List of people from Bournemouth

This is a list of people who were born, lived, died or are buried in Bournemouth, a large coastal resort town on the south coast of England.

Before 1900

 * Christopher Crabb Creeke (1820–1886) architect and surveyor, shaped the early development of Bournemouth.
 * Sir Merton Russell-Cotes (1835–1921) was Mayor of Bournemouth 1894–95
 * Asia Booth Clarke (1835–1880) sister of John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln
 * Sir Chaloner Alabaster (1838–1898) administrator in China.
 * Dr Alfred Charles Coles {1866–1944) physician, microbiologist and academic author
 * Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869–1958) painter and teacher who specialized in painting working horses, including Black Beauty
 * Frank Searle (1874–1948) transport entrepreneur and locomotive engineer
 * Reverend Alfred Charles Eustace Jarvis (1876–1957) eminent Anglican priest
 * Henry Roy Dean (1879–1961) professor of Pathology at the University of Cambridge
 * Persis Kirmse (1884–1955) artist and illustrator known for her works of cats and dogs
 * Marguerite Kirmse (1885–1954) artist, she specialised in drawings and latterly etchings of dogs
 * Harold E. Lambert OBE (1893–1967) linguist and anthropologist in Kenya.
 * Elisabeth Scott (1898–1972) architect who designed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre

1900 to 1925

 * Edna Manley, (1900–1987) sculptor and contributor to Jamaican culture and wife of Norman Manley
 * Frank Leslie Cross (1900–1968) Anglican patristics scholar
 * Sir Donald Coleman Bailey, (1901–1985) civil engineer who invented the Bailey bridge
 * Grace E. Pickford (1902–1986) biologist and endocrinologist
 * Anthony Blunt (1907–1983) leading art historian and Soviet spy.
 * Raymond Paley (1907–1933) mathematician, contributed to the Paley construction
 * Barbara West (1911–2007) the penultimate remaining survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 14 April 1912
 * Terence Wilmot Hutchison (1912–2007) was an economist with an interest in Ludwig Wittgenstein
 * Melita Norwood (1912–2005) British civil servant and KGB intelligence source
 * Raymond Blackburn (1915–1991) Labour Party politician, MP for Birmingham King's Norton and Birmingham Northfield
 * Berkeley Smith (1918–2003) broadcaster and a senior figure in the television world for nearly 40 years
 * Morley Bury (1919-1999) painter and artist
 * Otto Hutter (1924–2020) physiologist came to UK as part of the Kindertransport, lives in Bournemouth
 * Ivor Robinson (1924–2014) master craftsman and fine bookbinder
 * Oliver Frederick Ford (1925–1992) interior designer, served as decorator to the Queen Mother
 * Sir Paul Leonard Fox, (1925–2024) television executive and Controller of BBC 1 between 1967/73

1925 to 1950

 * Ken Sprague (1927–2004) socialist political cartoonist, journalist and activist
 * John Insall (1930–2000) pioneering orthopaedic surgeon, contributed to total knee replacement surgery
 * Simon Preston (born 1938), organist, conductor and composer
 * Sir Brian Keith Follett (born 1939) chaired the Training and Development Agency for Schools from 2003-9
 * Sir John Butterfill (born 1941) former politician. Conservative MP for Bournemouth West from 1983 to 2010
 * Sir Rocco Giovanni Forte (born 1945) hotelier and the chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels
 * Shelagh Cluett (1947–2007) artist and fine art lecturer
 * Tom Wise (born 1948) Independent and UKIP MEP for the East of England, former Police Officer, jailed for fraud
 * Christine Hamilton (born 1949) media personality and author, married to Neil Hamilton
 * Joe Armstrong (born 1950) computer scientist, author of the Erlang (programming language)
 * Penny Vincenzi (1939–2017) novelist

Since 1950

 * Digby Rumsey (born 1952) film director, producer, writer, cinematographer, editor, sound recordist and film diarist.
 * Mark Austin (born 1958) journalist and television presenter, currently U.S. correspondent for Sky News
 * Marc Koska (born 1961) invented the non-reusable K1 auto-disable syringe
 * Kimathi Donkor (born 1965) artist of large-scale figurative paintings
 * Tobias Ellwood (born 1966) Conservative Party politician and author, MP for Bournemouth East
 * Steve Bolton (born 1967) entrepreneur, property investor, author and philanthropist
 * Karen Hardy (born 1970) professional ballroom dancer, coach, teacher and adjudicator
 * Suw Charman-Anderson (born 1971) former Executive Director of the Open Rights Group
 * Conor Burns (born 1972), Conservative Party politician, MP for Bournemouth West
 * Danny Tull (born 1977) director and film editor
 * Stuart Semple (born 1980) artist and curator, uses large scale canvases incorporating text and found imagery
 * Leilani Dowding (born 1980) former Page 3 girl, glamour model, television celebrity and UK entry Miss Universe 1998
 * Chelsea White (born 1990) Page 3 girl and glamour model, photographer, and make-up artist
 * Romy Simpkins (born 1993) actress, model, Mental health ambassador and beauty pageant titleholder

Actors

 * Henry Howard Paul (1830–1905) American writer, playwright, comic actor and theatrical manager
 * Gabrielle Brune (1912–2005) actress
 * Tony Hancock (1924–1968) comedian and actor, Hancock's Half Hour
 * Charles Gray (1928–2000) actor, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever
 * Jan Waters (born 1937) theatre, television and film actress. She appeared in Jule Styne's Do Re Mi
 * Michael Napier Brown (1937–2016) actor, theatre director, and playwright
 * Juliette Kaplan (born 1939) actress, played Pearl Sibshaw in the BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine
 * Ray Lonnen (1940–2014) stage and television actor, was Willie Caine in The Sandbaggers (1978–80)
 * James Walker (1940–2017) actor active in films and on television
 * Julia Lockwood (born 1941) retired actress, daughter of Margaret Lockwood appeared in Please Turn Over
 * Michael E. Briant (born 1942) British television director, producer and actor
 * Hetty Baynes (born 1956) film, television and theatre actress, formerly a ballet dancer
 * Jayne Atkinson (born 1959) English-American actress who has worked in film, theatre, and television
 * Julian Bleach (born 1963) actor, who is best known as co-creator and "MC" of Shockheaded Peter
 * Janine Wood (born 1963) actress, played Clare France in the Thames TV sitcom After Henry (TV series)
 * Alison Newman (born 1968) actress, Hazel Bailey in Footballers' Wives and DI Samantha Keeble in EastEnders.
 * Christian Bale (born 1974) actor, attended Bournemouth School
 * Neil Linpow (born 1982) actor
 * Jack Donnelly (born 1985) actor, played the role of Jason in BBC series Atlantis
 * Janet Montgomery (born 1985) film and TV actress
 * Sarah Linda (born 1987) actress and model, known for her work in television, film and commercials
 * Sophie Rundle (born 1988) actress, portrayed Ada Shelby in the BBC One series Peaky Blinders
 * Ben Hardy (born 1991) actor, played Peter Beale in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and Roger Taylor in the 2018 biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody
 * Ben Watton (born 1995) child actor
 * Millie Bobby Brown (born 2004) actress, portrayed Eleven (Stranger Things) in Netflix series, Stranger Things

Authors

 * Mary Shelley (1797–1851) novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer and travel writer.
 * John M. Davenport (1842–1913) Church of England clergyman and writer
 * Harry Greenbank (1865–1899) author and dramatist
 * Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) poet and author, wrote The Well of Loneliness a groundbreaking work in lesbian literature
 * Vera Chapman (1898–1996) author and founder of the Tolkien Society in the United Kingdom
 * Dilys Powell (1901–1995) journalist,  film critic of The Sunday Times for over fifty years
 * Michael Roberts (1902–1948) poet, writer, critic and broadcaster and teacher
 * Ron Smith (1924-2019) retired comic artist and writer
 * Sarah Mary Malet Bradford, Viscountess Bangor (born 1938) author, best known for her royal biographies
 * Patrick Ensor (1946–2007) newspaper journalist, editor of Guardian Weekly from 1993 to 2007
 * Lesley Howarth (born 1952) author of children's and young adult fiction
 * Mario Reading (1953–2017) author, his novels include The Music-Makers
 * John Kay (born 1958) poet and teacher, lives in Bournemouth
 * Susan Nelson (born 1961) science writer and broadcaster and a former BBC science correspondent

Military

 * Major General Charles William Melvill (1878–1925) soldier in the British Army and New Zealand Military Forces
 * Frederick Charles Riggs (1888–1918) recipient of the Victoria Cross
 * Cecil Noble (1891–1915) recipient of the Victoria Cross
 * Wing Commander Hubert Dinwoodie (1896–1968) RAF officer and recipient of the George Cross
 * Captain Keith Muspratt (1897–1918) First World War flying ace
 * Captain Robert A. Birkbeck (1898–1938) World War I flying ace
 * Flight Lieutenant Charles John Sims (1899–1929) World War I flying ace
 * Brigadier Dame Cecilie Monica Golding, (1902–1997) Army nurse, who rose to Colonel Commandant Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
 * Lieutenant Colonel Derek Anthony Seagrim (1903–1943) recipient of the Victoria Cross
 * Daphne Pearson (1911–2000) one of only thirteen women recipients of the George Cross
 * Alfie Fripp (1914–2013) Royal Air Force squadron leader, served six years as prisoner of war
 * Les Long (1915–1944) Wellington bomber pilot, taken prisoner, escaped, re-captured and murdered by the Gestapo
 * Richard Frewen Martin (1918–2006) RAF pilot and test pilot
 * Joanna Mary Salter (born 1968) first female fast jet pilot flying the Panavia Tornado ground attack aircraft

Musicians before 1950

 * Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (1848–1918) composer, teacher and historian of music.
 * B. Mansell Ramsey (1849–1923) teacher, organist, amateur composer and amateur orchestra conductor
 * Jay Wilbur (1898–1968) bandleader, influential in the era of Big Band and British dance band music
 * Ernest Lush (1908–1988) classical pianist who was best known as an accompanist
 * Max Harris (1918–2004) film and television composer and arranger. He played the piano and piano accordion
 * Max Bygraves (1922–2012) comedian, singer, actor and variety performer
 * Anna Shuttleworth (born 1927) cellist
 * Colin Eric Allen (born 1938) blues drummer and songwriter
 * Andy Summers (born 1942) guitarist The Police
 * Simon Preston (born 1938) organist, conductor and composer
 * John Hawken (born 1940) keyboard player, contributed to various versions of The Nashville Teens
 * Don Partridge (1941–2010) singer and songwriter, known as the "king of the buskers"
 * Zoot Money (born 1942) vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader, plays the Hammond organ
 * Michael Giles (born 1942) drummer, best known as a co-founder of King Crimson in 1969
 * Bob Brunning (1943–2011) the original bass guitar player with the blues rock band Fleetwood Mac
 * Peter Bellamy (1944–1991) folk singer, founding member of The Young Tradition
 * Andrew McCulloch (born 1945) drummer who worked with Manfred Mann, Anthony Phillips and King Crimson
 * Gordon Haskell (1946-2020) musician and songwriter, pop, rock and blues vocalist, guitarist and bassist
 * Lee Kerslake (1947-2020) longtime drummer and backing vocalist for Uriah Heep, worked with Ozzy Osbourne
 * Richard Palmer-James (born 1947) musician, one of the founding members of Supertramp
 * Darrell Sweet (1947–1999) drummer for the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, formed in 1968
 * John Wetton (1949–2017) singer, bassist, and songwriter with bands King Crimson, Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry

Musicians since 1950

 * Pete Thompson (born 1952) rock drummer who has played with Silverhead, Robin Trower, & Robert Plant
 * Robert Hart (born 1958) rock vocalist and songwriter. He is currently the lead singer of Manfred Mann's Earth Band
 * Steven Mead (born 1962) virtuoso euphonium soloist and teacher
 * Caroline Crawley (1963–2016) singer who sang for various bands including Shelleyan Orphan
 * Gregory Spawton (born 1965) founder of progressive rock band Big Big Train
 * Simon Hilton (born 1967) music video, concert and documentary director and editor
 * Russ Spencer (born 1969) television presenter and singer, member of manufactured pop group Scooch
 * Matt Tong (born 1979) musician and songwriter. Drummer of Algiers (band) and founding member of Bloc Party
 * Gareth Malone OBE (born 1975) choirmaster and broadcaster, "animateur, presenter and populariser of choral singing".
 * Nathan Johnson (musician) (born 1976) film composer, songwriter and music producer
 * Ben Jones (born 1977) radio DJ and former children's television presenter
 * Lou Brown (born 1978) singer-songwriter
 * Amy Studt (born 1986) singer, songwriter and musician
 * FuntCase / James Hazell (born 1986) dubstep and drum and bass producer
 * East India Youth / William Doyle (born 1991) electronic musician
 * Matt Johnson (born 1969) keyboardist with the band Jamiroquai

Sport

 * Arthur Wiggins (1891–1961) rower who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
 * Freddie Mills (1919–1965) boxer, world light heavyweight champion from 1948 to 1950
 * Dave Bewley (1920–2013) professional footballer, made 141 pro appearances
 * Barrie Meyer (1932–2015) footballer and cricketer, later a cricket umpire
 * Virginia Wade (born 1945) former professional tennis player, born in Bournemouth
 * John Henry Dixon (born 1954) former first-class cricketer active from 1973 to 1988
 * Forbes Phillipson-Masters (born 1955) former footballer who made approx. 230 pro. appearances
 * Gary Emerson (born 1963) professional golfer
 * Keith Stroud (born 1969) professional English football referee who officiates in the Football League and Premier League
 * Masai Ujiri (born 1970) president of basketball operations of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA
 * Simon Clist (born 1981) footballer who plays as a midfielder, made 379 pro. appearances
 * Lewis Price (born 1984) Welsh international footballer, who plays as a goalkeeper, approx. 150 pro. appearances
 * Liam Norwell (born 1991) cricketer who currently plays for Gloucestershire
 * Yasmin Kaashoek (born 1999) volleyball player
 * Corey Jordan (born 1999) pro. footballer, plays as a defender for Premier League side Bournemouth

Died in Bournemouth

 * Asia Booth Clarke (1835-1888) US born author and wife of actor John Sleeper Clarke, daughter of famous actor Junius Brutus Booth and sister of John Wilkes Booth, actor and assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
 * John Keble (1792–1866) Anglican priest and poet, lead the Oxford Movement at Keble College.
 * Solomon Caesar Malan (1812–1894), a British divine, polyglot and well known orientalist.
 * Lady Georgiana Fullerton (1812–1885), an English novelist, philanthropist and biographer.
 * John Howson (1816–1885), a British divine from Giggleswick-on-Craven.
 * Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet (1817–1898), civil engineer, built railways and railway infrastructure.
 * Hugh Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns (1819–1885), statesman, Lord Chancellor under Benjamin Disraeli.
 * Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd (1825–1899), Scottish author and divine.
 * J. B. Lightfoot (1828–1889), an English theologian and Bishop of Durham.
 * Edith Tolkien (1889–1971), wife of the novelist J. R. R. Tolkien.