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 42 of 3,305 notable people

0061 MERCHANT

Thomas Lipton

1848 - 1931

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0133 AUTHOR

William Wilson Hunter

1840 - 1900

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0181 WRITER

William Black (novelist)

1841 - 1898

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0261 WRITER

Robert Barr (writer)

1849 - 1912

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0295 PAINTER

Robert Walker Macbeth

1848 - 1910

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0315 JOCKEY

George "Bay" Middleton

1846 - 1892

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0403 BOTANIST

Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major

1843 - 1923

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0520 PHILOSOPHER

John Watson (philosopher)

1847 - 1939

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0581 MISSIONARY

Thomas Barclay (missionary)

1849 - 1935

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0598 PAINTER

David Murray (painter)

1849 - 1933

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0827 POLITICIAN

Thomas Buchanan (Liberal politician)

1846 - 1911

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0859 ILLUSTRATOR

John Nugent Fitch

1840 - 1927

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0981 LEPIDOPTERIST

Thomas Algernon Chapman

1842 - 1921

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1276 CHEMIST

John Millar Thomson

1849 - 1933

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1421 POET

Mary Hannay Foott

1846 - 1918

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1452 COLLECTOR

George McCulloch (mine owner)

1848 - 1907

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1590 ARTIST

Thomas McEwan (painter)

1846 - 1914

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1645 PAINTER

James Lawton Wingate

1846 - 1924

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1811 STOCKBROKER

Walter Owen

1844 - 1953

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1822 PAINTER

Colin Hunter

1841 - 1904

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1853 POLITICIAN

David Creighton

1843 - 1917

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2165 FOOTBALL

Adam Bogle

1848 - 1915

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2207 POLITICIAN

Robert Harper (Australian politician)

1842 - 1919

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2276 POET

John Kirkwood Leys

1847 - 1909

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2278 POLITICIAN

Marshall Campbell

1848 - 1917

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2281 MILITAR

John Thompson (Medal of Honor)

Born 1842

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2315 ENTREPRENEUR

Alexander Arthur

1846 - 1912

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2351 ACTIVIST

Meredith Jemima Brown

1845 - 1908

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2392 PLAYER

John Arthur (rugby union)

1848 - 1921

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2465 INVENTOR

A. W. Dobbie

1843 - 1912

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2511 CAMPAIGN

Christian Guthrie Wright

1844 - 1907

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2581 POLITICIAN

Murray Hall (politician)

1841 - 1901

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2600 JUDGE

James Sibree Anderson

1841 - 1927

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2730 POLITICIAN

William Burns Smith

1844 - 1917

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2758 PLAYER

Charles Chalmers Bryce

1848 - 1895

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2760 POLITICIAN

Thomas Macdonald-Paterson

1844 - 1906

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2885 ENGINEER

James Stedman Dixon

1845 - 1911

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2933 BUSINESS

John Ross (businessman)

1840 - 1876

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2960 MEDICAL

John W. Crawford

Born 1846

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3058 POLITICIAN

Robert Barbour (Victorian politician)

1845 - 1914

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3292 POLITICIAN

William Maxwell (co-operator)

1841 - 1929

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3305 MERCHANT

James Macfarlane

1844 - 1914

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