January 1912) Born in Hastings -physician, teacher and feminist. She was one of the first female doctors in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, a leading campaigner for medical education for women and was involved in founding two medical schools for women, in London and in Edinburgh, where she also started a women's hospital
• Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (8 April 1827 – 11 June 1891) was an English educationalist, artist, and a leading early nineteenth century feminist and activist for women's rights.
• Elsie Edith Bowerman (18 December 1889 - 18 October 1973) was a lawyer, suffragette and RMS Titanic survivor.
• Josephine Grace "Jo" Brand (born 23 July 1957)
• Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey Thomas Brassey 1st Earl Brassey] (1836-1918) Politician
• Thomas Brassey (1805-1870) Railway Pioneer
• Decimus Burton (1800-1881) son of James Burton below
• James Burton (1761–1837) was a builder and developer, responsible for large areas of Bloomsbury and the houses around Regent's Park in London. He later founded the new town of St Leonards-on-Sea, which is now part of the built-up area of Hastings. He was a Scotsman christened with the name of Haliburton.
• Philip William Cole (1884-1964) Engraver and Artist of Hastings
• Dame Catherine Cookson DBE (27 June 1906 – 11 June 1998) Born Catherine Ann McMullen in South Shields - an English author; in 1929 moved south to run the laundry at Hastings Workhouse, saving every penny to buy a large Victorian house, and then taking in gentleman and lady lodgers to supplement her income. In June 1940, at the age of 34, she married Tom Cookson, a teacher at Hastings Grammar School.
• Harry H. Corbett OBE (28 February 1925 – 21 March 1982) was an English actor. Died in Hastings
• * Ida Crowe married name Pollock - novelist
• Aleister Crowley (1875 – 1947 Hastings) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion and philosophy of Thelema, in which role he identified himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century.
• David Andrew Gemmell (1 August 1948 – 28 July 2006) was a bestselling British author of heroic fantasy. Lived in Hastings.
• Sid Hadden (1877–1934), cricketer
• Sir Henry Rider Haggard KBE (22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) English writer
• Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1912), feminist and founder of the London School of Medicine for Women
• Spike Milligan (1918–2002), comedian and writer - died in Rye, East Sussex - so loosely Hastings!
• Frederick North (1800-1869) British Liberal politician; 1831-1837; 1854-1865; 1868-1869member of parliament for Hastings;
• Marianne North (1830-1890) English naturalist and botanical artist
• Robert Tressell (17 Apr 1870 - 3 Feb 1911), AKA Robert Croker and Robert Noonan; author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist.
• Alan Mathison Turing ounder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher, codebreaker, strange visionary and a gay man before his time.
• Sir Woodbine Parish KCH (1796-1882) British diplomat, traveller and scientist.