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Names Suggested by the Public for use on Bank of England Banknotes
By Bank of England | Tuesday, 18 December 2007
The list comprises names of individuals suggested by members of the public for use on Bank of England banknotes. The Bank reserves the right not to include suggested names, entirely at its discretion. In particular, it would not include fictional names, names which are not reasonably well known, and names which the Bank considers might cause public offence. Inclusion on the list does not imply any endorsement by the Bank.
Character used on Bank of England banknote
| Subject | Birth | Death | Profession/Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roger Bacon | 1220 | 1292 | Philosophy |
| Geoffrey Chaucer | 1340 | 1400 | Writer |
| Thomas Tallis | 1505 | 1585 | Composer |
| Francis Drake | 1540 | 1596 | Explorer / Naval Commander |
| William Shakespeare | 1564 | 1616 | Poet / Playwright |
| Inigo Jones | 1573 | 1652 | Architect |
| William Harvey | 1578 | 1657 | Physician |
| John Milton | 1608 | 1674 | Poet |
| Robert Boyle | 1627 | 1691 | Chemistry |
| John Bunyan | 1628 | 1688 | Author |
| Sir John Houblon | 1632 | 1712 | Bank's first Governor |
| Sir Christopher Wren | 1632 | 1723 | Architect |
| Samuel Pepys | 1633 | 1703 | Diarist/Naval Administrator |
| Robert Hooke | 1635 | 1703 | Surveyor-Physicist |
| Sir Isaac Newton | 1643 | 1727 | Scientist |
| Henry Purcell | 1659 | 1695 | Music |
| Thomas Newcomen | 1663 | 1729 | Engineer - Steam Engine |
| Abraham Darby | 1678 | 1717 | Engineer-Iron |
| Lady Mary Wortley Montagu | 1689 | 1762 | Feminist Author |
| John Capability Brown | 1716 | 1783 | Landscape Architect |
| James Brindley | 1716 | 1772 | Canal Builder |
| Thomas Chippendale | 1718 | 1779 | Furniture Design |
| James Hargreaves | 1720 | 1778 | Inventor/Engineer |
| Adam Smith | 1723 | 1790 | Economist |
| Sir Joshua Reynolds | 1723 | 1792 | Painter (RA Founder) |
| John Smeaton | 1724 | 1792 | Engineer (Lighthouse) |
| Thomas Gainsborough | 1727 | 1788 | Painter |
| James Cook | 1728 | 1779 | Explorer |
| Robert Adam | 1728 | 1792 | Architect |
| Mathew Boulton | 1728 | 1809 | Engineer |
| Josiah Wedgwood | 1730 | 1795 | Industrialist |
| Henry Cavendish | 1731 | 1810 | Scientist |
| Sir Richard Arkwright | 1732 | 1792 | Inventor/Engineer |
| James Watt | 1736 | 1819 | Engineer |
| Joseph Banks | 1743 | 1820 | Botanist |
| Olaudah Equiano | 1745 | 1797 | Writer, Former Slave, Abolitionist. |
| Edward Jenner | 1749 | 1823 | Doctor |
| Humphry Repton | 1752 | 1818 | Landscape Designer |
| Sir John Soane | 1753 | 1837 | Architect |
| Thomas Bewick | 1753 | 1828 | Wood Engraver |
| Thomas Coke | 1754 | 1842 | Agricultural Improvement |
| Thomas Telford | 1757 | 1834 | Civil Engineer |
| Lord Townsend | 1757 | 1833 | MP |
| William Blake | 1757 | 1827 | Poet |
| Admiral Lord Nelson | 1758 | 1805 | Naval Commander |
| Robert Burns | 1759 | 1796 | Poet and Lyricist |
| William Wilberforce | 1759 | 1833 | Social Reformer |
| John Rennie | 1761 | 1821 | Scottish Civil Engineer who designed many bridges, Canals and Docks |
| 1st Duke of Wellington | 1769 | 1852 | General / Statesman |
| William Wordsworth | 1770 | 1850 | Poet |
| Richard Trevithick | 1771 | 1833 | Steam Locomotive |
| David Ricardo | 1772 | 1823 | Economist |
| George Caley | 1773 | 1857 | Aeronautics |
| Jane Austen | 1775 | 1817 | Novelist |
| Joseph William Turner | 1775 | 1851 | Painter |
| John Constable | 1776 | 1837 | Painter |
| Sir Humphrey Davy | 1778 | 1829 | Chemist |
| Mary Fairfax Greig Somerville | 1780 | 1872 | Mathematician |
| Elizabeth Fry | 1780 | 1845 | Social reformer |
| George Stephenson | 1781 | 1848 | Engineer |
| Sir Robert Peel | 1788 | 1850 | Prime Minister |
| Lord Byron | 1788 | 1824 | Poet |
| Charles Babbage | 1791 | 1871 | Mathematician |
| Michael Faraday | 1791 | 1867 | Chemist |
| John Keats | 1795 | 1821 | Poet |
| George Peabody | 1795 | 1869 | Philanthropist |
| W H Fox Talbot | 1800 | 1877 | Photographer |
| Lord Shaftesbury | 1801 | 1885 | Politician |
| Joseph Paxton | 1803 | 1865 | Architect |
| Joseph Whitworth | 1803 | 1887 | Engineer |
| Mary Grant Seacole | 1805 | 1881 | Nurse |
| I K Brunel | 1806 | 1859 | Engineer |
| Elizabeth Browning | 1806 | 1861 | Poet |
| John Stuart Mill | 1806 | 1873 | Philosopher |
| Ira Aldridge | 1807 | 1867 | Shakespearean Actor |
| William Penney | 1808 | 1892 | Explorer |
| Charles Darwin | 1809 | 1882 | Naturalist |
| Alfred Lord Tennyson | 1809 | 1892 | Poet |
| Sir Gilbert Scott | 1811 | 1878 | Architect |
| Harry Clasper | 1812 | 1870 | Professional Rower and Boat builder |
| Charles Dickens | 1812 | 1870 | Writer |
| Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin | 1812 | 1852 | Architect / Designer |
| Sir Henry Bessemer | 1813 | 1898 | Engineer |
| Sir (Isaac) James Pitman | 1813 | 1897 | Educator Publisher |
| Grace Darling | 1815 | 1842 | Lifeboats |
| Florence Nightingale | 1820 | 1910 | Nursing |
| Dadabhai Naoroji | 1825 | 1917 | MP |
| Lord Lister | 1827 | 1912 | Medicine |
| General William Booth | 1829 | 1912 | Social Reformer |
| James Clerk Maxwell | 1831 | 1879 | Mathematician |
| William Morris | 1834 | 1896 | Artist |
| Sir John Lubbock, the First Lord Avebury | 1834 | 1913 | Scientist, Politician, Author and Banker |
| Henry Maudsley | 1835 | 1918 | Psychiatrist |
| Elizabeth Garrett Anderson | 1836 | 1917 | Medicine |
| Isabella Mary Beeton | 1836 | 1865 | Domestic Science |
| Octavia Hill | 1838 | 1912 | Social Reformer |
| Thomas Hardy | 1840 | 1928 | Writer |
| Dr Thomas Barnardo | 1845 | 1905 | Childcare Reformer |
| Charles Parsons | 1854 | 1931 | Steam Turbine |
| Sir Edward Elgar | 1857 | 1934 | Music |
| Robert Baden-Powell | 1857 | 1941 | Scouting |
| Dame Emily Penrose | 1858 | 1942 | Education |
| Emmeline Pankhurst | 1858 | 1928 | Suffragette |
| Dame Ethel Smyth | 1858 | 1944 | Composer |
| Margaret McMillan | 1860 | 1931 | Education |
| Frederick Henry Royce | 1863 | 1933 | Engineer |
| Rudyard Kipling | 1865 | 1936 | Writer |
| Edith Cavell | 1865 | 1915 | Nurse |
| (Helen) Beatrix Potter | 1866 | 1943 | Author |
| Herbert George Wells | 1866 | 1946 | Writer |
| Captain Robert Falcon Scott | 1868 | 1912 | British Royal Navy Officer and Antarctic Explorer |
| Ralph Vaughan Williams | 1872 | 1958 | Music |
| Bertrand Russell | 1872 | 1970 | Philosopher |
| Sir Winston Churchill | 1874 | 1965 | Statesman |
| Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor | 1879 | 1964 | First Woman MP |
| Marie Stopes | 1880 | 1958 | Scientist |
| Sir Alexander Fleming | 1881 | 1955 | Medicine |
| John Maynard Keynes | 1883 | 1946 | Economist |
| Sir Barnes Wallis | 1887 | 1979 | Scientist |
| Sir Robert Watson-Watt | 1892 | 1973 | Physicist |
| Reginald Mitchell | 1895 | 1937 | Aeronautical Engineer |
| Sir John Cockcroft | 1897 | 1967 | Scientist |
| Earl Mountbatten of Burma | 1900 | 1979 | British Admiral of the Fleet/Last Viceroy of India |
| Queen Mother | 1900 | 2002 | Member of the Royal Family |
| Lord Maybray King | 1901 | 1986 | MP/Former Speaker of the House of Commons |
| George Orwell | 1903 | 1950 | Author |
| Sir Frank Whittle | 1907 | 1996 | Engineer |
| Alan Turing | 1912 | 1954 | Mathematician/Cryptographer |
| Benjamin Britten | 1913 | 1976 | Composer |
| Rosalind Franklin | 1920 | 1958 | Scientist |
| HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | 1921 | Member of the Royal Family | |
| Sir Jimmy Savile OBE | 1926 | Television Presenter | |
| Sir Jonathan Miller | 1934 | Neurologist/Theatre Director/Presenter | |
| Michael Parkinson | 1935 | Television Presenter | |
| Terry Wogan | 1938 | Radio/Television broadcaster | |
| John Cleese | 1939 | Comedian/Actor | |
| Richard Dawkins | 1941 | Ethologist/Evolutionary Biologist | |
| Stephen Hawking | 1942 | Physicist | |
| Mick Jagger | 1943 | Musician | |
| Richard Branson | 1950 | Entrepreneur | |
| Linda Smith | 1958 | 2006 | Comedian/President of the British Humanist Association |
| The Beatles | - | - | Musicians |
| Princess Diana | 1961 | 1997 | Member of the Royal Family |
| Robbie Williams | 1974 | Singer/Song-writer | |
| Michael Vaughan | 1974 | Cricketer | |
| David Beckham | 1975 | Footballer | |
| Jonny Wilkinson | 1979 | Rugby player |
