Famous people from Norwich

• Michael Andrews (artist) (1928-1995)
• Elizabeth Bentley 1767-1839.Authoress wrote ” Tales for Children in Verse”.Lived at 45 St St. Stephen’s Square.
• George Borrow (1803–1881), writer and traveller. In his youth Borrow was resident at Willow Lane. He attended the Norwich King Edward school. Borrow recollects his youth in the city and conversations with the philologist and translator of German Romantic literature, William Taylor in his semi-autobiographical novel Lavengro.
• Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682). medical doctor, polymath scholar, encyclopedist and philosopher with interests in Biblical scholarship and the esoteric. The stylistic purity and stupendous learning displayed in Browne’s varied prose in the spheres of religion, science and art are minor classics of World literature.
• Edith Cavell (1865–1915) was born in Swardeston, 4 miles south of Norwich. She was a World War I nurse who was executed by firing squad by the Germans for helping allied prisoners escape in violation of military law. She is buried on Life’s Green, on the east side of Norwich Cathedral.
  
• John Crome and Joseph Stannard, along with John Sell Cotman, established the first art movement outside of London. The Norwich school of painters were influenced by the achievements of Dutch landscape painting and the beauty of the rural hinterland surrounding Norwich.
• William Crotch (1775–1847). Composer, artist and teacher. Norwich’s Mozart. He gave daily public organ recitals aged two and a half. Crotch played God Save the King before the King aged three. He had performed at every major town in England and Scotland by the age of seven. Crotch became Organist of Christ Church, Oxford and for fifty years he was Oxford‘s Professor of Music. Unlike Mozart, however, his precocious musical talents failed to mature to genius.
• Pablo Fanque (1796–1871). The first Black Circus Proprietor in Britain was born in the city.
• Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845). The prison reformer and leading Quaker was born in Gurney Court in Magdalen Street and was one of several philanthropists associated with the city. Her portrait is upon the Series E (2005) Bank of England £5 note.
• Joseph John Gurney (1788–1847) was a banker and philanthropist who worked with his sister Elizabeth Fry (see above) in prison reform. He was also active in the movement to abolish the slave trade and a member of the temperance movement.
• Robert William Bilton Hornby (1821–1884) was a noted local antiquarian, priest and lord of the manor from the City of York. He was ordained a deacon at Norwich in 1844.
• Julian of Norwich. Medieval Christian mystic and contemporary of Chaucer. Julian is the author of The revelations of Divine Love the first book written by a woman in the English language. Julian’s writings are well-represented by the scholarly website www.umilta.net.
• Robert Kett. Norwich’s very own Robin Hood or Wat Tyler. Kett was a Norfolk landowner from Wymondham who lead the peasant’s revolt in 1549 in the name of the common man against the corrupt Norfolk landowners. This eventually lead to the Battle of Dussindale against the King’s forces on the 27 August 1549 in which 3000 of Kett’s men were killed. He was hanged for Treason at Norwich Castle on the 7 December 1549.
• James Martineau (1805–1900) Philosopher and brother to Harriet.
• Harriet Martineau (1802–1876). The daughter of a Norwich manufacturer of Huguenot descent, she suffered from ill-health and deafness throughout her life. A devout Unitarian, her writings include Illustrations of political economy (1832-1834). Harriet Martineau supported the abolitionist campaign in the United States writing Society in America (1837). She translated writings by Auguste Comte. Her first novel was entitled Deerbrook (1839). A radical in religion she published the anti-theological Laws of Man’s Social Nature (1851) and Biographical sketches (1869).
• R. H. Mottram (1883-1971)- novelist and Lord Mayor of Norwich
• Admiral Horatio Nelson attended the Norwich School from 1767 to 1768. He was born in nearby Burnham Thorpe.
• Amelia Opie (1769–1853), Norwich author and Quaker. In 1825 she drastically changed her life as a socialite, party-goer, and attendant at literary soirees, to become a Quaker.
• Sir James Edward Smith botanist, natural historian and one-time owner of the Linnean collection of Carolus Linnaeus
• William Smith (1756 – 1835), Whig politician, dissenter and abolitionist, M.P. for Norwich from 1807.

Contemporary names associated with Norwich include:

• Bill Bryson, American writer and humorist, lives near Wymondham, near Norwich.
• Martin Burgess, builder of the famous Gurney Clock in the Castle Mall
• Charles Clarke, Labour MP and former Home Secretary, lives in Norwich.
• Cathy Dennis, Singer/Songwriter who was born in Norwich in 1969.
• Ralph Firman, former Formula 1 Driver was born in Norwich in 1975. He and his family live in nearby Attleborough, and he was educated at Gresham’s School. Currently racing in the A1 Grand Prix series for Ireland, for which he qualifies through his Mother’s Irish nationality.
• Stephen Fry, comedian, author, actor and filmmaker, studied at Norwich City College, and is a Norwich City F.C. fan.
• Trisha Goddard, talk show host lived in Norwich.
• Andy Green OBE, a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force, is the current holder of the world land speed record, having piloted the ThrustSSC to the first ever supersonic speed on land in the Black Rock Desert, USA on 25 September 1997.
• Greg James, BBC Radio 1 presenter, studied at UEA.
• Paul Jones, blues singer and BBC Radio 2 presenter.
• Becky Mantin, ITV Weather presenter and This Morning reporter.
• Bernard Matthews, founder of the eponymous meat company.
• Sir John Mills, born in North Elmham in Norfolk. Mills was educated at the Norwich High School for Boys. He also had Football (Soccer) trials with Norwich City F.C. in the 1920s before moving into acting.
• Beth Orton, Award-winning singer/songwriter, was born in Dereham and spent much of her childhood in Norwich.
• Philip Pullman, British writer was born in Norwich on 19 October 1946. Best-selling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy of fantasy novels and a number of other books.
• Delia Smith, Celebrity chef and joint majority owner of Norwich City F.C.
• Chris Sutton, Football player (striker); joint top scorer for the Premier League in 1997/8; formerly the record English transfer (at £5 million from Norwich to Blackburn in 1994).
• Tim Westwood, BBC Radio 1 Rap DJ and presenter of popular MTV show “Pimp My Ride (UK)”. Grew up in and around Norwich (his father was the bishop of Peterborough, in the neighbouring county of Cambridgeshire) and went to Norwich School.

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