Famous people

A great many famous faces and illustrious individuals have called Portsmouth home throughout the years. There have been celebrated authors, great thinkers, and no small number of royals among the ranks of great ‘Pomponians’. At almost every turn you can walk streets frequented by some of the country’s most celebrated people.

Read on for some of the biggest names to have lived or worked in Portsmouth. Or see the enormous list dedicated to famous and celebrated women of Portsmouth, who have changed the face of science, sport, literature, and loads more besides.

Charles Dickens

The great Victorian author was born right here in Portsmouth, after his family moved to the coast for his father's job at the dockyard. Dickens was born inside a modest terraced house on what is now Old Commercial Road - which today stands as a museum dedicated to the great man. Inside, the rooms have been decorated to the Regency style popular at the time, with painstaking effort going in to make it look as it's likely to have done in the Dickens family’s time.

The museum also contains a number of Dickens’ personal artefacts, including his snuff box and the couch on which he died.

Dickens moved out of Portsmouth when he was still a very young boy, but the city played a part in his later life. When writing his third novel, The Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens returned to Portsmouth on a research mission – and even sought out the home in which he was born. He also came back to the city on numerous reading tours – attracting great crowds each time.

Henry VIII

The notorious king may be more familiar these days for his many wives and sizeable heft, but around these parts Henry VIII is remembered for his strong links to Portsmouth. In fact, he was in the city when the Mary Rose sank in battle with the French.

The Mary Rose was Henry’s beloved flagship – no small feat as the King set about creating an “army of the sea” during his reign, which included increasing the fleet from five vessels to 58. It’s said that Henry had a say in the design of the Mary Rose, including the heavy armoury she was able to carry. This is perhaps why she became his favourite.

Henry VIII didn’t just have a say on design of his warships, but England's fortifications too. Southsea Castle has an intriguing design made up of unusual curves and angles. Though such designs were becoming increasingly commonplace on the continent – where they were said to provide better visibility and fewer blind spots – they were less common in Britain. That is, until Henry kick-started a change.

It was within these curved and angled walls that Henry watched the Battle of the Solent unfold. Though a victory for the English forces, the battle saw the Mary Rose sink to the bottom of the sea – where she would lay for 437 years, before being raised in one of the largest marine salvage operations ever undertaken.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Not only did renowned author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle live and work in Portsmouth for a number of years, it’s also where he first came up with his most famous character – Sherlock Holmes.

The travelling doctor arrived into the city with just £10 to his name, and promptly set up a surgery at Bush Villas. Doyle was hardly rushed off his feet, so took to writing detective fiction to fill those empty hours. From those rather humble beginnings, the great Sherlock Holmes was born – right here in Portsmouth!

Doyle would go on to write the first two Sherlock Holmes novels in Portsmouth (and even turn out in goal for the team that would go on to become Portsmouth FC), before his work took him back out exploring the world.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

The engineering genius, who is said to have "changed the face of the English landscape" was born right here in Portsmouth. The Brunel family moved to the city when French engineer (and engineering icon in his own right) Marc Isambard Brunel was hired by the Dockyard to create a way to make high volumes of uniform wooden blocks quickly and cheaply. The machine that Brunel Snr came up with is said to have started the age of mass production through engineered metal tools.

Like Charles Dickens before him, young Isambard moved out of the city and to London at an early age. He would later go on to design the Clifton Suspension Bridge, SS Great Britain and the Great Western Railway (replete with what was the longest railway tunnel on earth at the time). In a more recent survey by the BBC to crown the '100 Greatest Britons', Isambard Kingdom Brunel came second (behind Winston Churchill).

Rudyard Kipling

The man who would go on to write The Jungle Book and seminal poem ‘If’, spent six years of his childhood here in Portsmouth. The move from Africa, where he was born, came about after his parents sent the young Kipling and his sister to England for schooling. Unfortunately for the young siblings, they were homed with a strict and very religious woman – who Kipling would later go so far as to say “bullied” the children in her care. That said, she did encourage reading – something that the would-be author was happy to oblige. This fired his love of words, and perhaps sent him on the course to become the writer we know today.

H.G. Wells

It was a similarly unhappy time for science fiction author H.G. Wells, who spent two years in the city as a draper’s apprentice. The budding author hated his time working at Hide’s Drapery Emporium on the intersection of Kings Road and St Paul’s Road. In fact, Wells hated it so much that he made an escape, going AWOL from Hide’s before turning up in London to work as a teaching assistant in London. Mercifully, Wells didn’t use this unhappy period as fodder to send Portsmouth tumbling to the Martians in The War of the Worlds – they focused their aggression on Woking instead.

Michelle Magorian

Children’s novelist Michelle Magorian was born in Portsmouth, and lived here until the age of seven, at which point her family moved to Singapore and Australia. The young Magorian dreamed of becoming an actress and would spend many hours at the Kings Theatre – which seems to have paid off, as her early career was in fact as an actress. However, it was in literature where Magorian would find her true calling, writing Costa Book Award-winning Young Henry and the seminal Goodnight Mister Tom – which won numerous awards and was turned into an enormously popular TV film starring John Thaw.

Magorian now lives in nearby Petersfield, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Portsmouth in 2007.

Hertha Marks Ayrton

Born Phoebe Sarah Marks in Portsmouth in 1854, Hertha Marks Ayrton would go on to become a successful mathematician, engineer, inventor and physicist.

Ayrton attended Cambridge University, thanks to support from renowned author George Eliot. There, she constructed a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure gauge), led the choral society, founded her college’s fire brigade, and co-founded a mathematical club. She also passed the Mathematical Tripos, but was not granted an academic degree as a result, because Cambridge only awarded women scholars certificates and not full degrees at the time. As year later she passed an external examination at the University of London and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree as a result. Her success advanced the suffrage cause and more recently Ayrton was bestowed the rare honour of having her own Google Doodle.

James Callaghan

Former Prime Minister 'Jim' Callaghan may well have been MP for Cardiff South East, but he was actually born in Portsmouth - Funtington Road, Copnor, to be precise. He went on to study at Portsmouth Northern Grammar School and tried to join the Royal Navy during the outbreak of World War II.

In his political career, Callaghan held all four great offices of state, the only person to have done so in British history. This started with his appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer, before he went on to become Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and then Prime Minister between 1976 and 1979.

Peter Sellers

Actor, comedian and singer Peter Sellers was born in Southsea - at the southern end of Castle Road. A showbiz career seemed destined for Sellers, who made his stage debut at the Kings Theatre at just two weeks old (thanks to his parents who performed in a touring variety act).

Sellers would go on to become part of the iconic Goon Show, alongside Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. Later he became a successful actor, with roles in the Pink Panther series, Casino Royale (the original), Lolita, Dr Strangelove and many more besides.

A blue plaque now adorns the wall of Sellers' first home.

Katy Sexton

Swimmer Katy Sexton MBE was born in Portsmouth, and now lives in the city where she runs the Katy Sexton Swim Academy - to give back to the city that supported her throughout her career.

In 2003, Sexton became the first British swimmer to win a World Championship title, having already toppled a number of records along the way. In her preferred backstroke, Sexton broke various junior records before progressing to senior level. In 1998, at the age of just 16, Sexton took Commonwealth gold in Kuala Lumpur for the 200m backstroke - the discipline that would also win her World Championship gold five years later. It wasn't just solo accolades Sexton built up; she also broke two British records in one year as part of the medley team.

Sexton's total career haul includes two gold, two silver and three bronze medals, as well as being selected as an Olympian twice. She now runs the aforementioned Swim Academy, as well as the Off The Record charity - a counselling service for 11-25 year olds.

Roger Black

World champion athlete Roger Black MBE was born in Gosport in 1966, and attended Portsmouth Grammar School - where he was Head Boy.

After rising to prominence in junior athletics events, Black graduated into the seniors at 20 years old - announcing his presence in some style by taking two Commonwealth gold medals in Edinburgh 1986. That same year he repeated the feat, winning two World Championship golds in Stuttgart. His total medal haul stands at nine gold medals, five silvers and one bronze (with two of the silvers and the bronze coming in the Olympic Games).

During his career, Black also broke an array of records, both as an individual athlete and as part of a successful British relay team of the late 80s and early 90s.

More recently, Black has become a regular face on TV, commenting on athletics as well as making appearances on Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Masterchef.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The 'muscles from Brussels' spent some time in Portsmouth during the early years of his career. He was invited to the city to take place in bodybuilding exhibitions, but arrived without much money to his name. Thankfully for Arnie, a kindly local family put him up (often buying him pints of milk when he couldn't even afford that) whilst he trained at a local gym.

Sir Alec Rose

Sir Alec Rose was once described as one of the most famous men in Britain, with the "shoestring sailor" capturing the attention of a nation with his round-the-world voyage.

His life was a relatively unassuming one until he turned 59, with Rose serving in the Royal Navy during World War II, before settling down in Portsmouth to run a greengrocer's. However, throughout his life Rose developed a love of amateur sailing and decided, having seen reports of others sailing around the world single-handedly, decided to make an attempt himself. There were two reasons driving this decision: one was to see his son who lived in Australia, and the other was simply to give it a try.

Rose set off from Plymouth in July 1967, saw his son in Melbourne in December, then made landfall back in the UK, on Southsea beach, on 4 July 1968 - just 10 days before his 60th birthday.

Rose's progress became a national talking point, and his wife Dorothy would give updates from the greengrocer's she continued to run in his absence. Upon returning home, Rose was given a knighthood - though he remarked at the accolade "What have I done to deserve this?"

A number of streets, pubs and buildings have been named in Rose's honour.

Charles II and Catherine of Braganza

The Infanta of Portugal, Catherine of Braganza, stepped foot on British shores at Portsmouth, ahead of her marriage to Charles II. She arrived in May 1662, staying at the Governor’s House as she awaited the king.

Famously, Charles’s first impression of his wife-to-be wasn’t quite the stuff of Richard Curtis-esque rom coms… Confiding in Lord Clarendon, Charles remarked: “Her face is not so exact as to be called a beauty, though her eyes are excellent good.” However, he did go on to explain how their personalities seemed to work well together, and that “you would wonder to see how well we are acquainted already”.

Get on well they did, with the couple married a week later in what is now the Royal Garrison Church at Old Portsmouth. Their marriage certificate is now just a few metres from the site of their marriage – at Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral.