By Tim Lambert
ALDWINCKLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE John Dryden 1631-1700
ARBURY, WARKS George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) 1819-1880
ARNOLD Richard Bonington 1801-1828 Artist
BELPER, DERBYSHIRE Tracy Shaw 1973- Actor
BIRMINGHAM
Walter Allen 1911-1995 Writer
Eileen Atkins 1934- Actor
Michael Balcon 1896-1977 Film Producer
David Bomberg 1890-1957 Artist
Gerald Brockhurst 1891-1979 Artist
Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-98 Artist
Jasper Carrott 1945- Comedian
Barbara Cartland 1901-1999 Writer
Neville Chamberlain 1869-1940 Prime Minister
John Curry 1949-1994 Ice skater
Edgar Guest 1881-1959 Poet
Tony Hancock 1924-1968 Comedian
Felicity Kendal 1947- Actor
Charles Onions 1873-1965 Lexicographer
Ozzy Osbourne 1948- Singer
Max Pemberton 1863-1950 Writer
William Pole 1814-1900 Engineer
Sax Rohmer 1886-1959 Writer
Joseph Shorthouse 1834-1903 Writer
Julie Walters 1950- Actor
Reex Warner 1905-1986 Writer
Steve Winwood 1948- Singer
BRIDGNORTH Gerald Berners 1883-1950 Composer
BROMSGROVE
Geoffrey Hill 1932-2016 Poet
Laurence Housman 1865-1959 Writer
BURBAGE Roger Cotes 1682-1716 Mathematician
BURSLEM
Josiah Wedgwood 1730-95 Potter
Frederick Hayward 1876-1944 Leader of Co-operative movementBUXTON
Tim Brooke-Taylor 1942- Comedian
Lloyd Cole 1961- Singer
CANNOCK
Stan Collymore 1971- Footballer
Elgar Howarth 1935- Trumpeter
Russ Abbot 1947- Comedian
Sir Adrian Boult 1889-1983 Conductor
Randolph Caldecott 1846-1886 Artist
Samuel Molyneux 1689-1728 Astronomer
Richard Syne 1914-1994 Biochemist
Francis Firth 1822-1898 Photographer
John Hurt 1940-2017 Actor
Sir Robert Robinson 1886-1975 Chemist
COALVILLE Kathleen Fidler 1899-1980 Writer
CODSALL, STAFFORDSHIRE Sir Charles Wheeler 1892-1974 Sculptor
CONGLETON Alan Garner 1934- Writer
Laura Davies 1963- Golfer
Frank Ifield 1937- Singer
Nigel Hawthorne 1929-2001 Actor
Vince Hill 1934- Singer
Philip Larkin 1922-85 Poet
Ellen Terry 1847-1928 Actor
Sir Frank Whittle 1907-1996 Co-inventor of jet engine
CROMFORD, DERBYSHIRE Alison Uttley 1884-1976 Writer
DAVENPORT, CHESHIRE Margaret Burbidge 1919- Astronomer
DAWLEY, SHROPSHIRE Matthew Webb 1848-1883 The first person to swim the English Channel
DENBY, DERBYSHIRE John Flamsteed 1646-1719 Astronomer
Herbert Spencer 1820-1903 Sociologist
Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney 1843-1920 Chemist
Richard Roberts 1943- Biologist
Joseph Wright 1734-97 Artist
Charles Coulson 1910-1974 Chemist
Lenny Henry 1958- Comedian
EASTWOOD D H Lawrence 1885-1930 Writer
EAST RETFORD Catherine Gore 1799-1861 Writer
FENNY DRAYTON, LEICESTERSHIRE George Fox founder of the Quakers
GLOSSOP Vivienne Westwood 1941- Fashion Designer
HALESOWEN, WORCESTERSHIRE Leslie Bridgewater 1893-1975 Composer
HANLEY Arnold Bennett 1867-1931 Novelist
David Garrick 1717-1779 Actor
Thomas Traherne 1636-1674 Poet
John Masefield 1878-1967 Poet
HINCKLEY Davy Graham 1940-2008 Guitarist
HUCKNALL Eric Coates 1886-1957 Composer
Clive Owen 1964- Actor
Kevin Warwick 1954- Cyberneticist
KETTERING Alfred East 1849-1913 Artist
KIDDERMINSTER
Edward Bradley 1827-1889 Writer
Sir Rowland Hill 1795-1879 Invented the pre-paid penny stamp in 1840
LEAMINGTON SPA
Ethel Anderson 1883-1958 Writer
Terry Frost 1915-2003 Artist
LEDBURY
William Langland 1340-1400 Wrote Piers Plowman
Julian Barnes 1946- Writer
Henry Bates 1825-1892 Naturalist
Graham Chapman 1941-1989 One of the Monty Python team
John Merrick 1862-1890 ‘The Elephant Man’
Joe Orton 1933-1967 Playwright
C P Snow 1905-1980 Writer
Sue Townsend 1946- Writer
Colin Wilson 1931-2013 Writer
Elias Ashmole 1617-1692 Founder of Ashmolean museum in Oxford
Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 literary critic and lexicographer (dictionary writer)
LOUGHBOROUGH John Cleveland 1613-1658 Poet
LUTTERWORTH David Brightwell 1971- Footballer
LYE Sir Cedric Hardwicke 1893-1964 Actor
OSWESTRY Wilfred Owen 1893-1918 Poet
MACCLESFIELD Arthur Smith 1864-1944 Geologist
MANSFIELD
Robert Dodsley 1704-1764 Playwright
John Pye 1932- Zoologist
MANSFIELD WOODHOUSE John Ogdon 1937-1989 Composer
MARKET BOSWORTH Thomas Simpson 1710-1761 Mathematician
MARKET HARBOROUGH Jeremy Bulloch 1945- Actor
MELBOURNE Thomas Cook Pioneer travel agent
NANTWICH
David Beatty 1871-1936 Admiral
Kenneth Mather 1911-1990 Geneticist
NEWARK Sir Godfrey Hounsfield 1919-2004 Engineer
NEWCASTLE UNDER LYME Philip Astley 1742-1814 Pioneer of the circus
William Alwyn 1905-1985 Composer
Francis Crick 1916-2004 Biologist
Sir Jesse Boot 1850-1931 Retailer
William Booth 1829-1912 Founder of Salvation Army
Sir Charles Fellows 1799-1800 Archeologist
George Green 1793-1841 Mathematician
Sir Alister Hardy 1896-1985 Marine Biologist
Norman Pogson 1829-1891 Astronomer
Ken Loach 1936- Film Director
Thomas Simpson 1710-1776 Mathematician
OAKHAM Titus Oates 1649-1705 Liar who invented the ‘Popish plot’
PENKHULL, STAFFS Oliver Joseph Lodge 1851-1940 Scientist
REDDITCH Charles Dance 1946- Actor
RIPLEY Barnes Wallis 1887-1979 Inventor of the bouncing bomb
RUNCORN Sir Thomas Caine 1853-1931 Writer
RUGBY
Rupert Brooke 1887-1915 Poet
Sir Joseph Lockyer 1836-1920 Astronomer
Rose Macaulay 1881-1958 Writer
Margaret Louise Woods 1856-1945 Writer
RUSHDEN Herbert Ernest Bates 1905-1974 Writer
SHUGBOROUGH STAFFS George Anson 1697-1762 Admiral
SOLIHULL
Henry Tonks 1862-1937 Artist
John Benbow 1653-1702 Admiral
Thomas Porter Blunt 1842-1929 Scientist
Charles Burney 1726-1814 Composer
Charles Darwin 1809-1882 Scientist
STAFFORD Izaak Walton 1593-1683 Author of The Compleat Angler (1656)
STRENSHAM, WORCESTERSHIRE Samuel Butler 1612-1680 Poet
STOURBRIDGE
Anthony Bate 1934-2012 Actor
Frank Short 1857-1945 Artist
STRATFORD UPON AVON Sir William Flower 1831-1899 Zoologist