The greatest Britons of all time (BBC poll)
The top 3 according to 1,313 votes from people: Winston Churchill · Diana, Princess of Wales · Charles Darwin. (Updated Apr 7, 2023.)
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.
Top 20
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1
Winston Churchill
1874-1965. Prime Minister who led Britain through the Second World War.
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2
Diana, Princess of Wales
1961-1997. Admired for her charity work, especially against landmines and for AIDS patients.
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3
Charles Darwin
1809-1882. Naturalist who explained evolution by natural selection.
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4
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
1806-1859. Engineer of the Great Western Railway and the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
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5
William Shakespeare
1564-1616. Playwright of Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet.
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6
Elizabeth I
1533-1603. The queen of England's golden age, who saw off the Spanish Armada.
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7
Robert Baden-Powell
1857-1941. Founder of the Scout movement.
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8
Horatio Nelson
1758-1805. Admiral who died winning the Battle of Trafalgar.
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9
Isaac Newton
1642-1727. Laws of motion and universal gravitation.
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10
Oliver Cromwell
1599-1658. Led the Parliamentarians in the Civil War and ruled as Lord Protector.
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11
James Cook
1728-1779. Navigator who charted Australia's east coast and New Zealand.
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12
Margaret Thatcher
1925-2013. Britain's first woman Prime Minister; the highest-ranked living person in 2002.
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13
John Lennon
1940-1980. Founding member of the Beatles.
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14
Alfred the Great
849-899. King of Wessex who held off the Vikings.
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15
Ernest Shackleton
1874-1922. Antarctic explorer who saved all his men after the Endurance was crushed by ice.
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16
Michael Crawford
Born 1942. Actor and singer, the original Phantom of the Opera.
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17
Duke of Wellington
1769-1852. Defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and later became Prime Minister.
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18
Queen Victoria
1819-1901. Reigned for 63 years over the British Empire at its height.
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19
Alexander Fleming
1881-1955. Discovered penicillin in 1928.
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20
Freddie Mercury
Queen's lead singer, voted 58th in the BBC's 2002 «100 Greatest Britons» poll.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 20… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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21
Paul McCartney
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.
Is something missing?
Comments (15)
Elizabeth I in the top 10, absolutely deserved.
Cromwell in the top 10 is controversial, ask anyone in Ireland.
Exactly, a 'great Briton' with that history in Drogheda and Wexford...
Brunel nearly winning shows how much people love the engineering story.
Shakespeare only #5, the greatest writer in history.
Darwin at #4, should be #1.
The BBC ran this in 2002, the result would be very different now.
Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouts, nice to see him.
Captain Cook's legacy is complicated too.
Newton below Diana says everything about that moment in 2002.
John Lennon above Isaac Newton? Interesting choices lol
Diana at #3 says a lot about 2002.
Brunel at #2 in the BBC poll still amazes me, the Clifton Suspension Bridge though!
Freddie Mercury was in the poll too, around #58. Should be higher!
Churchill at #1, no surprise.