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 16 of 713 notable people

0137 COMPOSER

R. O. Morris

1886 - 1948

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0159 PARAMEDIC

W. F. Harvey

1885 - 1937

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0216 POLITICIAN

Ernest Greenwood

1884 - 1955

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0246 ACTOR

Barnett Parker

1886 - 1941

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0262 PAINTER

Will Ashton

1881 - 1963

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0292 SKATER

T. D. Richardson

1887 - 1971

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0343 NOVELIST

J. E. Harold Terry

1885 - 1939

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0349 ENGINEER

Sydney Carlin (RAF officer)

1889 - 1941

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0507 BASEBALL

Walter Carlisle

1881 - 1945

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0527 PAINTER

Dorothy A. Cadman

Born 1885

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0625 CRICKET

Arthur W. Robinson

Born 1880

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0642 FOOTBALL

Nick Hendry

1887 - 1949

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0681 RESEARCH

Eric Miller (industrialist)

1882 - 1958

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0682 FOOTBALL

Fred Hargraves

1884 - 1960

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0704 POLITICIAN

James Reginald Colley

1880 - 1968

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0710 PLAYER

Neville Willford

1882 - 1947

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