100 Greatest Britons

"100 Greatest Britons" was broadcast in 2002 by the BBC. The programme was based on a television poll conducted to determine whom the United Kingdom public considered the greatest British people in history. The series, Great Britons, included individual programmes featuring the individuals who featured in the top ten, with viewers having further opportunities to vote after each programme. It concluded with a debate. All of the top 10 were dead by the year of broadcast.

The poll resulted in nominees including Guy Fawkes, who was executed for trying to blow up the Parliament of England; Oliver Cromwell who created a republican England; Richard III, suspected of murdering his nephews; James Connolly, an Irish nationalist and socialist who was executed by the Crown in 1916; and a surprisingly high ranking of 17th for actor and singer Michael Crawford (the second highest-ranked entertainer, after John Lennon). Diana, Princess of Wales was judged to be a greater historical British figure than William Shakespeare by BBC respondents to the survey.

One of the more controversial figures to be included on the list was occultist Aleister Crowley. His works have had a direct influence on the rise in popular occultism and some forms of neopaganism in the 20th century. He is considered an influence on Gerald Gardner, founder of Gardnerian Wicca. In addition to the Britons, some notable non-British entrants were listed, including two Irish nationals, the philanthropic musicians Bono and Bob Geldof. The top 19 entries were people of English origin (though Sir Ernest Shackleton and Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, were both born into Anglo-Irish families when what is now the Republic of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom). The highest-placed Scottish entry was Alexander Fleming in 20th place, with the highest Welsh entry, Owain Glyndŵr, at number 23. Sixty had lived in the twentieth century. The highest-ranked living person was Margaret Thatcher, placed 16th. Ringo Starr is the only member of The Beatles not on the list. Isambard Kingdom Brunel occupied the top spot in the polls for some time thanks largely to "students from Brunel University who have been campaigning vigorously for the engineer for weeks." However a late surge in the final week of voting put Churchill over the top.

The opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics featured the two greatest Britons, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Winston Churchill as main characters, played by Kenneth Branagh and Timothy Spall, each of them reading a monologue from William Shakespeare's The Tempest. In addition, the ceremony also contained a personal appearance by Tim Berners-Lee, who was placed 99th on the list. There were no black Britons on the list, prompting a separate three-month survey to find the 100 greatest black Britons, with double Olympic decathlon gold medalist Daley Thompson the highest ranked track athlete on both lists.

Top 10 on the list

Because of the nature of the poll used to select and rank the Britons, the results do not claim to be an objective assessment. They are as follows:

Rank	Name	Time Frame	Image	Occupation	Notability
1	Sir Winston Churchill	1874–1965		Politician	Prime Minister during World War II, historically ranked as one of the greatest British prime ministers.
2	Isambard Kingdom Brunel	1806–1859		Engineer	Creator of the Great Western Railway, and designer of numerous significant ships, tunnels and bridges.
3	Diana, Princess of Wales	1961–1997		Member of the British Royal family and philanthropist	First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales (marriage 1981–1996), and mother of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry.
4	Charles Darwin	1809–1882		Naturalist	Originator of the theory of evolution through natural selection and author of On the Origin of Species.
5	William Shakespeare	1564–1616		Poet and playwright	Thought of by many as the greatest of all English writers.
6	Sir Isaac Newton	1642–1727		Physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher and biblical scholar	Originator of universal gravitation and laws of classical mechanics and laws of motion. His Principia is one of the most influential works in the history of science.
7	Queen Elizabeth I	1533–1603		Queen regnant	Popular monarch of England (reigned 1558–1603) who brought a period of relative internal stability. She is associated with the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
8	John Lennon	1940–1980		Composer, musician, philanthropist, peace activist, artist, and writer	Co-writer with Paul McCartney in The Beatles, the most successful band and music act of all time, and solo musician.
9	Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson	1758–1805		Naval commander	Famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars.
10	Oliver Cromwell	1599–1658		Military and political leader	1st Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. Commander of the New Model Army during the English Civil War against King Charles I.

Full list

1. Sir Winston Churchill
2. Isambard Kingdom Brunel
3. Diana, Princess of Wales
4. Charles Darwin
5. William Shakespeare
6. Sir Isaac Newton
7. Elizabeth I
8. John Lennon
9. Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
10. Oliver Cromwell
11. Sir Ernest Shackleton
12. Captain James Cook
13. Robert Baden-Powell
14. Alfred the Great
15. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
16. Margaret Thatcher
17. Michael Crawford
18. Queen Victoria
19. Sir Paul McCartney
20. Sir Alexander Fleming
21. Alan Turing
22. Michael Faraday
23. Owain Glyndŵr
24. Elizabeth II
25. Stephen Hawking
26. William Tyndale
27. Emmeline Pankhurst
28. William Wilberforce
29. David Bowie
30. Guy Fawkes
31. Leonard Cheshire
32. Eric Morecambe
33. David Beckham
34. Thomas Paine
35. Boudica
36. Sir Steve Redgrave
37. Sir Thomas More
38. William Blake
39. John Harrison
40. Henry VIII
41. Charles Dickens
42. Sir Frank Whittle
43. John Peel
44. John Logie Baird
45. Aneurin Bevan
46. Boy George
47. Sir Douglas Bader
48. Sir William Wallace
49. Sir Francis Drake
50. John Wesley
51. King Arthur
52. Florence Nightingale
53. Thomas Edward Lawrence
54. Robert Falcon Scott
55. Enoch Powell
56. Sir Cliff Richard
57. Alexander Graham Bell
58. Freddie Mercury
59. Dame Julie Andrews
60. Sir Edward Elgar
61. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
62. George Harrison
63. Sir David Attenborough
64. James Connolly
65. George Stephenson
66. Sir Charles Chaplin
67. Tony Blair
68. William Caxton
69. Bobby Moore
70. Jane Austen
71. William Booth
72. Henry V
73. Aleister Crowley
74. Robert the Bruce
75. Bob Geldof
76. The Unknown Warrior
77. Robbie Williams
78. Edward Jenner
79. David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor
80. Charles Babbage
81. Geoffrey Chaucer
82. Richard III
83. J. K. Rowling
84. James Watt
85. Sir Richard Branson
86. Bono
87. John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
88. Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein ('Monty')
89. Donald Campbell
90. Henry II
91. James Clerk Maxwell
92. J. R. R. Tolkien
93. Sir Walter Raleigh
94. Edward I
95. Sir Barnes Wallis
96. Richard Burton
97. Tony Benn
98. David Livingstone
99. Sir Tim Berners-Lee
100. Marie Stopes

Although the BBC's original ranked list has been removed from their web server and what remains is only an alphabetical list of the Top 100, several other sources have preserved the original ranked list.

There was some question as to whether the Richard Burton listed at #96 is the actor or the explorer. A BBC press release makes it clear that they intended it to be the actor.

See also

• Historical rankings of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

External links

• Great Britons at IMDb
• Churchill memorial press release
• BBC Great Britons press release
• BBC Great Britons book and links at National Portrait Gallery
• The Top 100 Great Britons - places 11 to 100 by rank — BBC (via web archive)