Visiting Cornwall - Famous Cornish people


	Famous Men and Women of Cornwall

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	Some of the famous people that were either born in Cornwall or lived for a major part of their life in Cornwall - to the extent that their names have become synonymous with Cornwall. Ordered alphabetically by surname:
	John Couch Adams John Arnold Sir John Arundell Captain William Bligh Sir William Cookworthy Sir Humphry Davy Daphne du Maurier Robert Duncan Bob Fitzsimmons Michael John Kells (Mick) Fleetwood >General Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert Sidney Godolphin Sir William Golding Sir Bevil Grenville Sir Richard Grenville Jethro (real name Geoffrey Rowe) Richard Lemon Lander (Anthony) Nigel Martyn Rory McGrath John Nettles Dame Annette Penhaligon David Charles Penhaligon Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch ("Q") Dr Alfred (A L) Rowse Kristen Scott-Thomas Richard Trevithick Henry Trengrouse Dr James Whetter

	John Couch Adams (1819 - 1892) - Astronomer & mathematician John was born at Laneast, near Lanuceston, on 5th June 1819. His major achievement was predicting the existence and position of Neptune using mathematics. He used calculations to explain that anomalies in the orbit of Uranus were caused by an unknown and unseen planet. The outermost ring of Neptune is named after him. He was Lowndean Professor at the University of Cambridge for thirty-three years from 1859 to his death at Cambridge Observatory on 21st January 1892. He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1866. The Adams Prize, presented by the University of Cambridge, commemorates his prediction of the position of Neptune.

	John Arnold (1736 - 1799) - watchmaker and inventor Born in Bodmin in 1736, John became one of the very best watchmakers in Britain, striving to produce ever more precise chronometers. John Arnold is known for refinement of the chronometer escapement and balance spring. He set up a factory in Chigwell, Essex to produce his chronometers and in 1788 produced the first pocket chronometer. He died at Eltham in Kent on 11th August 1799.

	Sir John Arundell (1566? - 1648) - Royalist commander & MP Born at Trerice House (now National trust) near Newquay. In 1643 he fought at the battle of Braddock Down, near Lostwithiel, with Sir Bevil Grenville and was then appointed governor of Pendennis Castle (now National Trust) at Falmouth. In March 1645, Cromwell's army, under General Fairfax laid seige to Pendennis Castle. It was not until August 17th, after running out of ammunition and food, that Sir John surrendered to Colonel Richard Townsend. This was the second longest seige of the English Civil War. (The seige of Raglan Castle was two days longer.) Sir John is burried at Duloe in East Cornwall.

	Captain William Bligh (1754 - 1817) - Royal Navy Officer William Bligh was born at St Tudy near Bodmin on 9th September 1754. He signed up for the navy at the age of just seven, serving as "Ship's Boy" and "Captain's Servant" on HMS Monmouth. It was not until he was 16 that he formally began his naval career on HMS Hunter as an able seaman. In 1776 Bligh was selected by Captain James Cook to join the Resolution as sailing master and accompanied Cook on his third and final voyage to the Pacific. He returned to England in 1780 with news of the final voyage and the death of Captain Cook. He fought at Gibraltar with Lord Howe in 1782 and in 1787 was made commander of HMAV Bounty. The mutiny, which broke out during the return voyage from Tahiti on 28 April 1789, was led by Christian Fletcher, supported by eighteen of the crew, who had seized firearms during Fletcher's night watch and then surprised and bound Bligh in his cabin. Bligh and fourteen of his loyal crew members were cast adrift in a 23 foot launch with cutlasses, food and water for a few days plus a sextant and a pocket watch, but they had no charts or compass. Bilgh and his men undertook an impossible vovage of 3,618 nautical miles to Timor. Bligh succeeded in reaching Timor after a 47 day voyage, with only one casualty; a crewman killed on Tofua. In 1801 Bligh served under Admral Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen and was made Govenor of New South Wales in 1805. He died in Bond Street, London on 6th December 1817 and is buried at St Mary's Church, Lambeth.

	Sir William Cookworthy (1705 - 1780) - Pharmacist Born in Kingsbridge in Devon, William discovered china clay near St Austell.

	Sir Humphry Davy 1778 - 1829) - Chemist and inventor of the Davy Lamp Humphry was born on 17 December 1778 in Penzance. His father was a woodcarver. He was educated in Penzance and then Truro Grammar School. He became an assistant in the newly opened Pneumatic Institution of the scientist, Dr Beddoes, in Bristol. He was president of the Royal Society for seven years and knighted in 1812. Also in 1812 he was asked to devise a miners lamp that would not ignite flammable gases after an explosion in a coal mine at Feeling Colliery near Sunderland killed 89 miners. His solution to the problem was relevantly simple and easy to make. He used a fine wire gauze to cover the flame in the lamp. Air passes through the gauze to provide the flame with oxygen, but the denser explosive gases were prevented from coming into contact with the naked flame. Although Davy patented his invention, he allowed anybody to use it. He was also the founder of the Zoological Society, that runs the zoo in Regents Park. He died in Switzerland at the age of 51 in May 1829.

	Daphne du Maurier (1907 - 1989) - Novelist Daphne was born in London on 13th May 1907 to actor and theatre manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel Beaumont. Her first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published in 1931.

	Robert Duncan (1952 to present day) - Actor Robert Duncan was born as Robert Welch in St Austell on 27th July 1952. He is best known for playing the part of Gus, the station manager, in Drop the Dead Donkey. His stage name of Robert Duncan came from taking the first name of his younger brother, Duncan. As well as his television roles (including Casualty and Stargate SG1) Robert still does a lot of theatre work.

	Bob Fitzsimmons (1863 - 1917) - Triple world boxing champion Born 26th May 1863 in Helston, Robert Fitzsimmons was the youngest of 12 children. At the age of 10 Bob and his family moved to Timaru in New Zealand. By 1882 Bob was an established boxer with a fight record of 11 wins from 11 fights. In 1890 Bob had moved to San Francisco where he won his first world championship, beating Kack Dempsey to win the world middleweight title. In March 1897 he knocked out Gentleman Jim Corbett in the 14th round to add the world heavyweight title. This was the first championship bout ever to be filmed. His third title, in 1903, was the world light heavyweight chanmpionship, which he won by beating George Gardner on points. Bob continued boxing around the world before returning to Chicago, where he died of pneumonia on 22nd October 1917. There is a plaque on a cottage in Wendron Street, Helston to mark his birthplace. The name on the plaque is Fitzsimons (with one 'm') as it appears on his birth certificate. Throughout his boxing career and in his many biographies Fitzsimmons was always spelt with a double 'm'.

	Michael John Kells (Mick) Fleetwood (1947 - present day) - Musician Born in Redruth on 24th June 1947. Founder of, with John McVie, and drummer with Fleetwood Mac.

	General Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert (1785 - 1853) - Army Officer Walter was born in Bodmin on 18th March 1785. A cadet in the Bengal Infantry at the age of 15, Walter was posted to India, arriving in October 1801.He rose through the ranks being promoted to Major in November 1820, Lieutenant-Colonel of the newly-formed 39th Bengal Native Infantry in 1824, Colonel of the 35th Native Infantry and of the 1st Bengal European Fusiliers in 1832, Major-General in June 1838 and finally Lieutenant-General in November 1851. He was made a KCB in April 1846, a GCB in June 1849 and a baronet in 1850. Following his death a memorial obelisk was erected on the Bodmin Beacon.

	Sidney Godolphin (1645 - 1712) - Statesman Born in Helston in 1645, Sidney became Helston's Member of Parliament in 1668. In 1680 he became Baron Godolphin of Rialton and First Lord of the Treasury. Queen Anne made him Lord High Treasurer in 1702. In 1706 he bacame Viscount Rialton and Earl of Godolphin.

	Sir William Golding (1911 - 1993) Novelist and Nobel Prize winner Born in St Columb Minor in 1911. His most famous novel, The Lord of the Flies, was published in 1954. He won the Booker Prize in 1980, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. In 1988 he was knighted.

	Sir Bevil Grenville (1596 - 1643) Royalist commander Born near Withiel to the west of Bodmin, he was the grandson of Sir Richard Grenville. During the English Civil War he won battles at Braddock Down near Lostwithiel, and at Stratton Hill near Bude. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Lansdown Hill outside Bath, in which his Royalist army defeated the Parliamentarians of Cromwell. The Cornish soldiers in his command then returned to Cornwall carrying his body. He is burried in a tomb at Kilkhampton Church near Bude.

	Sir Richard Grenville (1542 - 1591) - Naval captain Lived at Stowe, near Kilkhampton in North Cornwall. His father, Roger Grenville, was captain of the Mary Rose when it sank in the Solent in 1545. Richard was a cousin to Sir Walter Raleigh and friens of Sir Francis Drake. Richard died as captain of HMS Revenge in September 1591 after bloody battle against a fleet of about fifty Spanish ships.

	Jethro (real name Geoffrey Rowe) (1948 - present day) - Comedian Geoffrey was born in St Buryan in 1948. He was an apprentice carpenter and worked as a timber man in the local tin mine. At 18 he was a member of the St Just and District Operatic Society. His fine bass voice and natural comic talent made him a regular pub attraction. He played over 100 games for the Pirates Rugby Team, now better known as the Cornish Pirates, between 1970 and 1975. His first television appearance was on the local Westward station as a co-host of their Treasure Hunt quiz program. His first national television appearance was on the Des O'Connor Tonight show in 1990. Apart from a record nine appearances in Des O'Connor's shows he has appeared five times on Jim Davidson's Generation Game, including two demonstrations on how to make a Cornish pasty. He has had his own show, The Jethro Junction on HTV and, in 2001, appeared before the Queen on the Royal Variety Show. He now lives just out of Cornwall at Lewdown near Okehampton but spends most of the year on tour. Tour dates can be found on his official website.

	Richard Lemon Lander (1804 - 1834) - Explorer Richard Lander was born in Truro on 8th February 1804. As a youth he worked for the Scottish explorer Hugh Clapperton and in 1825 went with him to northern Nigeria with the aim of exploring the Niger River. Both Lander and Clapperton suffered from a series of illness and Clapperton died on 18th April 1827. Richard Lander survived and returned to England in July 1828. Richard undertook a second expedition to the Niger area in 1830, when he was accompanied by his brother John. On his third trip to the area, in 1833 to 1834, Richard was killed by African natives near Fernando Po on 6th February 1834.

	(Anthony) Nigel Martyn (1966 to present day) - Footballer Nigel was born in 11th August 1966 in St Austell. He started amateur football with South Western League sides Bugle and then St Blazey. He turned professional in 1987 when he joined Bristol Rovers. On his transfer to Crystal Palace in 1989 he became the first English goalkeeper to be transferred for a million pounds. He appeared 349 times for Crystal Palace, including the 1990 FA Cup Final against Manchester United. His international career started in 1992 with the England away game in Moscow. He gained 23 England caps. In 1996 Leeds United paid £2.5 million pounds for him. Here he was first team goalkeeper for six seasons including the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup campaign and the 2000/2001 UEFA Champions League. In summer 2003 Nigel was bought by Everton and became their first choice goalkeeper very quickly. His last professional game ever was his 100th for Everton in the one-all FA Cup draw with Chelsea. On 8th June 2006 Nigel retired playing footbal due to recurring ankle injuries. In March 2007 he became goalkeeping coach at Bradford City.

	Rory McGrath (1956 - present day) - Comedian Rory was born in Redruth on 27th March 1956 and educated at Redruth Grammar School before going to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was a member of the Cambridge Footlights.

	John Nettles (1943 - present day) - Actor John Nettles was born on 11 October 1943 in St Austell and was adopted at birth by Eric and Elsie Nettles. He was educated at St. Blazey Primary School, St Austell Grammar School and Southampton University. Although appearing in repertory at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter in 1969 - 1970 and small television parts in The Liver Birds, Enemy at the Door and Robin of Sherwood, John came to fame in 1981 playing the role of Jersey dective Jim Bergerac for 87 episodes until 1991. In 1995 he took on another dective role as DI Tom Baranaby in Midsomer Murders.

	Dame Annette Penhaligon (1946 to date) - Local politician Born Annette Lidgey on 9th February 1946. Annette married David Penhaligon in 1968. She took over the post of sub-postmaster at Chacewater Post office when David became an MP. At the same time she became his secretary intil his death in December 1986. From 1987 to 1994 she was a member of Carrick District Council. In 1993 she was awarded the honour of Dame of the Order of the British Empire for services to politics and public service. She was a founding member of local independant radio station Pirate FM. She was been a member of Restormel District Council from 2003 until it became part of Cornwall Council in 2009. She was elected leader of Restormel Council in 2008. Annette married again in 1994 to Robert (Bob) Egerton.

	David Charles Penhaligon (1944 - 1986) - Politician David was born on D-Day (6th June 1944) near Truro. His father ran the sub-post office in Chacewater. David attended Truro School and then Camborne technical College before working for Holamn Brothers in Camborne as a research and development engineer. He was the chair of the Cornish Young Liberals from 1966 to 1968. In 1971 he was adopted as parliamentary candidate for the Truro constituency. In the election in February 1974 he cut the Tory majority to just 2,561 and in October 1974, because of the small government majority, he stood in another General Election and won the seat with a majority of 464 votes. In the 1979 election his majority was increased to 8,708. In 1984 he became the first sitting MP to be elected to the post of President-elect of the Liberal Party and in 1985 & 1986 was Party President. Many believe that David would have become leader of the party were it not for his untimely death in a car crash at 6:45 on the morning of 22nd December 1986 as he was travelling to meet with postal workers at St Austell sorting office. He was succeeded as MP for Truro by his former research assistant, Matthew Taylor. His wife, Annette, was his secretary throughout his parliamentary career. (See above for more about Annette.)

	Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch ("Q") (1863 - 1944) - Novelist Born in Bodmin on 21st November 1863. Whilst at Trinity College, Oxford he wrote his first adventure romance Dead Man’s Rock (Cassell, 1887) under his "Q" non-de-plume. The Astonishing History Of Troy Town (1888), and The Splendid Spur (1889) followed. In August 1889 he married Louisa Amelia. They had two children, Bevil and Foy. Foy, would become friends with Daphne Du Maurier, finished and published Q's Castle D'Or, a tale where the legendary Tristan and Iseult are transplanted to Cornwall in a spellbinding love story. In 1891, due to illness, he and Louisa settled at `The Haven', beside the sea at Fowey in Cornwall. He loved rowing and yachting and this led to him being appointed Commodore of the Royal Fowey Yacht Club in 1911 until his death. He was the Mayor of Fowey in 1937/38. His collection of short stories, I Saw Three Ships & Other Winter's Tales was published first in 1892. His Cornish The Delectable Duchy: Stories, Studies, and Sketches (1893) is a series of historical fictional sketches. Q devoted much otime and energy to the Oxford Book series, including the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900 (1900), The Oxford Book of Ballads (1910), and the Oxford Book of English Prose (1923). He was knighted in 1910. He was appointed professor of English literature at Cambridge University in 1912 and was a fellow of English at Jesus College, Cambridge. Sir Arthur Quiller Couch died at his home in Fowey on 12 May 1944. He was buried in the St Nicholas Churchyard in Fowey, Cornwall. Castle Dor, a retelling of the Tristan and Iseult myth in modern circumstances, was left unfinished at Quiller-Couch's death and was completed many years later by Daphne du Maurier.

	Dr Alfred (A L) Rowse (1903 - 1997) - Historian Born in St Austell in 1903. Educated at St Austell Grammar School before winning a scholarship to Oxford. He wrote Tudor Cornwall in 1941 and The England of Elizabeth in 1950.

	Kristen Scott-Thomas (1960 - present day) - Actress Born in Redruth on 24th May 1960. Became well known in English films including Four Weddings and A Funeral (1994), Mission Impossible (1996) and The English Patient (1996). She is the grand niece of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the Antarctic explorer who lost his life during the return from the South Pole in 1912.

	Richard Trevithick (1771 - 1833) - Mining engineer and Inventor Born in Tregajorran, Redruth on 13 April 1771. His created the high pressure steam engine and he built the first full-scale working steam railway locomotive. The world's first railway journey took place on 21st February 1804 when Trevithick's steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. Richard married Jane Harvey of Hayle in 1797. Jane was a daughter of John Harvey, a former blacksmith from Carnhell Green, who formed the local foundry Harveys of Hayle. The company became famous worldwide for building huge stationary 'beam' engines for pumping water, usually from mines, based on Newcomen’s and Watt’s engines. Trevithick built a full-size steam road locomotive in 1801 on a site near the present day Fore Street at Camborne. He demonstrated it on Christmas Eve 1801 by successfully carrying several men up Fore Street and then continuing on up Camborne Hill, from Camborne Cross, to the nearby village of Beacon. In about 1812 Trevithick designed the ‘Cornish boiler’. These were horizontal, cylindrical boilers with a single internal fire tube or flue passing horizontally through the middle. Hot exhaust gases from the fire passed through the flue thus increasing the surface area heating the water and improving efficiency. These types were installed in the Boulton and Watt pumping engines at Dolcoath Mine, Camborne and more than doubled their efficiency. In the same year he installed another high pressure engine in a threshing machine on a farm at Probus, Cornwall. It was very successful and proved to be cheaper to run than the horses it replaced. It ran for 70 years and was then exhibited at the London Science Museum in Kensington.

	Henry Trengrouse (1772 - 1854) - Inventor of the rocket line apparatus Born in Helston in on 18 March 1772, Henry was educated at Helston Grammar School. In 1807 Henry, with Captain George Manby, devised an apparatus for throwing a line to ships from the shore using a rocket rather than the mortar that had been used by Lieutenant John Bell since 1791. The rocket has the advantage of being lighter, cheaper to produce, reduced the possibility of the line breaking as the velocity of a rocket increases gradually. The whole apparatus couild be packed into a small wooden chest for use on board of most ships. An example of his life-saving apparatus is on display at Helston Folk Museum in the Butter Market. Trengrouse died at Helston on 14 February 1854, is buried in the churchyard of St Michael's Church, Helston, and commemorated in the name of Trengrouse Way, a main street in the town.

	Dr James Whetter (1935 to present day) - Historiam & Politician Dr Whetter was born in St Austell in 1935. He has written several books of Cornish history. Twice in 1974 he stood as the Parliamentary candidate for the Truro constituency representing the Mebyon Kernow party. In 1975 he founded the Cornish Nationalist Party. He is the director of the Roseland Institute for Cornish Studies. He is editor of the quarterly Cornish magazine, The Cornish Banner (An Baner Kernewek).

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Famous Men and Women of Cornwall