Top 10 On The List
Because of the nature of the poll used to select and rank the Britons, the results do not claim to be an objective assessment. They are as follows:
| Rank | Name | Time Frame | Image | Occupation | Notability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sir Winston Churchill | (1874–1965) | Politician | Prime Minister during World War II, historically ranked the greatest British prime minister. | |
| 2 | Isambard Kingdom Brunel | (1806–1859) | Engineer | Creator of the Great Western Railway, and designer of numerous significant ships, tunnels and bridges. | |
| 3 | Diana, Princess of Wales | (1961–1997) | Member of the British Royal family. Philanthropist. | First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales (marriage 1981–1996), and mother of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry. | |
| 4 | Charles Darwin | (1809–1882) | Naturalist | Originator of the theory of evolution through natural selection and author of On the Origin of Species. | |
| 5 | William Shakespeare | (1564–1616) | Poet and playwright | Thought of by many as the greatest of all English writers. | |
| 6 | Sir Isaac Newton | (1642–1727) | Physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher and biblical scholar | Originator of universal gravitation and laws of classical mechanics and laws of motion. His Principia is one of the most influential works in the history of science. | |
| 7 | Queen Elizabeth I | (1533–1603) | Queen regnant | Popular monarch (reigned 1558–1603) who brought a period of relative internal stability. She is associated with the defeat of the Spanish Armada. | |
| 8 | John Lennon | (1940–1980) | Musician, philanthropist, peace activist and artist | Co-writer with Paul McCartney in The Beatles and solo musician. | |
| 9 | Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson | (1758–1805) | Naval commander | Famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. | |
| 10 | Oliver Cromwell | (1599–1658) | Military and political leader | 1st Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. |
Although the BBC's original ranked list has been removed from their web server and what remains is only an alphabetical list of the Top 100, several other sources have preserved the original ranked list.
There was some question as to whether the Richard Burton listed at #96 is the actor or the explorer. A BBC press release makes it clear that they intended it to be the actor.
Read more about this topic: 100 Greatest Britons
Famous quotes containing the words top and/or list:
“Your top has sunk too low,
Your base has spread too wide,
For you to roll one stone
Down if you tried.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)