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 18 of 713 notable people

0049 ARCHITECT

Alister MacKenzie

1870 - 1934

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0056 SOCIOLOGIST

Seebohm Rowntree

1871 - 1954

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0109 JOURNALIST

H. N. Brailsford

1873 - 1958

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0133 BOTANIST

Isaac Henry Burkill

1870 - 1965

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0169 ARCHITECT

Arthur Penty

1875 - 1937

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0188 PHYSICIST

Harold A. Wilson (physicist)

1874 - 1964

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0244 POLITICIAN

Samuel S. Lewis

1874 - 1959

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0372 WRITER

Frank H. Shaw

1878 - 1960

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0385 BASEBALL

Harry Smith (1900s catcher)

1874 - 1933

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0491 POLITICIAN

Joseph Hannan

1873 - 1943

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0494 GEOLOGIST

William Alvara Humphrey

1876 - 1945

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0534 EXPLORER

Rupert England

1878 - 1942

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0544 FOOTBALL

Ted Staniland

1874 - 1917

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0590 BOOKMAKER

Bella Thomasson

1874 - 1959

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0605 FOOTBALL

Ben Prosser

1878 - 1936

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0615 CRICKET

Harry Wilson (Worcestershire cricketer)

1873 - 1906

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0660 CRICKET

Frank Wade (cricketer)

1871 - 1940

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0711 STAGE

Ernest Lawford

1870 - 1940

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