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 95 of 3,305 notable people

0015 ANTHROPOLOGIST

James George Frazer

1854 - 1941

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0019 CHEMIST

William Ramsay

1852 - 1916

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0131 SERIAL KILLER

Thomas Neill Cream

1850 - 1892

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0141 ANTHROPOLOGIST

William Mitchell Ramsay

1851 - 1939

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0242 ENGINEER

Dugald Clerk

1854 - 1932

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0281 MATHEMATICIAN

Andrew Forsyth

1858 - 1942

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0332 PAINTER

Alexander Mann

1853 - 1908

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0446 PHILOSOPHER

John Henry Muirhead

1855 - 1940

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0486 PAINTER

William Ayerst Ingram

1855 - 1913

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0517 PHILOLOGIST

James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

1857 - 1923

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0529 LITERARY

W. P. Ker

1855 - 1923

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0563 WRITER

Margaret Todd (doctor)

1859 - 1918

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0565 FOOTBALL

Alexander Watson Hutton

1853 - 1936

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0600 LINGUIST

Elias John Wilkinson Gibb

1857 - 1901

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0635 ARCHITECT

George Lennox Watson

1851 - 1904

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0650 PAINTER

Thomas Corsan Morton

1859 - 1928

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0681 BASEBALL

Jim McCormick (pitcher)

1856 - 1918

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0682 CHEMIST

James Ballantyne Hannay

1855 - 1931

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0697 ILLUSTRATOR

E. Gertrude Thomson

1850 - 1929

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0723 FOOTBALL

Billy MacKinnon

1852 - 1942

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0732 PAINTER

Dugald Sutherland MacColl

1859 - 1948

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0799 PHYSICIST

William Sutherland (physicist)

1859 - 1911

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0820 FOOTBALL

George Ramsay

1855 - 1935

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0871 POLITICIAN

Robert Philp

1851 - 1922

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0905 PAINTER

James Nairn

1859 - 1904

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0926 PAINTER

Robert McGowan Coventry

1855 - 1914

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0945 ARCHITECT

John James Burnet

1857 - 1938

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1026 POLITICIAN

Charles Dickson, Lord Dickson

1850 - 1922

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1028 WRITER

Edmund Noble

1853 - 1937

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1084 MISSIONARY

Frederick Stanley Arnot

1858 - 1914

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1125 CHEMIST

John Stewart MacArthur

1857 - 1920

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1137 POLITICIAN

Samuel Chapman (British politician)

1859 - 1947

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1147 PAINTER

William Kennedy (painter)

1859 - 1918

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1258 POLITICIAN

John Bruce Glasier

1859 - 1920

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1267 JOURNALIST

Hector C. Macpherson

1851 - 1924

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1360 SECRET SERVICE AGENT

William Craig (Secret Service)

1855 - 1902

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1361 PHYSICIAN

Robert William Philip

1857 - 1939

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1374 HISTORIAN

Alexander Sutherland (educator)

1852 - 1902

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1411 PAINTER

Robert Macaulay Stevenson

1854 - 1952

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1450 CHURCH

John Brownlie (hymnist)

1857 - 1925

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1484 LAWYER

Lawrence Maxwell Jr.

1853 - 1927

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1609 PUBLISHER

William de Bois Maclaren

1856 - 1921

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1641 BUSINESS

George Brookman

1850 - 1927

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1649 TEACHER

David Cossgrove

1852 - 1920

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1697 SURGEON

John Macintyre

1857 - 1928

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1748 BIOGRAPHER

John Herkless

1855 - 1920

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1801 BUSINESS

Daniel Macaulay Stevenson

1851 - 1944

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1912 SCULPTOR

William Kellock Brown

1856 - 1934

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1931 SONGWRITER

Felix McGlennon

1856 - 1943

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1958 WRITER

Dorothea Gérard

1855 - 1915

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1965 BIOGRAPHER

John Wellwood

1853 - 1919

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2008 FOOTBALL

Angus MacKinnon

1850 - 1880

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2012 POLITICIAN

Thomas Lorimer Corbett

1854 - 1910

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2084 ARCHITECT

John Leck Bruce

1850 - 1921

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2102 NATURALIST

Thomas Steel

1858 - 1925

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2151 ENGINEER

Peter Seton Hay

1852 - 1907

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2194 EXPLORER

David Ferguson (geologist)

1857 - 1936

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2203 FOOTBALL

Andrew Holm

Born 1859

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2209 POLITICIAN

Thomas Hyland Smeaton

1857 - 1927

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2228 FOOTBALL

Fergus Suter

1857 - 1916

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2288 RUGBY

Thomas Chalmers (rugby)

1850 - 1926

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2334 PRIEST

John Maguire (archbishop of Glasgow)

1851 - 1920

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2407 PRIEST

Ean Campbell

1856 - 1921

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2432 POLITICIAN

Edward Riley (Australian politician)

1859 - 1943

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2452 PLAYER

William Cross (rugby union)

1851 - 1890

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2546 PLAYER

George Buchanan McClure

1851 - 1888

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2577 SPORT

William Davie Brown

1852 - 1876

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2646 CRICKET

James Walker (sportsman)

1859 - 1923

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2664 SPORT

William Hamilton Kidston

1852 - 1929

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2680 PLAYER

John Kennedy Todd

1852 - 1925

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2745 SPORT

Gilbert Heron

1854 - 1876

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2749 ENGINEER

William P. Reid

1854 - 1932

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2776 OPHTHALMOLOGIST

Andrew Maitland Ramsay

1859 - 1946

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2794 PLAYER

Henry William Allan (rugby union)

1850 - 1926

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2807 CRICKET

James Stewart Carrick

1855 - 1923

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2823 FOOTBALL

James Richmond (footballer, born 1858)

1858 - 1898

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2839 RUGBY

David Watson (rugby union)

1854 - 1906

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2867 CRICKET

George Ewing (cricketer)

1851 - 1930

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2905 RUGBY

John Junor (rugby union)

1855 - 1920

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2908 MAYOR

George Watson (mayor)

1852 - 1923

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2912 ASTRONOMER

Thomas King (astronomer)

1858 - 1916

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2961 PERFORMER

Jennie Quigley

1850 - 1936

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2982 ACTIVIST

Isabella Bream Pearce

1859 - 1929

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3000 POLITICIAN

John Bartholomew (Australian politician)

1858 - 1928

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3032 ENGINEER

James C. Potter

1855 - 1925

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3050 RUGBY

John Alexander Neilson

1858 - 1915

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3056 POLITICIAN

David Hunter (Queensland politician)

1858 - 1927

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3093 PLAYER

Henry Melville Napier

1854 - 1940

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3108 FOOTBALL

Jock Inglis

1859 - 1920

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3162 PLAYER

Robert Campbell MacKenzie

1856 - 1945

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3167 BUSINESS

Matthew Walker Montgomery

1859 - 1933

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3184 PLAYER

William Andrew Walls

1859 - 1936

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3191 FOOTBALL

John Gow (footballer, born 1859)

Born 1859

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3202 RUGBY

John Blair Brown

1856 - 1904

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3248 RUGBY

Stewart Henry Smith

1855 - 1896

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