Notable People
Notable people from Bury St Edmunds include author Norah Lofts, who though actually born in Shipdham Norfolk, bases many of her stories in Baildon, the fictionalised Bury St Edmunds, artist Rose Mead, artist and printer Sybil Andrews, actors Bob Hoskins and Michael Maloney theatre director Sir Peter Hall, author Maria Lousie de la Ramé (also known as Ouida), Canadian journalist and author Richard Gwyn, cyclist James Moore, World War II Canadian general Guy Simonds, footballer Andy Marshall and the 18th-century landscape architect Humphry Repton, Bishop of Winchester and Lord High Chancellor Stephen Gardiner. Thomas Clarkson fact-finder behind the abolition of the slave trade lived in the town for parts of his life. Though born in Bedford, actor John Le Mesurier grew up in the town.
Although not from Bury St Edmunds, BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel lived nearby in Great Finborough and, on 12 November 2004, his funeral took place at the cathedral. It was attended by approximately a thousand people including many artists he had championed. During a peak of local musical activity in Bury St Edmunds in 2002, he referred (tongue-in-cheek) to the town as 'The New Seattle'. Notable bands from Bury St Edmunds include Jacob's Mouse, Miss Black America, The Dawn Parade and Kate Jackson of The Long Blondes.
Among notable people who have chosen to retire to or have second homes in Bury St Edmunds are former members of parliament and government ministers Lord Tebbit, Sir John Wheeler, Sir Eldon Griffiths, and former senior Royal Air Force commander Air Marshall Sir Reginald Harland.
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