List of people from Lewes, East Sussex

Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England. The following is a list of those people who were either born or live in Lewes, or had some important contribution to make to the town.

Contents 

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• R
• S
• T
• W
• Y

A

• John Agard (1949– ), poet, playwright and children's author, lives in Lewes
• Russell Ash (1946–2010),^[1] author of Top 10 of Everything and other non-fiction books
• Daisy Ashford (1881–1972), juvenile novelist
• B. T. S. Atkins (1931- ), Lexicographer
• Lucy Atkins, Novelist

B

• Marina Baker (1967- ), former actress/ model, journalist, children's author and politician
• Norman Baker (1957– ), Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes.
• Wynne Edwin Baxter (1844–1920), lawyer, translator, antiquarian and botanist
• Arthur Brown (1942- ), musician, best known for his number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart "Fire" in 1968
• Ralph Brown (1957– ), actor
• Anthony Buckeridge (1912–2004), children's author, noted for his Jennings series, lived near Lewes from 1962 until his death

C

• Philip Carr-Gomm (1952–), leader of The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids
• Thomas Cobham (? –1327), Archdeacon of Lewes
• Richard Challoner (1691–1781), Roman Catholic bishop
• John Conolly (1794–1866), physician
• Shirley Collins (1935–), folk singer and collector
• Henry William Crosskey (1826–1893), geologist, Unitarian minister

D

• Nick Davies (1953- ), investigative journalist, author of Flat Earth News, uncovered the News of the World phone hacking affair
• Henry Dudeney (1857–1930), author and mathematician
• Alice Dudeney (1866–1945), author and diarist

E

• John Ellman (1753–1832), farmer and stockbreeder
• John Evelyn (1620–1706), writer, gardener, diarist

F

• Barry Fell (1917–1994), zoologist
• John Fitzalan, 1st Baron Arundel (c. 1348-1379)
• David Ford (1978– ), singer/songwriter
• Julia Foster (1943– ), actress

G

• Eve Garnett (1900–1991), author and illustrator
• Walter Godfrey (1881–1961), architect, historian and antiquarian
• John Sparkes Goldsmith (1878–1942), founder and first editor of The Ringing World
• Sarah Gordy
• Sir William Gull, 1st Baronet (1816–1890), physician
• Edward Castres Gwynne (1811–1888), Australian lawyer and politician

H

• Denzil Dean Harber (1909–1966), ornithologist and Trotskyist
• Ed Harcourt (1977- ), singer/songwriter
• Julius Charles Hare (1795–1855), theologian, Archdeacon of Lewes
• Edward Hargraves (1816–1891), Australian gold prospector
• Hugh Harris, musician - guitarist with The Kooks
• Jonathan Harvey (composer) (1939–2012), British composer
• John Berry Haycraft (1859–1923), professor in physiology
• Phil Hobden (1976– ), film producer
• George Hutson (1889–1914), athlete

I

• James Iredell (1751–1799), American lawyer and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

J

• Alison Jolly (1937–2014), primatologist
• Arthur M. Jolly (1969– ), writer
• Sir Richard Jolly (1934– ), development economist

K

• Peter Kellner (1946– ), journalist, political commentator, polling expert, president of YouGov
• Paul Austin Kelly (1960- ), opera singer
• Dame Grace Kimmins (1871–1954), social activist

L

• Eleanor of Lancaster (1311–1372), wife of Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel
• Peter Love (d. 1610), pirate, said to have been born in Lewes

M

• Gideon Mantell (1790–1852), obstetrician, geologist, palaeontologist
• Joan Maude (1908–1998), actress
• Wiliam McCrea (1904–1999), astronomer
• Reginald Medhurst (1920–2009), cricketer

N

• Grace Nichols (1950– ), poet, lives in Lewes.^[2]

O

• Patrick O'Brian CBE (1914–2000), author and novelist, and translator; well known for the Aubrey/Maturin series of sea stories, spent his childhood in Lewes.

P

• Thomas Paine (1737–1809), revolutionary, inventor and intellectual
• John Peckham (c1230–1292), Archbishop of Canterbury
• Brenda Pye (1907–2005), landscape artist

R

• Cater Rand (1749–1825), scientist, surveyor, book seller
• Thomas 'Clio' Rickman (1760–1834), brewer and pamphleteer
• Richard Russell (1687–1759), physician (water cure)

S

• Louis Francis Salzman (1878–1971), economic historian
• Sir George Shiffner (1762–1842), politician
• Professor Alasdair Smith (1949– ), economist and former Vice-Chancellor, University of Sussex
• John Maynard Smith (1920–2004), evolutionary biologist, geneticist
• Anthony Stapley (1590–1655), Member of Parliament; one of the regicides of King Charles I
• Noel Streatfeild (1895–1986), children's author

T

• Sir John Tomlinson (1946–), opera singer
• Polly Toynbee (1946–), journalist and writer
• Nicholas Tucker (–), academic and writer

W

• Ben Ward (1970– ), Comedy and BAFTA award-winning children's TV writer
• Edward Perry Warren (1860–1928), art collector
• Margaret Weedon (1854–1930), archer, who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics in London
• John Jenner Weir (1822–1894), civil servant, entomologist, ornithologist
• Mark Williams (actor) (1959–), actor and comedian
• Kenneth Woodroffe (1892–1915), first-class cricketer and British Army officer killed in action during World War I
• Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), novelist, essayist

Y

• Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690–1764), politician

References

1. Russell Ash
2. Margaret Busby (ed.), Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent (1992), London: Vintage, 1993, p. 796.