List of people from Bath

This article provides a non-exhaustive list of famous people born, educated or prominent in Bath, Somerset, England, or otherwise associated with it. The sections and the names in each section are alphabetical. Bathonian describes a person who comes from Bath.

Acting

• Jennifer Biddall (born 1980) an English actress who played Jessica Harris in Hollyoaks
• Patricia Brake (1942–2022) – actress in Porridge, and Going Straight
• Adam Campbell (born 1980) – actor in Epic Movie and Date Movie
• Julia Davis (born 1966) an English actress, comedian, director and writer.
• Michael Gwynn (1916–1976) an English actor
• Anthony Head (born 1954) an English actor, singer and performer in musical theatre.
• Jonathan Hyde (born 1948) an Australian-English actor.
• Kym Jackson (born 1981) an Australian actress and author.
• Andrew Lincoln (born 1973) an English actor, brought up in Bath.
• Jonathan Lynn (born 1943) – actor, writer and director
• Angelica Mandy (living) – in Vanity Fair, and in the Harry Potter series as Gabrielle Delacour
• Leo McKern (1920–2002) – Rumpole actor
• Tom Payne (born 1982) an English actor.
• Arnold Ridley (1896–1984) an English playwright and actor.
• Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) – actress
• Benjamin Nottingham Webster (1797–1882) an English actor-manager and dramatist.
• Indira Varma (born 1973) a British actress.

Architecture

• Robert Adam (1728–1792) – architect of Pulteney Bridge, also produced unbuilt designs for the Assembly Rooms and Bathwick estate.
• Thomas Baldwin (c. 1750–1820) – architect of Great Pulteney Street and Bath Guildhall.
• Sir Reginald Blomfield (1856–1942) – architect of the Bath War Memorial and extension of the Holbourne Museum.
• Thomas Fuller (1823–1898) – emigrated to Canada, where he co-designed the Parliament House in Ottawa.
• Frederick Gibberd (1908–1984) – architect of Bath Technical College.
• Henry Goodridge (1797–1864) – architect of Beckford's Tower, Cleveland Bridge and The Corridor shopping arcade
• Sir Thomas Graham Jackson (1835–1924) – architect of the World War I memorial aisle Bath Abbey.
• Charles Harcourt Masters (born 1759) – active in Bathwick including Sydney Gardens.
• William Eden Nesfield (1835–1888) – architect, one of the leaders of the Gothic revival in England.
• John Palmer (c. 1738–1817) – architect of the Pump Room and Lansdown Crescent.
• Charles J. Phipps (1835–1897) – Theatre Royal, Bath and other theatres around Britain.
• John Pinch the Elder (1769–1827) – the original Royal United Hospital
• John Pinch the Younger (1796–1849) – architect
• George Gilbert Scott (1811–1878) – restoration of Bath Abbey, architect of St Andrew's church destroyed by World War II bombing
• Frederick William Stevens (1847–1900) – architect, emigrated to India.
• John Wood, the Elder (1704–1754) – architect of Queen Square and the Circus.
• John Wood, the Younger (1728–1772) – architect of the Royal Crescent.

Arts

• Roy Ascott (born 1934) – new media artist
• Daniel A. Baker (living) – artist
• Manolo Blahnik (born 1942) – shoe designer
• Sir Peter Blake (born 1932) lived in Wellow village, near Bath, in the 1970s.
• Peter Brown (born 1967) – painter
• James Buckley-Thorp (living) – founder of Bath clothing brand Rupert and Buckley
• Claire Calvert (born 1988) – first soloist at the Royal Ballet
• Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) – painter
• Heywood Hardy (1842–1933) – painter
• Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) – painter
• Kayleigh Pearson (born 1985) – glamour model

Education

• Marie Bethell Beauclerc (1845–1897) – England's first female shorthand teacher
• Raymond Carr (1919–2015) – historian
• Roderick Kedward (born 1937) – historian
• Edward Vansittart Neale (1810–1892) – an English barrister, cooperator, and Christian socialist.
• Isaac Pitman (1813–1897) – inventor of shorthand
• William Harbutt (1844–1921) – headmaster and inventor of plasticine

Exiles

• Haile Selassie I (1892–1975) – during World War II
• Louis XVIII (1755–1824) – before ascending the French throne

Film & TV

• Bill Bailey (born 1965) – comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author
• Jesse Honey (born 1977) – BBC Mastermind champion 2010
• Russell Howard (born 1980) – comedian, TV presenter and actor
• David Lassman (living) – screenwriter
• Ken Loach (born 1936) – film director
• Charlie McDonnell (born 1990) – YouTuber, filmmaker and screenwriter

Literature

• Jane Austen (1775–1817) – novelist: Joan Aiken reports that Austen did not love the city: when she learnt her family were moving to Bath "she fainted dead away."
• Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797–1839) – an English poet, songwriter, dramatist and writer.
• William Beckford (1760–1844) – wrote Vathek and a series of works on travel.
• Henrietta Maria Bowdler (1750–1830) – novelist and editor, died in Bath on 25 February 1830.
• Jane Bowdler (1743–1784) – poet and essayist, was born at Ashley, near Bath, on 14 February 1743 and died there in 1784.
• John Bowdler (1746–1823) – moral reformer and religious writer, was born in Bath on 18 March 1746.
• Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825) – physician and expurgator of Shakespeare, was born at Box, near Bath, on 11 July 1754.
• Angela Carter (1940–1992) – novelist who lived in Bath in the early 1970s.
• Charles Dickens (1812–1870) – novelist and frequent visitor to Bath, who set much of the Pickwick Papers there
• Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817) – an Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor.
• Henry Fielding (1707–1754) – novelist
• William Hone (1780–1842) – an English writer, satirist and bookseller.
• Eliza Humphreys (1850–1938) – known as "Rita", wrote A Grey Life, a novel set in Bath. She lived at Combe Down from about 1923 and is buried in Bath Abbey Cemetery.
• Morag Joss (born 1955) – novelist
• David Lassman (living) – novelist born in Bath, co-author of the Regency Detective series
• Robert Montgomery – an English poet and minister.
• Mary Shelley (1797–1851) – novelist, author of Frankenstein.
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) – playwright
• Tobias Smollett (1721–1771) – physician, surgeon and novelist, who partly set The Expedition of Humphry Clinker in the city and wrote an essay on the Bath waters.
• Geoffrey Trease (1909–1998) – children's novelist, author of the Bannermere series
• Horace Twiss (1787–1849) – English writer and politician.
• Jacqueline Wilson (born 1945) – children's author born in Bath

Military

• Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758–1805) – admiral, freeman of Bath.
• William Edward Parry (1790–1855) – rear-admiral and Arctic explorer.
• Harry Patch (1898–2009) – supercentenarian and last trench veteran of World War I, lived in Combe Down.
• George Wade (1673–1748) – field marshal and MP for Bath 1722
• James Wolfe (1727–1759) – general

Music

• Gabrielle Aplin (born 1992) – singer-songwriter
• Danny Byrd (born 1979) – drum and bass producer with Hospital Records
• Eddie Cochran (1938–1960) – rock and roll musician who died in Bath
• The Family Rain – an English blues rock band, formed in Bath in 2011
• Fred V & Grafix – drum and bass production duo educated at Bath Spa University
• Peter Gabriel (born 1950) – musician
• Interview – New wave band
• Alison Goldfrapp (born 1966) – singer of Goldfrapp
• Peter Hammill (born 1948) – singer-songwriter
• Raymond Leppard (1927–2019) – conductor, educated Beechen Cliff School
• Naked Eyes – musical group
• Thomas Linley (1733–1795) – musician
• Propellerheads – an English electronic music duo, formed in 1995 in Bath
• Peter Salisbury (born 1971) – drummer and percussionist of The Verve
• Alberto Semprini (1908–1990) – pianist
• Innes Sibun (born 1968) – blues singer, guitarist and songwriter
• Tears for Fears – musical group
• Midge Ure (born 1953)
• PinkPantheress (born 2001)

Public service

• Ralph Allen (1693–1764) – postal reformer, quarrier and mayor, who set up the first nationwide cross-country postal network
• Sir Henry Cole (1808–1882) – civil servant.
• Don Foster (born 1947) – MP for Bath, 1992–2015
• Beau Nash (1674–1761) – master of ceremonies in Georgian Bath
• John Palmer (1742–1818) – inventor of a lightweight mail coach
• Chris Patten – MP for Bath 1979–1992, then Governor of Hong Kong 1992–1997
• William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–1788) – Prime Minister and MP for Bath, 1757–1766
• William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) – Prime Minister
• Sir William Tite (1798–1873) – architect and MP for Bath, 1855–1873

Science

• Benjamin Baker (1840–1907) an eminent English civil engineer.
• Adelard of Bath (c. 1080 – c. 1152) – astronomer, philosopher and mathematician
• Adela Breton (1849–1923) – artist and archaeologist, primarily known for recording Mexican frescoes in the 1890s.
• Mike Cowlishaw (living) – computer scientist and engineer
• Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817) – writer and inventor
• David Hartley (the Younger) (1732–1813) – philosopher and inventor
• Caroline Herschel (1750–1848) – astronomer who discovered several comets.
• William Herschel (1738–1822) – astronomer, discoverer of Uranus and musician
• William Lonsdale (1794–1871) – English geologist and palaeontologist.
• Thomas Robert Malthus (1866–1934) – philosopher and economist
• Dr William Oliver (1695–1764) – a founder of the Royal Mineral Water Hospital and inventor of the Bath Oliver savoury biscuit.
• Percy Pilcher (1867–1899) – inventor and aviation pioneer
• Richard J. Roberts (born 1943) – Nobel-prize-winning biochemist
• Benjamin Robins (1707–1751) – a British scientist, Newtonian mathematician and military engineer.

Sport

• Xavier Amaechi (born 2001) – professional footballer.
• George Attfield (1826–1925) – county cricketer active in the 1840s and 1850s.
• Roger Bannister (1929–2018) – athlete, first man to run sub-four-minute mile
• Olly Barkley (born 1981) – England international rugby player
• Ashley Barnes (born 1989) – professional football player playing for Burnley F.C.
• Tony Book (born 1934) – football player, Manchester City captain and manager, one of a Bath-based Book footballing dynasty
• Jamie Chadwick (born 1998) – racing driver
• Jason Dodd (born 1970) – footballer, Southampton captain holding a record for most premiership appearances by an English player without being named in an England squad
• Jason Gardener (born 1975) – athlete, 4 × 100 m Olympic gold medallist
• Matt Green (born 1987) – professional footballer
• Mike Gregory (born 1987) – darts player, runner up at 1992 World Professional Darts Championship
• Jeremy Guscott (born 1965) – England and Bath rugby player
• Ed McKeever (born 1983) – kayak world champion (K1 200m)
• Tyrone Mings (born 1993) – professional footballer for Aston Villa F.C.
• Siobhan-Marie O'Connor (born 1995) – swimmer, silver medallist at the 2016 Olympic Games
• Andy Robinson (born 1964) – rugby coach, former England international team coach and Bath Rugby team coach
• Jack Rowell (born 1964) – Bath Rugby director, former England international team coach and Bath Rugby team coach
• Ben Rushgrove (born 1988) – paralympic athlete
• Anya Shrubsole (born 1991) – England cricketer
• Scott Sinclair (born 1989) – Bristol Rovers F.C. player
• Talan Skeels-Piggins (born 1970) – Paralympic alpine skier
• Corey Walkes (born 2001) – trampoline gymnast
• Amy Williams (born 1982) – winter Olympic gold medallist
• Clive Woodward (born 1956) – British Olympic Committee Director of Elite Performance, England international team coach and Bath Rugby team coach

Religion

• Louisa Daniell (1809–1871) – evangelical philanthropist and missionary
• John Hales (1584–1656) – an English cleric, theologian and writer.
• William Jay (1769–1853) – preacher
• Oliver King (c. 1432–1503) – Bishop of Bath and Wells, set up rebuilding of Bath Abbey
• Abraham Marchant (1816–1881) – early Mormon leader, settler of Kamas, Utah

Royalty

• Queen Anne (1665–1714) – visited for treatment of gout.
• Princess Claire of Belgium (born 1974) – born in Bath
• Edgar of England (c. 943–975) – crowned king of England in Bath Abbey in 973
• Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) – on a visit, ordered the restoration of Bath Abbey
• Mary of Modena (1658–1718) – came for treatment for infertility. After Prince James Francis Edward Stuart was born, she paid for a cross to be raised in what became Cross Baths.
• Queen Victoria (1819–1901) – still a princess, stayed and opened Royal Victoria Park.

Freedom of the City

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City of Bath.

Individuals

• Prince George, Duke of Cambridge: 1897
• Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal: 13 July 1911
• Marquess of Bath: 20 June 1929
• Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie: 18 October 1954
• Amy Williams: 5 June 2010
• Mary Berry: 7 June 2014

Military units

• 21st Signal Regiment (Air Support): November 2011

References