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100 Notable alumni of University of Edinburgh

Updated: June 23, 2026 EliteDegrees

University of Edinburgh is ranked #36 in the world and #4 in United Kingdom by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from University of Edinburgh sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with University of Edinburgh won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.

A. S. Neill

1. A. S. Neill

1883-1973 (aged 90)
non-fiction writer journalist philosopher pedagogue psychologist
Alexander Sutherland Neill was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill, and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and community self-governance. Raised in Scotland, Neill taught at several schools before attending the University of Edinburgh in 1908–1912. He took two jobs in journalism before World War I, and taught at Gretna Green Village School in the...
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George M. Dallas

2. George M. Dallas

1792-1864 (aged 72)
diplomat lawyer politician
George Mifflin Dallas was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 11th vice president of the United States from 1845 to 1849. He also served as the mayor of Philadelphia from 1828 to 1829, and as the U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom from 1856 to 1861. Dallas is possibly the namesake of Dallas, Texas.
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Prakash Karat

3. Prakash Karat

1948-. (aged 78)
university teacher writer politician
Prakash Karat is an Indian Communist politician. He was the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 2005 to 2015. He served as interim coordinator of CPI(M) after the death of incumbent General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.
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Christy Clark

4. Christy Clark

1965-. (aged 61)
radio personality politician
Christina Joan Clark is a Canadian politician who served as the 35th premier of British Columbia from 2011 to 2017. Clark was the second woman to be premier of BC, after Rita Johnston in 1991, and the first female premier in Canada to lead her party to a plurality of seats in two consecutive general elections.
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Kirsty Wark

5. Kirsty Wark

1955-. (aged 71)
journalist businessperson
Kirsteen Anne Wark is a Scottish television presenter and journalist from Dumfries.
George Leslie Mackay

6. George Leslie Mackay

1844-1901 (aged 57)
missionary priest
George Leslie Mackay was a Canadian Presbyterian missionary. He was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan (then Formosa), serving with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. Mackay is among the best known and most influential Westerners to have lived in Taiwan.
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Robert Stephenson

7. Robert Stephenson

1803-1859 (aged 56)
railway engineer civil engineer politician
Robert Stephenson FRS, HonFRSE, FRSA, DCL was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of his father.
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Jimmy Finlayson

8. Jimmy Finlayson

1887-1953 (aged 66)
stage actor actor comedian film actor
James Henderson Finlayson was a British actor who worked in both silent and sound comedies. Balding, with a fake moustache, he had many trademark comic mannerisms—including his squinting, outraged double-take reactions, and his characteristic exclamation: "D'ooooooh!" He is the best remembered comic foil of Laurel and Hardy.
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Reginald Johnston

9. Reginald Johnston

1874-1938 (aged 64)
university teacher writer diplomat Hofmeister sinologist
Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston KCMG CBE was a Scottish diplomat and colonial official who served as the tutor and advisor to Puyi, the last emperor of China. He was also the last British Commissioner of Weihaiwei. Johnston's book Twilight in the Forbidden City (1934) was used as a source for Bernardo Bertolucci's film dramatization of Puyi's life The Last Emperor.
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Robert Indiana

10. Robert Indiana

1928-2018 (aged 90)
costume designer sculptor jewelry designer artist painter
Robert Indiana was an American artist associated with the pop art movement.
Humphrey Ker

11. Humphrey Ker

1982-. (aged 44)
actor comedian television actor
David Humphrey Rivers Ker is a British actor, comedian, writer and football executive, who is a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Penny Dreadfuls. Outside of The Penny Dreadfuls, he has done work as a solo artist, appearing regularly on the comedy television series Fast and Loose and Live at the Electric, as well as on numerous BBC Radio...
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Hastings Banda

12. Hastings Banda

diplomat physician politician
Hastings Kamuzu Banda was a Malawian politician who served as the leader of Malawi from 1964 to 1994. He served as Prime Minister from independence in 1964 to 1966, when Malawi was a Dominion/Commonwealth realm. In 1966, the country became a republic and he became the first president as a result, ruling until his defeat in 1994.
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Kaye Adams

13. Kaye Adams

1962-. (aged 64)
television presenter radio personality journalist
Kaye Rintoul Adams is a Scottish television presenter and journalist. She was an anchor on ITV topical discussion show Loose Women from 1999 to 2006 and again from 2013 and was a regular panellist on Channel 5's daily morning show The Wright Stuff from 2007 until 2012.
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Yun Po-sun

14. Yun Po-sun

1897-1990 (aged 93)
journalist politician
Yun Po-sun was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the second president of South Korea from 1960 to 1962. He was the only president of the short-lived Second Republic of Korea, and served as little more than a figurehead due to its nature as a parliamentary system.
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Eric Melrose Brown

15. Eric Melrose Brown

1919-2016 (aged 97)
test pilot military officer writer
Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Navy officer and test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history.
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Darius Campbell Danesh

16. Darius Campbell Danesh

1980-2022 (aged 42)
autobiographer songwriter opera singer actor
Darius Campbell Danesh was a Scottish singer-songwriter and actor. He first came to prominence as Darius Danesh when he appeared in the first series of Popstars in 2001, and the 2002 inaugural series of the ITV talent contest Pop Idol.
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David Rintoul

17. David Rintoul

1948-. (aged 78)
actor television actor stage actor
David Rintoul is a Scottish stage and television actor. Rintoul was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
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Gillian McKeith

18. Gillian McKeith

1959-. (aged 67)
nutritionist television presenter
Gillian McKeith is a Scottish television personality and writer. She is known for her promotion of various pseudoscientific ideas about health and nutrition. She is the former host of Channel 4's You Are What You Eat (2004–2006), Granada Television's Dr Gillian McKeith's Feel Fab Forever (2009–2010), and W Network's Eat Yourself Sexy (2010). In 2008, McKeith regularly appeared on the...
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James Mill

19. James Mill

1773-1836 (aged 63)
theologian linguist political scientist writer translator
James Mill was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist and philosopher. He is counted among the founders of the Ricardian school of economics. He also wrote The History of British India (1817) and was one of the prominent historians to take a colonial approach. He was the first writer to divide Indian history into three parts: Hindu, Muslim and British,...
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John Boyd Dunlop

20. John Boyd Dunlop

1840-1921 (aged 81)
veterinarian inventor entrepreneur
John Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the practical pneumatic tyres for his child's tricycle and developed them for use in cycle racing. He sold his rights to the pneumatic tyres to a company he formed with the president of the Irish...
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Bill Moyers

21. Bill Moyers

1934-2025 (aged 91)
civil servant opinion journalist journalist
Billy Don Moyers was an American journalist and political commentator who served as the eleventh White House Press Secretary from 1965 to 1967 during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. He also served as the de facto White House Chief of Staff for a brief period from 1964 until 1965.
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Mungo Park

22. Mungo Park

1771-1806 (aged 35)
traveler writer surgeon naturalist geographer
Mungo Park was a Scottish explorer of West Africa. After an exploration of the upper Niger River around 1796, he wrote a popular and influential travel book titled Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa in which he theorized the Niger and Congo merged to become the same river, though it was later proven that they are different rivers. He...
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Anneliese Dodds

23. Anneliese Dodds

1978-. (aged 48)
university teacher politician
Dame Anneliese Jane Dodds DBE is a British Labour and Co-operative politician and public policy analyst who served as Minister of State for Development and Minister of State for Women and Equalities from July 2024 to February 2025. She previously served as Chair of the Labour Party from 2021 to 2024. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford...
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Judy Murray

24. Judy Murray

1959-. (aged 67)
coach tennis player tennis coach
Judith Mary Murray is a Scottish tennis coach. She is the mother of professional tennis players Jamie and Sir Andy Murray.
John William Polidori

25. John William Polidori

1795-1821 (aged 26)
writer
John William Polidori was an English writer and medical doctor. He is known for his associations with the Romantic movement and credited by some as the creator of the vampire genre of fantasy fiction.
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Erasmus Darwin

26. Erasmus Darwin

1731-1802 (aged 71)
philosopher physician writer entomologist botanist naturalist
Erasmus Robert Darwin FRS was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, abolitionist, inventor, freemason, and poet.
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John Swinney

27. John Swinney

1964-. (aged 62)
politician
John Ramsay Swinney is a Scottish politician who has served as First Minister of Scotland since 2024. Swinney has served as Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) twice; between 2000 and 2004, and since 2024. He has held various roles within the Scottish Cabinet from 2007 to 2023 under First Ministers Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. Swinney was Member...
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Gregor MacGregor

28. Gregor MacGregor

1786-1845 (aged 59)
explorer military personnel con artist mercenary
Gregor MacGregor was a Scottish soldier, adventurer, and con man who attempted from 1821 to 1837 to draw British and French investors and settlers to "Poyais", a fictional Central American territory that he claimed to rule as "Cazique". Hundreds invested their savings in supposed Poyaisian government bonds and land certificates, while about 250 emigrated to MacGregor's invented country in 1822–23...
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Oliver Goldsmith

29. Oliver Goldsmith

1728-1774 (aged 46)
physician writer dramaturge literary critic novelist theatrical producer
Oliver Goldsmith was an Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and hack writer. He produced literary works in a variety of genres and is regarded among the most versatile writers of the Georgian era. His works are known for their realistic depictions of British society, and his comedy plays for the English stage are considered second in importance only to those of...
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Robin Cook

30. Robin Cook

1940-. (aged 86)
science fiction writer writer novelist physician physician writer
Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook was a British Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001, when he was replaced by Jack Straw. He then served as Leader of the House of Commons from 2001 until 2003.
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Joseph Bell

31. Joseph Bell

1837-1911 (aged 74)
physician pathologist university teacher surgeon
Joseph Bell FRCSE was a Scottish surgeon and lecturer at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in the 19th century. He is best known as an inspiration for the literary character Sherlock Holmes.
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Prafulla Chandra Ray

32. Prafulla Chandra Ray

1861-1944 (aged 83)
chemist professor
Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray CIE FNI FRASB FIAS FCS was a Bengali chemist, educationist, historian, industrialist and philanthropist. He established the first modern Indian research school in chemistry (post classical age) and is regarded as the Father of Indian Chemistry.
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John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

33. John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

1792-1878 (aged 86)
politician
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.
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Elize du Toit

34. Elize du Toit

1980-. (aged 46)
film actor actor film director
Elize du Toit is a South African-born English former actress best known for playing the role of Izzy Davies in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks from 2000 to 2004, with a brief return in 2007.
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Danny Kruger

35. Danny Kruger

1974-. (aged 52)
politician
Daniel Rayne Kruger MBE is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Wiltshire, previously Devizes, since 2019. Kruger was elected as a member of the Conservative Party but defected to Reform UK in September 2025.
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Ed Stoppard

36. Ed Stoppard

1974-. (aged 52)
television actor stage actor actor film actor
Edmund Stoppard is an English actor. He is the son of playwright Tom Stoppard and Miriam Stoppard.
Alexander McCall Smith

37. Alexander McCall Smith

1948-. (aged 78)
writer children's writer novelist university teacher
Sir Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith CBE FRSE FRSL is a Scottish legal scholar and author of fiction. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and bioethics and served on related British and international committees. He has since become known as...
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Benjamin Rush

38. Benjamin Rush

1746-1813 (aged 67)
chemist writer university teacher psychiatrist politician
Benjamin Rush was an American revolutionary, a Founding Father of the United States and signatory to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educator, and the founder of Dickinson College. Rush was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress. He later described his efforts in support of...
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Miles Jupp

39. Miles Jupp

1979-. (aged 47)
comedian radio personality film actor stage actor television actor
Miles Hugh Barrett Jupp is an English actor and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian before playing the role of the inventor Archie in the children's television series Balamory. He also played John Duggan in The Thick of It, Nigel McCall in the sitcom Rev, and appeared on many comedy panel shows. Between 2015 and 2019, Jupp...
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Ian Rankin

40. Ian Rankin

1960-. (aged 66)
novelist writer crime fiction writer
Sir Ian James Rankin OBE DL FRSE FRSL FRIAS is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.
Margareta of Romania

41. Margareta of Romania

1949-. (aged 77)
diplomat
Margareta of Romania, self-styled as Custodian of the Romanian Crown, is the eldest daughter of King Michael I and Queen Anne of Romania. She assumed her father's duties in March 2016, upon his retirement, and has claimed the headship of the House of Romania since his death on 5 December 2017. She also heads the Margareta of Romania Royal Foundation.
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Robert Liston

42. Robert Liston

1794-1847 (aged 53)
inventor surgeon
Robert Liston FRCSE FRCS FRS was a Scottish surgeon. Liston was noted for his speed and skill in an era prior to anaesthetics, when speed made a difference in terms of pain and survival. He was the first Professor of Clinical Surgery at University College Hospital in London and performed the first public operation utilising modern anaesthesia in Europe.
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Amelia Windsor

43. Amelia Windsor

1995-. (aged 31)
fashion editor philanthropist model aristocrat editing staff
Lady Amelia Sophia Theodora Mary Margaret Windsor is a British fashion model and a member of the extended British royal family. As of 2025, she is 44th in the line of succession to the British throne. She is a granddaughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and therefore a great-great-granddaughter of George V and Queen Mary. She is also a...
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JJ Chalmers

44. JJ Chalmers

1986-. (aged 40)
television presenter
John-James Chalmers is a Scottish television presenter and Invictus Games medallist. He was injured in a bomb blast in Afghanistan in 2011, while serving as a Royal Marine.
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Bruce Chatwin

45. Bruce Chatwin

1940-1989 (aged 49)
novelist writer journalist traveler author
Charles Bruce Chatwin FRSL was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, In Patagonia (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, interested in bringing to light unusual tales. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982), while his novel Utz (1988) was...
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Maria Bamford

46. Maria Bamford

1970-. (aged 56)
screenwriter television actor comedian voice actor film actor
Maria Bamford is an American actress and stand-up comedian. Her work often uses self-deprecating and dark topics, including her dysfunctional family, depression, anxiety, suicide, and mental illness.
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Iain Stirling

47. Iain Stirling

1988-. (aged 38)
television presenter comedian stand-up comedian
Iain Andrew Stirling is a Scottish comedian, writer, television presenter, narrator and Twitch streamer from Edinburgh, Scotland. He is best known for being the narrator of reality television series Love Island and Love Island USA.
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Tom Chaplin

48. Tom Chaplin

1979-. (aged 47)
singer guitarist composer pianist songwriter
Thomas Oliver Chaplin is a British musician, best known as the co-founder and lead singer of the British alternative rock band Keane.
Ash Carter

49. Ash Carter

1954-2022 (aged 68)
physicist politician
Ashton Baldwin Carter was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States secretary of defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
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James Barry

50. James Barry

1789-1865 (aged 76)
military physician surgeon
James Barry was a military surgeon in the British Army. Originally from the city of Cork in Ireland, Barry obtained a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, then served first in Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently in many parts of the British Empire. Before retirement, Barry had risen to the rank of Inspector General (equivalent to...
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Chris Hoy

51. Chris Hoy

politician peace officer
Sir Christopher Andrew Hoy is a former track cyclist and racing driver from Scotland who represented Great Britain at the Olympic and World Championships and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games.
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Princess Tsuguko of Takamado

52. Princess Tsuguko of Takamado

1986-. (aged 40)
aristocrat
Princess Tsuguko of Takamado is a member of the Imperial House of Japan, paternal second cousin of Emperor Naruhito and the eldest daughter of Norihito, Prince Takamado, and his wife Hisako, Princess Takamado.
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Sal Khan

53. Sal Khan

1976-. (aged 50)
entrepreneur computer scientist electrical engineer YouTuber mathematician
Salman Amin Khan is an American educator and the founder of Khan Academy, a free online non-profit educational platform with which he has produced over 6,500 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, originally focusing on mathematics and science. He is also the founder of Khan Lab School, a private, in-person school in Mountain View, California.
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Thomas Carlyle

54. Thomas Carlyle

1795-1881 (aged 86)
philosopher teacher novelist literary critic mathematician
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. Known as the "sage of Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the Victorian era.
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Amber Rudd

55. Amber Rudd

1963-. (aged 63)
businessperson journalist investment banker politician
Amber Augusta Rudd is a British former politician who served as Home Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2018 to 2019. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye, first elected in 2010, representing the Conservative Party, and stood down from parliament in 2019. She identifies herself as a...
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Max Richter

56. Max Richter

1966-. (aged 60)
pianist film score composer composer
Max Richter CBE is a British composer and pianist. He works within postminimalist and contemporary classical styles. Richter is classically trained, having graduated in composition from the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and studied with Luciano Berio in Italy.
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Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

57. Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

1784-1865 (aged 81)
politician
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, known as Lord Palmerston, was a British Anglo-Irish politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to his death in 1865. A member of the Tory, Whig and Liberal parties, Palmerston was also the first Liberal prime minister. An ideologue of "Free-Trade" and a major...
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Eric Liddell

58. Eric Liddell

1902-1945 (aged 43)
rugby union player missionary sprinter
Eric Henry Liddell was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player and a Christian missionary. Born in Tianjin, China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended a boarding school near London, spending time when possible with his family in Edinburgh, and afterwards attended the University of Edinburgh.
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Sophie Cookson

59. Sophie Cookson

1990-. (aged 36)
actor
Sophie Cookson is an English actress. She played secret agent Roxy Morton / Lancelot in the 2014 spy film Kingsman: The Secret Service and its 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and Pippa in the 2016 fantasy film The Huntsman: Winter's War. She played the title role of Christine Keeler in the 2019 BBC One drama television series The Trial...
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J. M. Barrie

60. J. M. Barrie

1860-1937 (aged 77)
children's writer writer playwright librettist television writer
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical...
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Laura Kuenssberg

61. Laura Kuenssberg

1976-. (aged 50)
journalist television presenter
Laura Juliet Kuenssberg is a British journalist who presents the BBC's Sunday morning politics show. She was succeeded as Political Editor of BBC News by Chris Mason.
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Syed Ahmed Khan

62. Syed Ahmed Khan

1817-1898 (aged 81)
lawyer theologian philosopher judge politician
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, also spelled Sayyid Ahmad Khan, was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India.
Michael McIntyre

63. Michael McIntyre

1976-. (aged 50)
writer stand-up comedian comedian presenter
Michael Hazen James McIntyre is a British comedian, writer, and television presenter. In 2012, he was the highest-grossing stand-up comedian in the world. He currently presents the variety and stand-up comedy show Michael McIntyre's Big Show and the game show The Wheel.
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Geoffrey Hinton

64. Geoffrey Hinton

1947-. (aged 79)
university teacher artificial intelligence researcher computer scientist psychologist neuroscientist
Geoffrey Everest Hinton is a British-Canadian computer scientist, cognitive scientist, and cognitive psychologist and Nobel Prize laureate known for his work on artificial neural networks, which earned him the title "the Godfather of AI".
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Zhong Nanshan

65. Zhong Nanshan

1936-. (aged 90)
physician researcher pulmonologist politician
Zhong Nanshan is a Chinese pulmonologist. He was president of the Chinese Medical Association from 2005 to 2009 and is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Thoracic Disease. Zhong was bestowed the Medal of the Republic, the highest honorary medal of the People's Republic of China, in August 2020.
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Marcus Mumford

66. Marcus Mumford

1987-. (aged 39)
songwriter guitarist singer film score composer
Marcus Oliver Johnstone Mumford is a British singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is the lead singer of the folk band Mumford & Sons and also plays a number of instruments with the group, including guitar, drums and mandolin.
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Walter Scott

67. Walter Scott

1771-1832 (aged 61)
linguist poet literary critic lawyer translator
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe (1819), Rob Roy (1817), Waverley (1814), Old Mortality (1816), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), and The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), along with the narrative poems Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake...
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Arthur Conan Doyle

68. Arthur Conan Doyle

1859-1930 (aged 71)
physician writer screenwriter writer children's writer novelist
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.
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David Hume

69. David Hume

1711-1776 (aged 65)
economist writer librarian essayist philosopher
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist who is known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beginning with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Hume followed John Locke in rejecting the existence of innate...
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Robert Louis Stevenson

70. Robert Louis Stevenson

1850-1894 (aged 44)
children's writer novelist poet songwriter essayist
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for the novels Treasure Island (1883), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and Kidnapped (1893), and the poetry collection A Child's Garden of Verses (1885).
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Gordon Brown

71. Gordon Brown

1951-. (aged 75)
autobiographer biographer university teacher politician journalist
James Gordon Brown is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair. Brown was Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline East from 1983 to 2005 and for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2005...
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Pippa Middleton

72. Pippa Middleton

1983-. (aged 43)
columnist writer socialite
Philippa Charlotte Matthews is a British socialite, author and columnist. She is the younger sister of Catherine, Princess of Wales.
Joseph Black

73. Joseph Black

1728-1799 (aged 71)
university teacher chemist physicist
Joseph Black was a Scottish physicist and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of anatomy and chemistry at the University of Glasgow for 10 years from 1756, and then professor of medicine and chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 1766, teaching and lecturing there for more than 30...
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Ruth Davidson

74. Ruth Davidson

1978-. (aged 48)
journalist politician
Ruth Elizabeth Davidson, Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links, PC, is a Scottish politician. A member of the House of Lords since 2021, she was Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2011 to 2019 and Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party in the Scottish Parliament from 2020 to 2021. She served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for...
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Kezia Dugdale

75. Kezia Dugdale

1981-. (aged 45)
blogger politician
Kezia Alexandra Ross Dugdale is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2015 to 2017. A former member of the Scottish Labour Party and Co-operative Party, she was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region from 2011 to 2019.
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Richard Owen

76. Richard Owen

1804-1892 (aged 88)
university teacher curator writer biologist zoologist
Richard Owen was a Scottish-born geologist, natural scientist, educator, and American military officer who arrived in the United States in 1828 and settled at New Harmony, Indiana. Owen, who was trained as a natural scientist and physician, served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. After the Civil War, Owen...
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Robert Adam

77. Robert Adam

1728-1792 (aged 64)
archaeologist furniture designer politician architect
Robert Moyes Adam was a Scottish photographer and botanist known for his work with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Kevin McKidd

78. Kevin McKidd

1973-. (aged 53)
television actor stage actor television director film actor
Kevin McKidd is a Scottish actor and television director best known for portraying Dr. Owen Hunt in Grey's Anatomy (since 2008), Lucius Vorenus in Rome and Tommy Mackenzie in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996).
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Robbie Coltrane

79. Robbie Coltrane

1950-2022 (aged 72)
screenwriter television actor actor film actor
Anthony Robert McMillan OBE, known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor. He is best known for his role as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011) and as Dr. Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the crime drama series Cracker (1993–1996, 2006).
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Greg Wise

80. Greg Wise

1966-. (aged 60)
stage actor television actor film producer actor film actor
Matthew Gregory Wise is an English actor and producer. He has appeared in several British television programmes and feature films. He played the role of John Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility, which also starred Emma Thompson, whom he later married.
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Angus Macfadyen

81. Angus Macfadyen

1963-. (aged 63)
film actor television actor stage actor
Angus Macfadyen is a Scottish actor. His roles include Robert the Bruce, both in Braveheart and Robert the Bruce, Komodo in Warriors of Virtue, Vice-Counsel Dupont in Equilibrium, Jeff Denlon in the Saw franchise, Robert Rogers in the AMC historical drama Turn: Washington's Spies, McCreedy in Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo, and biologist James Murray in The Lost City...
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James Clerk Maxwell

82. James Clerk Maxwell

1831-1879 (aged 48)
inventor physicist university teacher mathematician theoretical physicist
James Clerk Maxwell FRS FRSE was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism achieved the second great unification in physics, where the first one had been realised by Isaac Newton....
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Charles Darwin

83. Charles Darwin

1809-1882 (aged 73)
ethologist writer geologist philosopher travel writer
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint presentation with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution...
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Edward VII

84. Edward VII

1841-1910 (aged 69)
monarch aristocrat politician art collector
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
Katherine Grainger

85. Katherine Grainger

1975-. (aged 51)
rower
Dame Katherine Jane Grainger is a Scottish athlete. She is a 2012 Summer Olympics gold medallist, four-time Olympic silver medallist and six-time World Champion for Great Britain. She served as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University between 2015 and 2020 and is currently Chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
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Peter Higgs

86. Peter Higgs

1929-2024 (aged 95)
university teacher physicist theoretical physicist researcher particle physicist
Peter Ware Higgs was a British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh, and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the mass of subatomic particles.
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Philippa Gregory

87. Philippa Gregory

1954-. (aged 72)
writer novelist
Philippa Gregory CBE is an English historical novelist who has been publishing since 1987. The best known of her works is The Other Boleyn Girl (2001), which in 2002 won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association and has been adapted into two films.
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Alexander Graham Bell

88. Alexander Graham Bell

1847-1922 (aged 75)
professor businessperson electrical engineer engineer inventor
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.
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Tessa Jowell

89. Tessa Jowell

1947-2018 (aged 71)
politician
Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, DBE, PC was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from 1992 to 2015.
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Robert Edwards

90. Robert Edwards

1925-2013 (aged 88)
researcher biologist physiologist physician
Sir Robert Geoffrey Edwards was a British physiologist and pioneer in reproductive medicine, and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) in particular. Along with obstetrician and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe and nurse and embryologist Jean Purdy, Edwards successfully pioneered conception through IVF, which led to the birth of Louise Brown on 25 July 1978. They founded the first IVF programme for infertile patients and...
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James Boswell

91. James Boswell

1740-1795 (aged 55)
writer lawyer biographer diarist
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, Life of Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language. A great mass of Boswell's diaries, letters, and private papers were recovered from...
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James Hutton

92. James Hutton

1726-1797 (aged 71)
meteorologist geologist farmer physician industrialist
James Hutton FRSE was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician. Often referred to as the "Father of Modern Geology," he played a key role in establishing geology as a modern science.
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Mako Komuro

93. Mako Komuro

1991-. (aged 35)
researcher aristocrat
Mako Komuro, formerly Princess Mako of Akishino (眞子内親王, Mako Naishinnō), is a Japanese art historian and a former member of the Japanese imperial family. She is the eldest child of Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko, niece of Emperor Naruhito, and granddaughter of Emperor Emeritus Akihito and his wife, Empress Emerita Michiko. In October 2021, upon her marriage to...
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Thomas Young

94. Thomas Young

1773-1829 (aged 56)
archaeologist astronomer egyptologist linguist physicist
Thomas Young FRS was a British polymath who made notable contributions to the fields of vision, light, solid mechanics, energy, physiology, language, musical harmony, and Egyptology. He was instrumental in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, specifically the Rosetta Stone.
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William Walker

95. William Walker

1824-1860 (aged 36)
filibuster journalist physician lawyer politician
William Walker was an American journalist and mercenary. In the era of the expansion of the United States, driven by the doctrine of manifest destiny, Walker organized unauthorized military expeditions into Mexico and Central America with the intention of establishing colonies. Such an enterprise was known at the time as "filibustering".
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Max Born

96. Max Born

1882-1970 (aged 88)
theoretical physicist non-fiction writer university teacher scientist mathematician
Max Born was a German–British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 1930s. He shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics with Walther Bothe "for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for...
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Margot Käßmann

97. Margot Käßmann

1958-. (aged 68)
pastor parson university teacher theologian
Margot Käßmann is a Lutheran theologian, who was Landesbischöfin (bishop) of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover in Germany. On 28 October 2009, she was also elected to lead the Protestant Church in Germany, a federation of Protestant church bodies in Germany. She stepped down from both offices on 24 February 2010 following a drink-driving incident. After serving as a "Reformation...
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Benjamin Constant

98. Benjamin Constant

1767-1830 (aged 63)
diarist scientist politician writer philosopher
Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães was a Brazilian military officer and political thinker. Primarily a positivist, influenced heavily by Auguste Comte, he was the founder of the positivist movement in Brazil (Sociedade Positivista do Brasil, Brazilian Positivist Society), and later this led to his republican views. He left the Brazilian Positivist Society because of internal disagreements, but remained an ardent...
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Julius Nyerere

99. Julius Nyerere

1922-1999 (aged 77)
linguist writer translator teacher educator
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian politician, anti-colonial activist, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, after which he led its successor state, Tanzania, as president from 1964 to 1985. He was a founding member and chair of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party and...
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Elton Mayo

100. Elton Mayo

1880-1949 (aged 69)
professor psychologist sociologist
George Elton Mayo was an Australian-born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist. Mayo was formally trained at the University of Adelaide, acquiring a Bachelor of Arts Degree graduating with First Class Honours, majoring in philosophy and psychology, and was later awarded an honorary Master of Arts Degree from the University of Queensland (UQ).
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