# The greatest Britons of all time (BBC poll)

The top of 100 Greatest Britons, the BBC poll of 2002 in which about a million people voted. Winston Churchill won; Brunel was top for much of the vote.

- 1313 votes · 21 items
- Apr 5, 2023 · Kirsty Fletcher
- https://even.best/en/l/681/the-greatest-britons-of-all-time-bbc-poll

## Top 20

1. **Winston Churchill** (135 · ▲144 ▼9) — 1874-1965. Prime Minister who led Britain through the Second World War.
2. **Diana, Princess of Wales** (80 · ▲88 ▼8) — 1961-1997. Admired for her charity work, especially against landmines and for AIDS patients.
3. **Charles Darwin** (79 · ▲83 ▼4) — 1809-1882. Naturalist who explained evolution by natural selection.
4. **Isambard Kingdom Brunel** (74 · ▲99 ▼25) — 1806-1859. Engineer of the Great Western Railway and the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
5. **William Shakespeare** (71 · ▲79 ▼8) — 1564-1616. Playwright of Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.
6. **Elizabeth I** (63 · ▲65 ▼2) — 1533-1603. The queen of England's golden age, who saw off the Spanish Armada.
7. **Robert Baden-Powell** (45 · ▲54 ▼9) — 1857-1941. Founder of the Scout movement.
8. **Horatio Nelson** (44 · ▲51 ▼7) — 1758-1805. Admiral who died winning the Battle of Trafalgar.
9. **Isaac Newton** (43 · ▲53 ▼10) — 1642-1727. Laws of motion and universal gravitation.
10. **Oliver Cromwell** (42 · ▲49 ▼7) — 1599-1658. Led the Parliamentarians in the Civil War and ruled as Lord Protector.
11. **James Cook** (39 · ▲44 ▼5) — 1728-1779. Navigator who charted Australia's east coast and New Zealand.
12. **Margaret Thatcher** (34 · ▲46 ▼12) — 1925-2013. Britain's first woman Prime Minister; the highest-ranked living person in 2002.
13. **John Lennon** (33 · ▲45 ▼12) — 1940-1980. Founding member of the Beatles.
14. **Alfred the Great** (30 · ▲37 ▼7) — 849-899. King of Wessex who held off the Vikings.
15. **Ernest Shackleton** (28 · ▲40 ▼12) — 1874-1922. Antarctic explorer who saved all his men after the Endurance was crushed by ice.
16. **Michael Crawford** (24 · ▲33 ▼9) — Born 1942. Actor and singer, the original Phantom of the Opera.
17. **Duke of Wellington** (20 · ▲29 ▼9) — 1769-1852. Defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and later became Prime Minister.
18. **Queen Victoria** (19 · ▲24 ▼5) — 1819-1901. Reigned for 63 years over the British Empire at its height.
19. **Alexander Fleming** (17 · ▲25 ▼8) — 1881-1955. Discovered penicillin in 1928.
20. **Freddie Mercury** (16 · ▲21 ▼5) — Queen's lead singer, voted 58th in the BBC's 2002 «100 Greatest Britons» poll.
21. **Paul McCartney** (13 · ▲22 ▼9) — Born 1942. Beatle and one of the most successful songwriters ever.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.