53.9542° N, 1.0834° W

YORK

Most Famous People Born in York, United Kingdom

Notable people
713
Peak decade
1960s
Median birth year
1924
Most distinctive
Novelist 2.8×

A cathedral city whose deep bench reads like a thirteen-century ledger, from Alcuin onward: a thick Priest cohort sitting beside an unusually literary Novelist and Mathematician showing, with a Cricket bench that over-indexes in the way only a certain kind of English county town manages. It is the sort of place where the medieval and the Victorian lecture hall somehow share the same page.

Through the Decades

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

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1960s with 59 notable births.

What York Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Football is York's biggest profession — 12% of all notables (89).

York over-indexes on novelist2.8× the global rate.

York under-produces singer — only 0.6× the global rate.

  1. Football89
  2. Politician63
  3. Actor46
  4. Player37
  5. Writer30
  6. Cricket22
  7. Priest20
  8. Painter18
  1. Novelist82.8×
  2. Player372.7×
  3. Botanist72.4×
  4. Cricket222.4×
  5. Mathematician82.3×
  6. Officer102.1×
  7. Diplomat81.9×
  8. Priest201.9×
  1. Singer90.6×

Profession Mix Over Time

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

15001550160016501700175018001850190019502000
  • Sports
  • Politics & Law
  • Writing
  • Science
  • Film & TV
  • Art & Design
  • Other
All713
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Showing 17 of 713 notable people

0036 OFFICER

Christopher Cradock

1862 - 1914

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0039 ORIENTALIST

Reynold A. Nicholson

1868 - 1945

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0050 ASTRONOMER

Alfred Fowler

1868 - 1940

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0104 ACTOR

Eille Norwood

1861 - 1948

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0195 WRITER

Margaret Barber

1869 - 1901

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0207 POLITICIAN

Walter Welford

1868 - 1952

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0229 DIPLOMAT

Harold Stuart

1860 - 1923

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0255 PHOTOGRAPHER

William Nicholson Jennings

1860 - 1946

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0299 CURATOR

Charles Aitken

1869 - 1936

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0329 TEACHER

Edith Aitken

1861 - 1940

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0363 NAVY

Richard Peirse (Royal Navy officer)

1860 - 1940

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0424 PHYSIOLOGIST

Marion Bidder

1862 - 1932

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0457 JOURNALIST

Alfred Rayney Waller

1867 - 1922

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0482 CARTOONIST

Victor Gillam

1867 - 1920

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0557 WRITER

Herbert Flowerdew

1866 - 1917

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0591 POLITICIAN

Constance Hamilton

1862 - 1945

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0648 POLITICIAN

Charles Howroyd

1867 - 1917

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