Famous people from Your Neighbourhood/School

[garygooner]

This is probably not going to go down so well, but my mum went to the same school as Maggie Thatcher. She was also a baby-sitter for former Leicester goalie Mark Wallington. 

[Neeranam]

10 minutes ago, wagsthedog said:

in the 60's we lived 4 in a block ( 4 x 3 bedroom houses) on Dickens Ave Clydebank, above us were the Bannantynes, one of them went on to become famous ( Duncan). While waiting for my highschool to be rebuilt we had to attend a catholic high school, across the road (douglass st) was the Douglas Hotel, this had a public bar, the bar was turned into the Port Sunshine and features in Trainspotting 1.

I went to university in Edinburgh, famous for John Napier, the inventor of logarithms 

[Neeranam]

2 minutes ago, garygooner said:

This is probably not going to go down so well, but my mum went to the same school as Maggie Thatcher. She was also a baby-sitter for former Leicester goalie Mark Wallington. 

I went to school with Elsbeth Pirie, famous for hitting Maggie with an egg at the time she made only Scotland pay the Poll Tax.

[Jingthing]

If college was included I could go on for days. That seems like cheating. Generally not the same as place you grew up at. 

[nikmar]

Red Rum (not a person i know).

 

[Neeranam]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

If college was included I could go on for days. That seems like cheating. Generally not the same as place you grew up at. 

As you blocked me, you're not allowed to comment ????

[Golden Triangle]

Keith Flint of Prodigy fame lived 2 doors up from me in Essex (UK) 

[Neeranam]

16 minutes ago, nikmar said:

Red Rum (not a person i know).

 

In that case, Dolly the sheep, if clones count ???? Lived near me in Edinburgh.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Neeranam

[Andrew Dwyer]

Richard Whiteley - Countdown presenter and tv news reporter

Austin Mitchell - TV presenter and Labour MP

Brian Close - Yorkshire and England cricket captain.

John Helm - Sports commentator

 

My dad was a good friend and climbing buddy of Arthur Dolphin ( remarkable Brit climber chosen for Hillary’s ascent of Everest , didn’t go because he suffered from altitude sickness ) and was with him when he died in 1953 in Italy . My father had the unenviable task of identifying his body and notifying his parents. At age 23 my father abruptly abandoned his climbing career.

I always remember my father starting to tell me and my two brothers tales of Arthur Dolphin to which we would usually giggle and nudge each other “ did he say half a dolphin, he he “.

 

Sorry dad .

[Bob A Kneale]

In Liverpool Billy Fury bought the house next door to mine, Paul McCartney and John Lennon in pre-Beatles and early-Beatles days lived nearby.

Mike McGear, Bruce Grobbelaar and Craig Johnston lived close (Grobbelaar's daughter attended my wife's playschool).  I first met all three at a party at a mutual friend's house in Lower Heswall.

John Parrott lived close also.

[Orton Rd]

Met Emile Heskey the footballer in a Leicester pub when he was about 10, his uncle who I used to hang around with introduced him with said one day he'll play for Leicester and England, yeah right. Nice kid and nice bloke when he grew up. It was Sunday lunch and he had his kit on then, played for Highfield Rangers youth team. David Icke the conspiracy nutter went to my school, he was a moron there as well leaving at 15.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Orton Rd

[colinneil]

1 minute ago, Bob A Kneale said:

In Liverpool Billy Fury bought the house next door to mine, Paul McCartney and John Lennon in pre-Beatles and early-Beatles days lived nearby.

Mike McGear, Bruce Grobbelaar and Craig Johnston lived close (Grobbelaar's daughter attended my wife's playschool).  I first met all three at a party at a mutual friend's house in Lower Heswall.

John Parrott lived close also.

Appears we cannot take you serious in anything you say, as only a couple of weeks ago, you claimed to be Swedish.

[cmsally]

46 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

The first one. Harrow is only 450 years old.

 

My old neighbour (in the UK and now deceased) had a brother that went to Harrow. Apparently in the 1920's the brother's best friend would come and stay almost every holiday. Apparently that best friend was a Thai prince (no idea which one because no way could she remember the name!)!

My uncle was a good friend of Bobby Robson, very nice bloke, came to Sunday lunch at their house a number of times.

One of my very best friends was a very famous mountain climber from the US - he hated being well known. Not going to print his name here just because he wasn't really comfortable with being famous (he is now deceased). The only clue I will give is that one of his best buddies went on to create Patagonia clothing.

Went to Uni at the same time as Lembit Opik (politician) ; he was still a real nutcase back then. One of my best friends was very good friends with Anita Roddick (Body Shop). Unfortunately never got to meet her.

Met Bill Oddie a couple of times - turns out he was an avid birdwatcher , so would literally pop up in the middle of nowhere!

[PatOngo]

Lived in the same street as a guy who was famous for his deep fried shrimp, his name was Callum Murray! Then there was the famous virgin two streets away, Kim Possible!

 

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by PatOngo

[Neeranam]

14 minutes ago, cmsally said:

My old neighbour (in the UK and now deceased) had a brother that went to Harrow. Apparently in the 1920's the brother's best friend would come and stay almost every holiday. Apparently that best friend was a Thai prince (no idea which one because no way could she remember the name!)!

My elder daughter's Godmother would know, as she is distantly related to the following prince(the present king made an appearance at her wedding), and also went to a private high school in England. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purachatra_Jayakara 

 

I'll check with her as I used to teach Thai history, I find it very interesting. 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Neeranam

[Bob A Kneale]

19 minutes ago, colinneil said:

21 minutes ago, Bob A Kneale said:

In Liverpool Billy Fury bought the house next door to mine, Paul McCartney and John Lennon in pre-Beatles and early-Beatles days lived nearby.

Mike McGear, Bruce Grobbelaar and Craig Johnston lived close (Grobbelaar's daughter attended my wife's playschool).  I first met all three at a party at a mutual friend's house in Lower Heswall.

John Parrott lived close also.

Appears we cannot take you serious in anything you say, as only a couple of weeks ago, you claimed to be Swedish.

No, I did not claim that, unless Sweden is in the northwest of England, of course.  It seems that you're the one who shouldn't be taken seriously.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Bob A Kneale

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Was talking to a couple of friends recently about living near famous people.

My best friend, who live along the road from me, lived next door to Willie Miller, the best defender in the world at the time. On the same road, but opposite was Sir Alex Fergusson, after he had won the European Super Cup, Cup Winner's Cup, Scottish league etc. Annie Lennox lived in an adjoining street. 

Peter Mullan lived nearby. He was 'Swanny' in Trainspotting, Braveheart, Ozark etc. I was scared of him and maybe the most famous person to punch me on the nose ???? as well as the lead singer of The Exploited, who drank in the same Edinburgh pub.

The most famous guy at my was school was Lord Byron, the Romantic poet, but he was a few years above me!

 

Any famous people in your childhood neighbourhood?

 

The Sutherland Brothers, Gavin and Iain (the latter deceased, RIP). A couple of my favorites from their repertoire.

 

 

 

My sister was pals with Annie Lennox after they both headed their competing school debating teams. Two of my favorites from her Eurythmics repertoire.

 

 

 

[norfolkandchance]

Not Neighbourhood or School related but.

I was at RAF Benson in the early 80’s working in Air Operations.

One afternoon a load of Gliders had to divert due to bad weather.

The pilots where all collected and bought to our office to pay the landing fees and arrange collection of their gliders.

One of the pilots was Christopher Reeve. After all the formalities where sorted out, Reeve came across and asked where could he get changed. Without batting an eyelid my boss replied that there was a telephone box just around the corner.

 

[Neeranam]

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

 

The Sutherland Brothers, Gavin and Iain (the latter deceased, RIP). A couple of my favorites from their repertoire.

 

 

 

My sister was pals with Annie Lennox after they both headed their competing school debating teams. Two of my favorites from her Eurythmics repertoire.

 

 

 

my dad was a friend of Jimmy Shand

 

[moontang]

When I was 8, our family of five took a vote.  Central aircon for the 1955 house we bought two Summers before, or color TV.  The 1972 Summer Olympics were approaching, and Melisa Belote, lived four blocks away, and was participating.  We voted 3-2 in favor of color TV.  Melisa won three gold medals.

 

Ernest Lawrence's youngest daughter was a regular at my local pub in Berkeley.  Her dad was a key player in A-bomb development, and won a Nobel Prize in 1939.  

 

[katatonic]

4 hours ago, doctormann said:

My son was at school with Rowan Atkinson when they were at St. Bees School in Cumbria.

St. Bees is closed now unfortunately. My school cross-country raced and played rugby and cricket against them. Didn't know Rowan Atkinson went there, although he lived just down the road from us. 

I met Alec Guinness once at a friend's house in Edinburgh, on the Meadows. We had afternoon tea and chatted, then he left and my friend said to me: did you realise who that was? Unfortunately I had had no idea. 

I danced with Hugh Grant in Basil's Bar in Mustique once, on my birthday, which was cool. He had several girls in tow.. My Dad introduced me to Sir Len Hutton (famous cricketer) once. I'm sure he didn't really know him..! Also Bill Beaumont (rugby) and I met Jonny Wilkinson in our local Spar shop - he lives in the village.

I met John Peel the Radio 1 & 2 DJ - I just totally got in his way while ligging, or attempting to and deserved his mild but funny put-down.. Also Andy Kershaw. I was supposed to pull his mike lead out of the stage box as he'd finished talking, but just unplugged the record player signal lead instead.. wasn't popular there either!! Played pool against Nick Mason of Pink Floyd in the south of France. Didn't realise who he was either until I offered him a lift in the Jag XJR I had at the time and he said 'no thanks - I'll take my Ferrari F40..'

 

Some of those weren't strictly school or neighbourhood, sorry!

Edited May 29, 2020 by katatonic

[Hank Gunn]

Hmm, I can name a few now that I think about it.

 

I was born in '61, inCleveland, OH, where my dad grew up and he was a big civil rights supporter back in the '60s. As such, he was big supporter of Carl Stokes, the first elected black mayor of a major American city. After being sworn into office he moved into a house about 6 houses down the street from us. (When I was about 7, I was given a couple of "walkie-talkies" and was staying overnight at my friend's house playing around with them. He happened to live next door to Mayor Stokes and because the mayor had just move in, his police detail were out front, none too pleased that my little walkie-talkies were stomping over their radios. I think they eventually had to move to a different frequency to avoid us.) ????

 

Jump ahead a couple of years and Dad moved the family to Toronto, when he started a computer company with some friends and associates. We ended up moving into a house down the street from the parents of Ken Dryden, who attended the same local elementary/grade school as I and my siblings. He was/is a national hero in Canada, playing goalie for 5 Stanley Cup (NHL championship) winning, Montreal Canadiens teams, as well as the Canadian All-Star team that beat the Russian National team in the 1972 Summit Series. Later, I went to high school at Richview Collegiate Institute, where I was three years behind Stephen Harper, 22nd Prime Minister of Canada. (My older sister, who was most the most academically achieving of myself and my two other siblings and who later attended Stanford, knew him and later said that she figured he'd eventually become a successful lawyer or something similar.)

 

When I was 17, Dad moved us out to the South S.F. Bay Area (Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills, CA area) when sis went to Stanford. I did my last yr. of high school at Henry M. Gunn (hence my user name here) in Palo Alto, where Stanley Jordan (famous jazz guitarist famous for developing a unique fingering technique) graduated 2 yrs. before I did. Mom ended up working at Stanford for about 25-30 years and the last 12 yrs or so, she was secretary to George Schultz (former Sec. of State under Pres. Reagan) at the Hoover Institute.

 

My dad liked to network a lot and belonged to a number of clubs, including The Churchill Club and the Kenna Club (named for Father Kenna, an influential priest at Santa Clara Univ. a local private, Jesuit school with a very good Engineering, and graduate Business and Law schools). I attended a few of these and at a meeting of the Kenna club, I met and got to shake hands with Leon Panetta (an alum of Santa Clara). Leon Panetta was a US Congressman from California, before becoming White House Chief of Staff for Pres. Clinton, and was later named Dir. of the CIA by Pres. Obama.

 

Wow, thanks for this topic, it got me thinking about some of the famous people that I met, in addition to the ones that were from my neighborhood while growing up.

[Pilotman]

6 hours ago, Neeranam said:

My father was a school friend of Denis Law.

Denis Law went to school?  Well there's a surprise.  It didn't show. 

[Pilotman]

My Mother's first cousin married Sir Lawrence Olivier and Mother was in the same class as the actor, Donald Pleasance. 

[bodga]

5 hours ago, garygooner said:

This is probably not going to go down so well, but my mum went to the same school as Maggie Thatcher. She was also a baby-sitter for former Leicester goalie Mark Wallington. 

I  Liked  Maggie

[Phil McCaverty]

4 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

David Icke the conspiracy nutter went to my school

Met him several times in the Sloop on the I-O-W. Used to take his large and undisciplined family there for lunch. A nobody who thought he was somebody.

[faraday]

2 minutes ago, bodga said:

I  Liked  Maggie

Clearly, you're not Welsh....

 

????

[Neeranam]

11 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

My Mother's first cousin married Sir Lawrence Olivier and Mother was in the same class as the actor, Donald Pleasance. 

My great grandfather, Angus McLeod was a famous bagpipe composer.

[Neeranam]

6 minutes ago, Phil McCaverty said:

Met him several times in the Sloop on the I-O-W. Used to take his large and undisciplined family there for lunch. A nobody who thought he was somebody.

Icke's theories actually make a lot of sense now. So much that YouTube and other media have banned his videos ????

[bodga]

4 minutes ago, faraday said:

Clearly, you're not Welsh....

 

????

Parents  live in Wales spent  many years in a  cottage at Ponterwyd seen here  molesting a sheep, proof  if  ever it was  needed its  Wales baaaaaa