This is a list of notable people born in or strongly associated with the Isle of Wight , alphabetically within categories.
Born on the Isle of Wight [ edit ]
Dr Thomas Arnold , headmaster of Rugby School and immortalised in Tom Brown's Schooldays , born in Cowes
King Arwald , last pagan king in England and last king of the Isle of Wight, died 686
Lee Bradbury , ex professional footballer, currently manager of Havant and Waterlooville , born in Cowes
Danny Briggs , Hampshire and England cricketer
Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères , born in St Helens
Craig Douglas (Terry Perkins) pop singer, born 1941 in Newport, topped the charts in 1959 with Only Sixteen
Arthur Percy Morris Fleming , born 1881 in Newport, electrical engineer and pioneer in the development of radio and submarine detection
Thomas Fleming , judge and Lord Chief Justice
Uffa Fox , yacht designer
Vivian Fuchs , Antarctic explorer
Marius Goring , born Newport
Maxwell Gray (Mary Gleed Tuttiett), novelist
Lauran Hibberd Slacker-pop singer, born in Newport
Sheila Hancock , actress, born in Blackgang
Robert Hooke , scientist, born in Freshwater
Jeremy Irons , actor, born in Cowes and raised in St Helens
Phill Jupitus , comedian, born in Newport
Mark King , born in Gurnard nr. Cowes, bass player and vocalist in pop/funk band Level 42
Suri Krishnamma , film director and writer, born in Shanklin
Cliff Michelmore , television presenter and producer born in Cowes
Albert Midlane , failed ironmonger, poet and hymn-writer was born in Newport
Anthony Minghella , film director; born in Ryde ; his parents run the Minghella's Ice Cream company on the Island; his film The English Patient includes footage of Shanklin Pier; on accepting his Best Picture Oscar , he said, "This is a great day for the Isle of Wight!"
Loretta Minghella , charity executive and solicitor
Brian Murphy , actor, born in Ventnor
Noel Odell , geologist and mountaineer, born in St Lawrence
Queen Osburga , daughter of Oslac, Chief Butler of England and mother of King Alfred the Great
Adam Pacitti , Leader of Cultaholic, born in Ryde
Arthur Cecil Pigou , economist and proponent of Pigouvian taxes , born in Ryde
Albert Pollard , historian, born in Ryde
Horace Rawlins , golfer, winner of the first U.S. Open in 1895
Jake Scrimshaw , professional footballer
Henry Sewell , first Prime Minister of New Zealand , born on the island in 1807 and lived there until emigrating to New Zealand at the age of 45
Kelly Sotherton , heptathlete, born in Newport
Polly Toynbee , journalist, born at Yafford[ 1]
George Westmore , founder of Hollywood's first make-up department, born 1879 in Newport. His son Bud Westmore is credited as make-up artist on over 450 movies
Harry Frederick Whitchurch V.C., born in Sandown
Eric Charles Twelves Wilson V.C., born in Sandown in 1912
Raised on the Isle of Wight [ edit ]
E. Power Biggs , concert organist
Frank Cadogan Cowper , artist, raised at Lisle Court, Wootton
Uffa Fox , raised in Cowes
William Hutt , MP and colonial administrator, educated in Ryde
George, 2nd Earl Jellicoe , at St. Lawrence Hall, Ventnor
Donna Langley , film executive and chairwoman of Universal Pictures , raised on the island.
Fidelis Morgan , actress and writer, raised in Bonchurch
Nicholas Dingley alias Razzle , drummer for Hanoi Rocks , raised in Binstead
Algernon Charles Swinburne , poet, raised in East Dene, Bonchurch
Bear Grylls , climber, youngest Briton to reach the summit of Mount Everest and live; survival expert; host of Man vs. Wild
Lived on the Isle of Wight [ edit ]
Sam Browne , soldier, retired to Ryde
Master Gunner Daniel Cambridge VC (later Yeoman of the Guard ), stationed at Redoubt Battery , Fort Redoubt , Freshwater Bay , until 1871 (Census)
Julia Margaret Cameron , photographer, lived in Freshwater Bay
Lewis Carroll , author, lived at Sandown while working on Alice in Wonderland
Winston Churchill , visited Ventnor for extended periods throughout his life
Helen Clare , soprano singer
Sir Christopher Cockerell , inventor of the hovercraft, spent two years in East Cowes working on his prototypes
E. E. Cowper , novelist, lived at Lisle Court, Wootton
Frank Cowper , yachtsman and author; designed and lived at Lisle Court, Wootton
Charles Darwin , naturalist, lived for a period in 1867 in the Kings Head Hotel in Sandown
Charles Dickens , author, lived in Bonchurch for 3 months in 1849
King Charles I , held prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle for a year
Ken Dodd , comedian, had a holiday home at Freshwater Bay
Jack Douglas , actor from a series of Carry On films
Trevor Duncan , composer (known for the Dr Finlay's Casebook theme), lived in Bonchurch
King Ethelred the Unready , fled to the Isle of Wight in 1012 from the Danes under Sweyn Forkbeard
Gertrude Fenton , novelist and editor of the Carisbrooke magazine
Uffa Fox , yacht designer, lived in Puckaster
David Gascoyne , 20th-century surrealist poet
Pamela Green , infamous nude model of the 1950s and 1960s, lived in Yarmouth with the dambuster Douglas Webb , DFM
King Harold II and his brother Tostig Godwinson , have estates at Kern and Nunwell respectively
Jet Harris , musician with The Shadows
Peter de Heyno , defended the Carisbrooke Castle 1377 against French–Castilian troops
Robyn Hitchcock , musician, lived in Yarmouth from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, and cited it in many of his works of the period
John Oliver Hobbes (Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie), novelist, lived part-time in Steephill , 1900–1906
Geoffrey Hughes , actor, lived in Newport
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Samuel Raymond Jarvis died at his home, Cove Cottage in Ventnor , in 1868
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe , lived at St. Lawrence Hall, Ventnor
John Keats , poet, moved to the island in 1814; areas of Shanklin are named after him
Kenneth Kendall , journalist and TV presenter, lived in Cowes where his partner owned an art gallery
Charles Kingsley , spent childhood there
Marek Larwood , actor and comedian
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , American poet, spent the summer in Shanklin in 1868
Guglielmo Marconi did radio experiments in Alum Bay and Niton around 1900
Karl Marx , lodged in Ryde in the 1870s and in Ventnor in the 1880s
John Milne , inventor of the horizontal pendulum seismograph , retired from the Japanese Imperial College of Engineering in Shide, Isle of Wight
David Niven , actor, lived in Bembridge as a child
Isaac Pitman , invented a shorthand system, lived for a time in Sandown
J.B. Priestley , author, playwright and broadcaster, lived at Brook for over a decade from 1948
John Morgan Richards , cigarette and patent medicine entrepreneur, lived in Steephill , 1903–1918
Legh Richmond , preacher and writer of the religious tract The Dairyman's Daughter , curate for Yaverland and Brading
Frederick Riddle , viola player, died in Newport
John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone , Secretary of State for War in the years leading up to the First World War ; MP and Justice of the Peace for the Isle of Wight
Michael Sheard , actor, lived in Ryde
Algernon Charles Swinburne , poet, lived in Bonchurch
Shaw Taylor , television presenter, known for the catchphrase "keep 'em peeled", lived in Totland
Alfred, Lord Tennyson , poet, lived in Farringford in Freshwater Bay
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , rented a house in Seaview
Edward Upward , long-lived author and part of the Auden Group in the 1930s, lived in Sandown from 1961 to 2004
Queen Victoria , had one of her residences at Osborne House in East Cowes
Barnes Wallis , inventor of the bouncing bomb, lived and worked in Cowes
Douglas Webb , DFM air gunner with 617 Squadron on the Dambusters raid; partner of the infamous nude model Pamela Green ; lived in Yarmouth
Raymond Allen , television scriptwriter best known for Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em , born and lives in Ryde
Keegan Brown , professional darts player
Patrick Buckland , CEO of Stainless Games , creator of Carmageddon
Hester Chambers , founding member of Wet Leg
Sarah Close , singer-songwriter and YouTuber, born and lives on the island
Melvyn Hayes , actor, lives in Ryde
David Icke , conspiracy theorist, lives in Ryde
Mark King , Level 42 musician
Dame Ellen MacArthur , sailor, based in Cowes
The Osbourne family have a holiday home in Yaverland
Dick Taylor , founding member of The Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things
Rhian Teasdale , founding member of Wet Leg
Alan Titchmarsh , author and TV presenter
M J Trow , author and teacher
Unitary authorities Major settlements (cities in italics) Rivers Topics