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100 Greatest Britons

In 2002, the BBC conducted a poll to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time. The poll resulted in some unlikely canditates including Guy Fawkes, Aleister Crowley, Boy George and Robbie Williams. It also included two living Irish nationals (Bono and Bob Geldof) and James Connolly the Irish nationalist who was executed by the British in 1916. The resulting series, "Great Britons", included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further opportunities to vote after each programme. It concluded with a debate. The results were as follows:

  1. Sir Winston Churchill
  2. Isambard Kingdom Brunel
  3. Diana, Princess of Wales
  4. Charles Darwin
  5. William Shakespeare
  6. Sir Isaac Newton
  7. Elizabeth I of England
  8. John Lennon
  9. Horatio Nelson
  10. Oliver Cromwell
  11. Ernest Shackleton
  12. Captain James Cook
  13. Robert Baden-Powell
  14. King Alfred the Great
  15. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
  16. Margaret Thatcher (Baroness Thatcher)
  17. Michael Crawford
  18. Queen Victoria
  19. Sir Paul McCartney
  20. Sir Alexander Fleming
  21. Alan Turing
  22. Michael Faraday
  23. Owain Glyndwr
  24. Queen Elizabeth II
  25. Professor Stephen Hawking
  26. William Tyndale
  27. Emmeline Pankhurst
  28. William Wilberforce
  29. David Bowie
  30. Guy Fawkes
  31. Leonard Cheshire (Baron Cheshire of Woodall)
  32. Eric Morecambe
  33. David Beckham
  34. Thomas Paine
  35. Boudicca
  36. Sir Steve Redgrave
  37. Sir Thomas More
  38. William Blake
  39. John Harrison
  40. King Henry VIII
  41. Charles Dickens
  42. Sir Frank Whittle
  43. John Peel
  44. John Logie Baird
  45. Aneurin Bevan
  46. Boy George
  47. Sir Douglas Bader
  48. William Wallace
  49. Sir Francis Drake
  50. John Wesley
  51. King Arthur
  52. Florence Nightingale
  53. T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
  54. Sir Robert Falcon Scott
  55. Enoch Powell
  56. Sir Cliff Richard
  57. Sir Alexander Graham Bell
  58. Freddie Mercury
  59. Dame Julie Andrews
  60. Edward Elgar
  61. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
  62. George Harrison
  63. Sir David Attenborough
  64. James Connolly
  65. George Stephenson
  66. Sir Charles Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin)
  67. Tony Blair
  68. William Caxton
  69. Bobby Moore
  70. Jane Austen
  71. William Booth
  72. King Henry V
  73. Aleister Crowley
  74. King Robert the Bruce
  75. Bob Geldof
  76. The Unknown Warrior
  77. Robbie Williams
  78. Edward Jenner
  79. David Lloyd George (1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor)
  80. Charles Babbage
  81. Geoffrey Chaucer
  82. King Richard III
  83. J.K. Rowling
  84. James Watt
  85. Sir Richard Branson
  86. Bono
  87. John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
  88. Field Marshal Montgomery
  89. Donald Campbell
  90. King Henry II
  91. James Clerk Maxwell
  92. J.R.R. Tolkien
  93. Sir Walter Raleigh
  94. King Edward I
  95. Sir Barnes Wallis
  96. Richard Burton
  97. Tony Benn
  98. David Livingstone
  99. Professor Tim Berners-Lee
  100. Marie Stopes

see also: 100 Worst Britons

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