55.8610° N, 4.2512° W

GLASGOW

Most Famous People Born in Glasgow, United Kingdom

Notable people
3,305
Peak decade
1950s
Median birth year
1943
Most distinctive
Football 3.8×

A football city, almost unhealthily so. More than forty per cent of Glasgow's notables are footballers — Old Firm shaped a city's entire celebrity economy — and the next bench down is the actors and singers of a Scottish stage tradition that has produced James McAvoy, Robbie Coltrane, and Mark Knopfler. The 19th-century Clyde shipbuilding boom is the peak that most of the rest of the bench grew out of, and there is also an unusually deep comedy lineage from the working men's clubs that the strict statistical panel doesn't capture but that gave the world Billy Connolly.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Glasgow during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 337 notable births.

What Glasgow Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Football is Glasgow's biggest profession — 42% of all notables (1,378).

Glasgow over-indexes on football3.8× the global rate.

Glasgow under-produces writer — only 0.6× the global rate.

  1. Football1,378
  2. Politician239
  3. Actor203
  4. Player95
  5. Singer72
  6. Painter68
  7. Writer63
  8. Music48
  1. Football1,3783.8×
  1. Writer630.6×
  2. Politician2390.6×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Glasgow's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

160016501700175018001850190019502000
  • Sports
  • Politics & Law
  • Film & TV
  • Writing
  • Science
  • Music
  • Other
All3,305
Sort By

Showing 41 of 3,305 notable people

0132 PAINTER

William Simpson (artist)

1823 - 1899

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0275 PHILOSOPHER

James Hutchison Stirling

1820 - 1909

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0357 PHOTOGRAPHER

Thomas Annan

1829 - 1887

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0729 CLERGY

Alexander Maclaren

1826 - 1910

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0748 ARTIST

Alexander Hay Ritchie

1822 - 1895

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0750 ENGINEER

John Elder (shipbuilder)

1824 - 1869

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0813 POLITICIAN

Thomas Haughey

1826 - 1869

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0838 BOTANIST

Peter Barr (nurseryman)

1826 - 1909

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0963 POLITICIAN

John G. Campbell

1827 - 1903

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1007 PRIEST

John Burdon (bishop)

1826 - 1907

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1261 PRESBYTER

Robert Rainy

1826 - 1906

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1446 BROTHER

Isabella Elder

1828 - 1905

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1470 BUSINESS

Peter Donahue (businessman)

1822 - 1885

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1526 POLITICIAN

William Milne (politician)

1822 - 1895

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1572 PHYSICIST

Katherine Clerk Maxwell

1824 - 1886

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1751 PAINTER

James Fairman

1826 - 1904

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1796 ARCHITECT

Thomas Turnbull

1824 - 1907

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1860 POLITICIAN

John Simpson Knox

1828 - 1897

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1923 PUBLISHER

George Robertson (bookseller)

1825 - 1898

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1968 BOTANIST

Robert Brown (New Zealand botanist)

1820 - 1906

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2023 PHOTOGRAPHER

John Nicol Crombie

1827 - 1878

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2081 POLITICIAN

William Durie Lyon

1825 - 1893

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2099 PHOTOGRAPHER

Daniel Marquis

1829 - 1879

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2312 MERCHANT

John Buttery

1829 - 1912

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2331 CHEMIST

Stevenson Macadam

1829 - 1901

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2433 GALLANTRY

Andrew Cathcart Bogle

1829 - 1890

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2434 POLITICIAN

John Harper (mayor)

1825 - 1874

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2504 MILITAR

George Rodgers (VC)

1829 - 1870

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2590 POLITICIAN

Robert Wallace (Canadian politician)

1820 - 1899

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2596 JOURNALIST

Thomas Gardiner (publisher)

1826 - 1899

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2647 POLITICIAN

Robert Adam Lyon

1829 - 1901

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2709 DAUGHTER

Beatrice Clugston

1827 - 1888

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2713 POLITICIAN

John Sinclair (mayor)

1827 - 1906

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2784 LAWYER

Robert Hervey

1820 - 1903

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2786 ENGINEER

James Samuel

1824 - 1874

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2821 POLITICIAN

Robert Blackburn (politician)

1828 - 1894

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2837 MISSING

James Miller (VC 1857)

1820 - 1892

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3067 INDUSTRIALIST

David Chalmers (Scottish industrialist)

1820 - 1899

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3107 POLITICIAN

John MacFarlane (Queensland politician)

1823 - 1880

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3129 POLITICIAN

John MacFarlane (Ipswich)

1829 - 1894

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3285 POLITICIAN

James Turner (Canadian politician)

1826 - 1889

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