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.
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 football — 3.8× the global rate.
Glasgow under-produces writer — only 0.6× the global rate.
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.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1870s Clear ×
Donald Meek
1878 - 1946
John Maclean (Scottish socialist)
1879 - 1923
Muirhead Bone
1876 - 1953
William Reid Dick
1879 - 1961
Ivan Simpson
1875 - 1951
Cecilia Loftus
1876 - 1943
Catherine Carswell
1879 - 1946
James Irvine (chemist)
1877 - 1952
Richard Gavin Reid
1879 - 1980
Robert Smyth McColl
1876 - 1958
Hugh S. Roberton
1874 - 1952
John Maxwell (producer)
1879 - 1940
Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker
1879 - 1952
Billie Ritchie
1878 - 1921
Hugh Ramsay
1877 - 1906
Margaret Turnbull (screenwriter)
1872 - 1942
John Aspin
1872 - 1960
Albert Neuhaus
1873 - 1948
John Campbell (footballer, born 1871)
1871 - 1947
Katharine Cameron
1874 - 1965
George Morrell (football manager)
1872 - 1915
John Gordon Lorimer (civil servant)
1870 - 1914
John Charteris
1877 - 1946
George Dallas (Labour politician)
1878 - 1961
William Weir, 1st Viscount Weir
1877 - 1959
Malcolm McVean
1871 - 1907
William Alexander (Glasgow MP)
1874 - 1954
James Bunten
1875 - 1935
Helen Crawfurd
1877 - 1954
Hew Fraser
1877 - 1938
John Downes (sailor)
1870 - 1943
William Power (Scottish politician)
1873 - 1951
Annie French
1872 - 1965
R. H. Burnside
1870 - 1952
James Harper-Orr
1878 - 1956
Harvey Pirie
1878 - 1965
Nellie Wallace
1870 - 1948
William Lambie
Born 1873
Mike Hopkins (baseball)
1872 - 1952
Allan Martin (footballer)
1873 - 1906
Jack Peddie
1876 - 1928
John Archibald Fairlie
1872 - 1947
Robert Eadie
1877 - 1954
John Burt (field hockey)
1877 - 1935
Queenie Vassar
1870 - 1960
Helen Paxton Brown
1876 - 1956
Robert Young (trade unionist)
1872 - 1957
James Gray (mathematician)
1876 - 1934
John Ernest Buttery Hotson
1877 - 1944
James Hoey Craigie
1870 - 1930
William Young (VC)
1876 - 1916
David McLaren (politician)
1872 - 1939
Helen Shaw (Unionist politician)
1879 - 1964
Joe McQue
1870 - 1934
James Greenlees
1878 - 1951
George Sutherland (footballer)
1876 - 1956
Dave Gardner (footballer)
1873 - 1931
Barney Battles Sr.
1875 - 1905
Edward Reid
1871 - 1938
Albert Hodge
1875 - 1918
John Campbell (footballer, born 1877)
1877 - 1919
Davidson Berry
Born 1875
Archibald Howie (politician)
1879 - 1943
Jim McKenzie (footballer)
1877 - 1945
Carrick Hey Robertson
1879 - 1963
Alan Maxwell
1870 - 1951
Lila Clunas
1875 - 1968
John Paul (footballer)
Born 1873
John Allan (footballer, born 1872)
Born 1872
James Mitchell-Baker
1878 - 1956
John Dods (rugby union)
1875 - 1915
Roberta Jull
1872 - 1961
Robert Neil
1875 - 1913
Peter Turner (Scottish footballer)
1876 - 1970
Kenneth Anderson (footballer)
1875 - 1900
George A.W. Lamond
1878 - 1918
Bart Dinsmore
1879 - 1970
Henry McPetrie
1877 - 1937
John Divers (footballer, born 1873)
Born 1873
James Connachan
Born 1874
William Rintoul
1870 - 1936
William Mathieson
Born 1870
Jimmy Raeside
1879 - 1946
Eliza Gordon
1877 - 1938
Thomas Beattie Roberton
1879 - 1936
David Stewart (footballer, born 1874)
Born 1874
Herbert Stephen Henderson
1870 - 1942
John Boag (footballer, born 1874)
1874 - 1954
Jasper McLuckie
1878 - 1924
Paddy Logan (footballer)
1877 - 1957
Gladstone Hamilton
1879 - 1961
Bill Sawers
1871 - 1960
Duncan McLean (footballer, born 1874)
1874 - 1952
Peter Grant (footballer, born 1879)
1879 - 1937
Joseph Adair
1877 - 1960
John Stewart Napier
Born 1871
Tom Hutchinson (Scottish footballer)
1872 - 1933
John Lindsay (Western Australian politician)
1876 - 1957
William Kennedy Gibson
1876 - 1949
Jimmy McGeachan
1871 - 1903
Margaret Skirving Gibb
1877 - 1954
Albert Wilson (politician)
Born 1878
John Dykes (rugby union)
1877 - 1955
James Lamont (footballer)
Born 1875
Samuel Woods (footballer)
Born 1871
Bob Brown (footballer, born 1870)
Born 1870
Billy Baird (footballer)
Born 1876
William McNab (footballer)
Born 1870
Duncan Ronaldson
1879 - 1947
Jimmy McLachlan
Born 1870
Hugh Butler (footballer)
Born 1875
Joe Leiper
Born 1873
Percy Hislop
1870 - 1929
William Stewart (footballer, born 1876)
Born 1876
Maggie McIver
1879 - 1958
Harry Johnston (footballer, born 1871)
1871 - 1936
Charles Mochan
1879 - 1906
Ruth Pirret
Born 1874
James Woodburn
1870 - 1903
Andrew Hamilton (footballer, born 1874)
1874 - 1929
Lawrence Harvey (rugby union)
1876 - 1953
Horatio Ballantyne
1871 - 1956