List of people from the Isle of Wight

This is a list of notable people born in or strongly associated with the Isle of Wight, alphabetically within categories.

Born on the Isle of Wight

Dr Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School and immortalised in Tom Brown's Schooldays, born in Cowes
King Arwald, last pagan king in England and last king of the Isle of Wight, died 686
Lee Bradbury, ex professional footballer, currently manager of Havant and Waterlooville, born in Cowes
Danny Briggs, Hampshire and England cricketer
Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères, born in St Helens
Craig Douglas (Terry Perkins) pop singer, born 1941 in Newport, topped the charts in 1959 with Only Sixteen
Arthur Percy Morris Fleming, born 1881 in Newport, electrical engineer and pioneer in the development of radio and submarine detection
Thomas Fleming, judge and Lord Chief Justice
Uffa Fox, yacht designer
Vivian Fuchs, Antarctic explorer
Marius Goring, born Newport
Maxwell Gray (Mary Gleed Tuttiett), novelist
Lauran Hibberd Slacker-pop singer, born in Newport
Sheila Hancock, actress, born in Blackgang
Robert Hooke, scientist, born in Freshwater
Jeremy Irons, actor, born in Cowes and raised in St Helens
Phill Jupitus, comedian, born in Newport
Mark King, born in Gurnard nr. Cowes, bass player and vocalist in pop/funk band Level 42
Suri Krishnamma, film director and writer, born in Shanklin
Cliff Michelmore, television presenter and producer born in Cowes
Albert Midlane, failed ironmonger, poet and hymn-writer was born in Newport
Anthony Minghella, film director; born in Ryde; his parents run the Minghella's Ice Cream company on the Island; his film The English Patient includes footage of Shanklin Pier; on accepting his Best Picture Oscar, he said, "This is a great day for the Isle of Wight!"
Loretta Minghella, charity executive and solicitor
Brian Murphy, actor, born in Ventnor
Noel Odell, geologist and mountaineer, born in St Lawrence
Queen Osburga, daughter of Oslac, Chief Butler of England and mother of King Alfred the Great
Adam Pacitti, Leader of Cultaholic, born in Ryde
Arthur Cecil Pigou, economist and proponent of pigouvian taxes, born in Ryde
Albert Pollard, historian, born in Ryde
Horace Rawlins, golfer, winner of the first U.S. Open in 1895
Jake Scrimshaw, professional footballer
Henry Sewell, first Prime Minister of New Zealand, born on the island in 1807 and lived there until emigrating to New Zealand at the age of 45
Kelly Sotherton, heptathlete, born in Newport
Polly Toynbee, journalist, born at Yafford^[1]
George Westmore, founder of Hollywood's first make-up department, born 1879 in Newport. His son Bud Westmore is credited as make-up artist on over 450 movies
Harry Frederick Whitchurch V.C., born in Sandown
Eric Charles Twelves Wilson V.C., born in Sandown in 1912

Raised on the Isle of Wight

E. Power Biggs, concert organist
Frank Cadogan Cowper, artist, raised at Lisle Court, Wootton
Uffa Fox, raised in Cowes
William Hutt, MP and colonial administrator, educated in Ryde
George, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, at St. Lawrence Hall, Ventnor
Donna Langley, film executive and chairwoman of Universal Pictures, raised on the island.
Fidelis Morgan, actress and writer, raised in Bonchurch
Nicholas Dingley alias Razzle, drummer for Hanoi Rocks, raised in Binstead
Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet, raised in East Dene, Bonchurch
Bear Grylls, climber, youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest and live; survival expert; host of Man vs. Wild

Lived on the Isle of Wight

Sam Browne, soldier, retired to Ryde
Master Gunner Daniel Cambridge VC (later Yeoman of the Guard), stationed at Redoubt Battery, Fort Redoubt, Freshwater Bay, until 1871 (Census)
Julia Margaret Cameron, photographer, lived in Freshwater Bay
Lewis Carroll, author, lived at Sandown while working on Alice in Wonderland
Winston Churchill, visited Ventnor for extended periods throughout his life
Helen Clare, soprano singer
Sir Christopher Cockerell, inventor of the hovercraft, spent two years in East Cowes working on his prototypes
E. E. Cowper, novelist, lived at Lisle Court, Wootton
Frank Cowper, yachtsman and author; designed and lived at Lisle Court, Wootton
Charles Darwin, naturalist, lived for a period in 1867 in the Kings Head Hotel in Sandown
Charles Dickens, author, lived in Bonchurch for 3 months in 1849
King Charles I, held prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle for a year
Ken Dodd, comedian, had a holiday home at Freshwater Bay
Jack Douglas, actor from a series of Carry On films
Trevor Duncan, composer (known for the Dr Finlay's Casebook theme), lived in Bonchurch
King Ethelred the Unready, fled to the Isle of Wight in 1012 from the Danes under Sweyn Forkbeard
Uffa Fox, yacht designer, lived in Puckaster
David Gascoyne, 20th-century surrealist poet
Pamela Green, infamous nude model of the 1950s and 1960s, lived in Yarmouth with the dambuster Douglas Webb, DFM
King Harold II and his brother Tostig Godwinson, have estates at Kern and Nunwell respectively
Jet Harris, musician with The Shadows
Peter de Heyno, defended the Carisbrooke Castle 1377 against French–Castilian troops
Robyn Hitchcock, musician, lived in Yarmouth from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, and cited it in many of his works of the period
John Oliver Hobbes (Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie), novelist, lived part-time in Steephill, 1900–1906
Geoffrey Hughes, actor, lived in Newport
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Samuel Raymond Jarvis died at his home, Cove Cottage in Ventnor, in 1868
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, lived at St. Lawrence Hall, Ventnor
John Keats, poet, moved to the island in 1814; areas of Shanklin are named after him
Kenneth Kendall, journalist and TV presenter, lived in Cowes where his partner owned an art gallery
Charles Kingsley, spent childhood there
Marek Larwood, actor and comedian
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, spent the summer in Shanklin in 1868
Guglielmo Marconi did radio experiments in Alum Bay and Niton around 1900
Karl Marx, lodged in Ryde in the 1870s and in Ventnor in the 1880s
John Milne, inventor of the horizontal pendulum seismograph, retired from the Japanese Imperial College of Engineering in Shide, Isle of Wight
David Niven, actor, lived in Bembridge as a child
Isaac Pitman, invented a shorthand system, lived for a time in Sandown
J.B. Priestley, author, playwright and broadcaster, lived at Brook for over a decade from 1948
John Morgan Richards, cigarette and patent medicine entrepreneur, lived in Steephill, 1903–1918
Legh Richmond, preacher and writer of the religious tract The Dairyman's Daughter, curate for Yaverland and Brading
Frederick Riddle, viola player, died in Newport
John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, Secretary of State for War in the years leading up to the First World War; MP and Justice of the Peace for the Isle of Wight
Michael Sheard, actor, lived in Ryde
Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet, lived in Bonchurch
Shaw Taylor, television presenter, known for the catchphrase "keep 'em peeled", lived in Totland
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet, lived in Farringford in Freshwater Bay
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, rented a house in Seaview
Edward Upward, long-lived author and part of the Auden Group in the 1930s, lived in Sandown from 1961 to 2004
Queen Victoria, had one of her residences at Osborne House in East Cowes
Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb, lived and worked in Cowes
Douglas Webb, DFM air gunner with 617 Squadron on the Dambusters raid; partner of the infamous nude model Pamela Green; lived in Yarmouth

Currently resident

Raymond Allen, television scriptwriter best known for Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, born and lives in Ryde
Keegan Brown, professional darts player
Patrick Buckland, CEO of Stainless Games, creator of Carmageddon
Hester Chambers, founding member of Wet Leg
Sarah Close, singer-songwriter and YouTuber, born and lives on the island
Melvyn Hayes, actor, lives in Ryde
David Icke, conspiracy theorist, lives in Ryde
Mark King, Level 42 musician
Dame Ellen MacArthur, sailor, based in Cowes
The Osbourne family have a holiday home in Yaverland
Dick Taylor, founding member of The Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things
Rhian Teasdale, founding member of Wet Leg
Alan Titchmarsh, author and TV presenter
M J Trow, author and teacher