ChatterBank0 min ago
Favourite Britons?
44 Answers
So, who are your favourite Britons in history? Sorry for the British focus, but that's where nearly all the ABer's I'm aware of are from.
Nominees must preferably number no more than 5, and should be born in the British isles (there are plenty of great British subjects, but it rather complicates things).
Please state the reasons for your nominations, as it makes things more interesting. I shall add mine in another post later...
Nominees must preferably number no more than 5, and should be born in the British isles (there are plenty of great British subjects, but it rather complicates things).
Please state the reasons for your nominations, as it makes things more interesting. I shall add mine in another post later...
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Shakespeare
He is also a wonderful commentator on the human condition, emotions, frailities etc...
The language he uses is beautiful, poetic and capable of expressing complex emotions. Emotions that take in the individual - love, jealousy, revenge, - but also society - the difficulties of leadership, the suffering of war etc..
He speaks to people's souls so that his writing is stil relevant today, the language may be different, it may be difficult, the settings may seem alien but the emotions and what he is saying isn't.
His sonnets are fantastic professions of love and friendhsip, yet also witty and knowing - as are so many of his plays.
He still speaks to society, and more so to individuals, today and is still revelant.
That's my twopenneth at least!
He is also a wonderful commentator on the human condition, emotions, frailities etc...
The language he uses is beautiful, poetic and capable of expressing complex emotions. Emotions that take in the individual - love, jealousy, revenge, - but also society - the difficulties of leadership, the suffering of war etc..
He speaks to people's souls so that his writing is stil relevant today, the language may be different, it may be difficult, the settings may seem alien but the emotions and what he is saying isn't.
His sonnets are fantastic professions of love and friendhsip, yet also witty and knowing - as are so many of his plays.
He still speaks to society, and more so to individuals, today and is still revelant.
That's my twopenneth at least!
In all of my nominations I have chosen people for the impact that they have had on modern society - The more I think about it the more my nominations change because this is a really interesting question
Using your rule of being born in Britain - then I am surprised that nobody has said William Shockley (born in London to American Parents) inventor of the transistor - what a different world we would live in without that.
Tim Berners-Lee inventor of the www
Isaac Newton
Michael Faraday
Last nomination is the person that I think is the best composer of all time - Edward Elgar - he wrote music to inspire
Using your rule of being born in Britain - then I am surprised that nobody has said William Shockley (born in London to American Parents) inventor of the transistor - what a different world we would live in without that.
Tim Berners-Lee inventor of the www
Isaac Newton
Michael Faraday
Last nomination is the person that I think is the best composer of all time - Edward Elgar - he wrote music to inspire
A number of people have said Winston Churchill, but if he had died at 65 years old (at the begining of the Second World War) he would not have been remembered as a particulalry great man or great politician.
As someone else has said, he was great for 5 years, but only average for the rest of his life.
For example there was a TV program on recently about the sinking of the Lusitania in the First World War with the loss of hundreds of civilian lives.
Churchill was head of the Admiltry the time, and some people said the Admiltry was partly to blame for the sinking (did not give enough warning about submarines in the area, and took away naval support from the Lusitania).
The Admiltry then started a campaign (led by Churchill) to take blame off themselves and put it on the captain. They asked people to lie at the inquest and so on.
The pressure on the captain was such that his marriage broke up and he was hounded by the press at the time.
This surely was NOT one of Chuchill's better periods.
More here
http://www.lusitania.net/churchill.html
As someone else has said, he was great for 5 years, but only average for the rest of his life.
For example there was a TV program on recently about the sinking of the Lusitania in the First World War with the loss of hundreds of civilian lives.
Churchill was head of the Admiltry the time, and some people said the Admiltry was partly to blame for the sinking (did not give enough warning about submarines in the area, and took away naval support from the Lusitania).
The Admiltry then started a campaign (led by Churchill) to take blame off themselves and put it on the captain. They asked people to lie at the inquest and so on.
The pressure on the captain was such that his marriage broke up and he was hounded by the press at the time.
This surely was NOT one of Chuchill's better periods.
More here
http://www.lusitania.net/churchill.html
This surely was NOT one of Chuchill's better periods.
Definitely not. He certainly made mistakes as First Lord of the Admiralty - but I don't think it's reasonable to allow his sub-par 2nd term or his tenure as FLotA to undermine the sterling work done in his first term.
He was far from perfect but the simple fact remains that without him we'd have almost certainly surrendered. Churchill was precisely what the country most needed - and it isn't fair to allow his past mistakes to undermine this. Really, who would've accomplished what he did?
Eden? Don't make me laugh.
Attlee? An excellent peacetime administrator, but he couldn't have led the country in the way Churchill did. Which is what we needed to survive.
Butler? Again, a good administrator, but the country needed a leader.
Definitely not. He certainly made mistakes as First Lord of the Admiralty - but I don't think it's reasonable to allow his sub-par 2nd term or his tenure as FLotA to undermine the sterling work done in his first term.
He was far from perfect but the simple fact remains that without him we'd have almost certainly surrendered. Churchill was precisely what the country most needed - and it isn't fair to allow his past mistakes to undermine this. Really, who would've accomplished what he did?
Eden? Don't make me laugh.
Attlee? An excellent peacetime administrator, but he couldn't have led the country in the way Churchill did. Which is what we needed to survive.
Butler? Again, a good administrator, but the country needed a leader.
In no particular order
Mary Wollstonecraft is considered to be one of the foundational feminist philosophers. Her early advocacy for women's equality and her critiques of conventional femininity presaged the organized feminist movement.
Florence Nightingale's lasting contribution has been her role in founding the modern nursing profession. She set a shining example for nurses everywhere of compassion, commitment to patient care, and diligent and thoughtful hospital administration.
Elizabet Fry was an prison reformer, social reformer and philanthropist.She was the driving force in legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane.
Emily Davison was an activist for women's suffrage. She killed herself by throwing herself under King George V's horse at the Epsom Derby. Because of her and other women I can vote, and her especially as when at the age of 13 I pondered out aloud whether I would vote when I was 18 my mother pointed out Emily died for me and every other women in this country
Jane Austen. Has given me so much pleasure.
My reasons are listed and include because not one of them is either a man or a politican. Both are necessary evils lol
Mary Wollstonecraft is considered to be one of the foundational feminist philosophers. Her early advocacy for women's equality and her critiques of conventional femininity presaged the organized feminist movement.
Florence Nightingale's lasting contribution has been her role in founding the modern nursing profession. She set a shining example for nurses everywhere of compassion, commitment to patient care, and diligent and thoughtful hospital administration.
Elizabet Fry was an prison reformer, social reformer and philanthropist.She was the driving force in legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane.
Emily Davison was an activist for women's suffrage. She killed herself by throwing herself under King George V's horse at the Epsom Derby. Because of her and other women I can vote, and her especially as when at the age of 13 I pondered out aloud whether I would vote when I was 18 my mother pointed out Emily died for me and every other women in this country
Jane Austen. Has given me so much pleasure.
My reasons are listed and include because not one of them is either a man or a politican. Both are necessary evils lol
Sir Winston Churchill - enough said about him here already. If it wasn't for this man, this post would be written in bloody German!!!
David Bowie - The greatest musician of the modern era. Nobody, has influenced modern popular culture more than this great man.
Charles Dickens - The greatest novelist to have graced the United Kingdom. There are no bad books amongst his catelogue.
Anthony Hopkins - Although Welsh, the greatest living actor, and possibly the greatest ever. Like Dickens novels, I can not think of a bad Hopkins movie.
Lord Nelson - He beat the French and the Spainards. Although not a politician, probably had greater influence over the War Office than Churchill did during WW2. A true stalwart of Britishness.
David Bowie - The greatest musician of the modern era. Nobody, has influenced modern popular culture more than this great man.
Charles Dickens - The greatest novelist to have graced the United Kingdom. There are no bad books amongst his catelogue.
Anthony Hopkins - Although Welsh, the greatest living actor, and possibly the greatest ever. Like Dickens novels, I can not think of a bad Hopkins movie.
Lord Nelson - He beat the French and the Spainards. Although not a politician, probably had greater influence over the War Office than Churchill did during WW2. A true stalwart of Britishness.
don't ask a miner or an Australian what they think of Churchill. He was unsuccessful and unpopular for most of his life, and a self-publicist who makes Peter Mandelson look shy, and people remembered it when voting him out after the war. I've got a lot of time for Wollstonecraft, Shakespeare and King Alfred, who pushed back the Danish invaders and was probably the greatest ruler the country has ever had. For the rest, the Beatles collectively - can you imagine a current British musician having the top five in the US charts simultaneously?? - and either Brunel or Jane Austen, depending whether I'm feeling mechanical or spiritual.
He was unsuccessful and unpopular for most of his life,
I can't comment on his popularity, but it isn't fair to blame him for the unsuccessful operations which occured during his tenure as First Lord of the Admiralty - this was the first time Britain had deployed her navy in a war of such scale since 1815. Plus, his ideas for campaigns (such as Gallipoli or Norway) weren't bad in themselves, they were just poorly executed. It's not fair to blame Churchill.
Note that I'm not saying Churchill was particularly great outside of his first premiership, but aside from a few mistakes, he wasn't really that bad either (plus he responded well to the Malayan emergency in his 2nd premiership).
And when you consider the work done in his first premiership, and the horrendous future the UK would have endured had it not been for his actions, I think this easily outweighs his mistakes.
and a self-publicist who makes Peter Mandelson look shy, and people remembered it when voting him out after the war.
So, you dislike him because he didn't have a particularly nice personality?
The Tories weren't voted out because of Churchill's personality - they were voted out because people looked back to the Depression and (quite unreasonably) pinned the blame for the unemployment on the Tories. Plus, WW2, like the First World War, started a general demand for social reform - which Labour promised. Is that a valid criticism of Churchill? No.
Now, somebody a while back blamed Churchill for putting the UK on the gold standard - but the thing is, he couldn't predict the future. That's not a valid criticism of him.
I can't comment on his popularity, but it isn't fair to blame him for the unsuccessful operations which occured during his tenure as First Lord of the Admiralty - this was the first time Britain had deployed her navy in a war of such scale since 1815. Plus, his ideas for campaigns (such as Gallipoli or Norway) weren't bad in themselves, they were just poorly executed. It's not fair to blame Churchill.
Note that I'm not saying Churchill was particularly great outside of his first premiership, but aside from a few mistakes, he wasn't really that bad either (plus he responded well to the Malayan emergency in his 2nd premiership).
And when you consider the work done in his first premiership, and the horrendous future the UK would have endured had it not been for his actions, I think this easily outweighs his mistakes.
and a self-publicist who makes Peter Mandelson look shy, and people remembered it when voting him out after the war.
So, you dislike him because he didn't have a particularly nice personality?
The Tories weren't voted out because of Churchill's personality - they were voted out because people looked back to the Depression and (quite unreasonably) pinned the blame for the unemployment on the Tories. Plus, WW2, like the First World War, started a general demand for social reform - which Labour promised. Is that a valid criticism of Churchill? No.
Now, somebody a while back blamed Churchill for putting the UK on the gold standard - but the thing is, he couldn't predict the future. That's not a valid criticism of him.
Ruby and Dot have rightly pointed out that we are neglecting our womenfolk but the two I would nominate are:
Ada, Countess Lovelace (daughter of Lord Byron), who was one of the pioneers of computer programming; and
Rosalind Franklin, who did much of the work on uncovering the structure of DNA (unfortunately she died before she achieved true recognition for her efforts)
Ada, Countess Lovelace (daughter of Lord Byron), who was one of the pioneers of computer programming; and
Rosalind Franklin, who did much of the work on uncovering the structure of DNA (unfortunately she died before she achieved true recognition for her efforts)
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