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Yorkshire - Famous People

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Famous People Connected to Yorkshire

Image right - Amy Johnson

Image Public Domain, Wiki Commons

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 Yorkshire, 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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A

  • Herbert Henry Asquith (1852–1928) born in Morley; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1908-16
  • James Henry Atkinson (1849–1942) in Leeds; inventor of the mousetrap
  • Edward Victor Appleton (1892–19650 Nobel Prize in Physics in 1947

B

  • Sir Donald Bailey (1901–1985) inventor of the Bailey Bridge
  • William Bateson (1861–1926) geneticist; first to use term genetics
  • George Birkbeck (1776–1841)doctor, philanthropist, founder of Birkbeck College
  • William Bradford (1589–1657) born in Austerfield; Plymouth governor, pilgrim father
  • Joseph Bramah (1748–1814) invented hydraulic press; one of two founders of hydraulic engineering
  • Harry Brearley (1871–1948) Sheffield inventor of stainless steel
  • Henry Briggs (mathematician) (1561–1630) perfected system of logarithms used today by astronomers, navigators etc.
  • Anne Brontë (1820-1849) born Thornton; writer, author of "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"
  • Branwell Brontë (1817-1848) born Thornton; writer and artist
  • Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) born Thornton; writer, author of "Jane Eyre"
  • Emily Brontë (818-1848) born Thornton; writer, author of "Wuthering Heights"

C

  • Captain James Cook (1728-1779) Marton, Middlesbrough; Georgian oceanic explorer. Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean
  • Myles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter (1488-1568) born in Yorkshire. One of the earliest supporters of the English Reformation. He assisted Tyndale in the complete version of the Bible

D

E

F

  • Guy Fawkes (1570–1606) born in York, traitor, Yorkshire born soldier and part of the Gunpowder Plot

G

H

  • John Harrison Foulby 1693–1776 horologist and mathematician

I

J

  • Amy Johnson (1903-1941) was born in Hull Pioneering English aviator.Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s. Johnson flew in the Second World War as a part of the Air Transport Auxiliary where she died during a ferry flight.

K

  • William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748), English architect, landscape architect and furniture designer born in Bridlington, Yorkshire. He was baptised (on 1 January 1686) as William Cant.
  • Sir Ben Kingsley born Krishna Pandit Bhanji in 1943 in Snainton.

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

  • Augustus Pitt Rivers (1827–1900) British Army officer, ethnologist, anthropologist and archaeologist
  • Peter Robinson crime writer, author of Inspector Alan Banks mysteries

Sc

  • Helen Sharman; Born Sheffield 1963 - first British Asatronaut
  • Percy Shaw (1889–1975) born Halifax inventor of the Cat's Eyes reflecting roadstuds
  • John Smeaton (1724-1792) civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses.

T

U

V

W

X-Y-Z

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