#1Famous people · Penrith, Cumbria
Of the 46 famous people born in Penrith, an unusual share are soldiers and sailors
Most widely known is Oliver Turvey, the racecar driver, with articles in 19 languages. The largest group, 17, was born since 1970. Per head, the list is long: 27.5 for every 10,000 residents, where the typical town in Cumbria has 10.4. Fewer than a quarter of the 54 towns in Cumbria with famous people list more.
Born here
46
notable people
Best known
Oliver Turvey
in 19 Wikipedia languages
First
1677
Thomas Nelson
Youngest
1999
Ella Telford
Most common field
Sports
25 people
What stands out about Penrith’s famous people
★ What stands out · Known for
What Penrith is known for
Compared with the usual town, business people are the most over-represented field, at 3.4 times.
The usual town: the share across everyone listed across UK towns. Tap a field to see its people.
Through the years
When Penrith’s famous people were born
Births peak in the 1980s, with 9 people born in that decade.
SportsWriting & ArtsScience & MedicineMilitaryBusinessPolitics & LawFaithFilm, TV & StageNotable
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
The best known
Born in Penrith
Athletes take two of the three places.
#1
#2
#3Writing & Arts
Bettina Arndt
born 1949Australian sex therapist and social commentator
11 Wikipedia languagesRead more ↗
Everyone
Everyone else born in Penrith
43 more, from 1677 to 1999.
Henry Alleyne Nicholson
1844–1899British palaeontologist and zoologist (1844-1899)
Science & MedicineWikipedia ↗
Adam Roberts
born 1940Senior Research Fellow in International Relations, Oxford University
Science & MedicineWikipedia ↗
Charles Spencer Denman, 5th Baron Denman
1916–2012British Baron and businessman (1916-2012)
Politics & LawWikipedia ↗
Charles Graham Robertson
1879–1954English soldier (1879–1954); recipient of the Victoria Cross
MilitaryWikipedia ↗
Alfred Lamb
1845–1890Businessman, banker and politician in New South Wales, Australia (1845-1890)
BusinessWikipedia ↗
Thomas Nelson
1677–1747English businessman, politician, and merchant at Yorktown in the Colony of Virginia
BusinessWikipedia ↗
William Thomas Shirley
1876–1929English-born Australian WWI soldier, creator of Sphinx Memorial
MilitaryWikipedia ↗
No one matches both filters.
Next door
Famous people from the towns next door
Appleby-in-Westmorland leads the towns around it, with 7 names.
Questions about famous people from Penrith
Who is the most famous person from Penrith?
Oliver Turvey (racecar driver) is the best known by our measure: Wikipedia has an article about them in 19 languages. Next come Mark Donovan and Bettina Arndt.
How many famous people were born in Penrith?
46 people born in Penrith have an English Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace. Wikidata places 50 people here; the rest aren’t listed because their article names somewhere else, or no town.
What is Penrith known for?
Among its famous people, athletes: 25 of the 46. That is 54% of the town’s list, against 49% across UK towns.
Who is the earliest-born famous person from Penrith?
Thomas Nelson, born in 1677. The youngest on the list was born in 1999.
Who counts as from Penrith?
People Wikidata records as born in a place inside Penrith’s built-up area (the ONS 2022 boundary), a hospital or district within it included, whose English Wikipedia article agrees. People who only lived here, adult performers and people known mainly for crimes aren’t listed.
Why is someone missing?
Their Wikidata birthplace may be a bigger area (“London”), another town, or missing, or their article may give no birthplace. We only list people both sources agree on; editing Wikidata or Wikipedia changes this page at the next refresh.
From Wikidata (CC0: birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations) and English Wikipedia (each person’s article confirms the birthplace; linked, not quoted). Birthplaces are placed in the town by the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary (Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0). Ranked by how many Wikipedia languages cover each person. Fields are read from Wikidata’s description and occupations. “The usual town”: everyone listed across UK towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Photo credits (18)
- Oliver Turvey: Jake Archibald from London, England, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Mark Donovan: Geof Sheppard, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Bettina Arndt: Bettina Arndt, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Henry Alleyne Nicholson: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Danny Grainger: Alonstoter, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- John Lester: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Stuart Lancaster: Charlie, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Fred Thompson Bowerbank: Supplement to the Auckland Weekly News, 3 March 1937, page 47 - photographer unknown, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Liz Blackman: Womera, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Anne Ireland: Ardfern, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Gary Lockerbie: Pvt pauline, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Joseph Hodgson: John Partridge (1790-1872), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Mike Ellery: Clément Bucco-Lechat, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Will Addison: Stefano Delfrate, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Charles Graham Robertson: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- John Lamb: Parliament of New South Wales, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Thomas Nelson: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- William Thomas Shirley: Sydney Morning Herald, unknown photographer, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.