Out of nowhere this question popped into my head earlier, then without any hesitation my answer came with great certainty. Stephen Fry.
Who's yours...?
Dennis Potter
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Charles Darwin.
Brunel
Thora Hird
Air Marshall Arthur "bomber" Harris.
Living. David Hockney.
Dead. William Blake and/or Oliver Cromwell.
slainte 😀 rob
Jim Davidson
I don't feel "British", can I post someone else instead? What is "Britishness" anyway? Isn't is just another word for English? 😛
Anyway, Kirkpatrick Macmillan and Graeme Obree make me proud to be Scottish 🙂
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Lord William Armstrong
MF DOOM (all caps, natch)
Surf Matt
Winston Churchill.
Edward I, because he kicked some skirt wearing nancy boy all over scotland 😀
Living - Steve Redgrave
Dead - Churchill
Leonard Cheshire.One of the greatest
A wee explanation as some might not have herd of him. War hero - squadren leader of 617 squadron (the dambusters) after the Dams raid. got a VC for various acts of great courage.
After the war founded a series of homes for the elderly and disabled - partly by happenstance - an organisation that today is widespead and successful.
A hero in war and a hero in peace
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Living - Steve Redgrave
Dead - Churchill
Churchill was an arsehole. Attlee and Chamberlin won the war. Everything Churchill involved himself in he ****ed up. A good salesman though.
This fella...
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ada lovelace and charles babbage
Alan turing was bloomin good as well
Donald Dewar.
Made me proud to be Scottish and British. Apparently, he hadn't even got round to unpacking the boxes in his new home when he died.
Ernest shackelton.
top lad in my view.
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and, same as Brake-neck
Chubby Henry VIII .... you need to ask? Off with your head. 🙄
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Edward I, because he kicked some skirt wearing nancy boy all over scotland
Not Tazzy!! 👿
Still Leonard Cheshire.
Not one person on this thread to touch him
Bobby Moore. The picture of him and Pele . Can't imagine todays bloody youngsters losing that well.
Frederick Sanger OM. 2 Nobel prizes in chemistry, first for understanding protein sequence, second for understanding DNA sequence. The father of molecular biology and what we now call genomics.
I was just going to mention him as a great man who happened to by British, bu thinking about it I do take some pride in his being British. That such fundamental areas of science were pioneered in the UK is something to be proud of, as is his legacy of world class science that continues to this day in our country.
TJ in elderly care what would the categorization of EMI for an individual mean exactly?
(sorry for the off topicness)
A wee explanation as some might not have [s]herd[/s] [b]heard[/b] of him. War hero - [s]squadren[/s][b]squadron[/b] leader of 617 squadron (the dambusters) after the Dams raid. [b]G[/b]ot a VC for various acts of great courage.
FTFY
Andrew Carnegie.
gary moore
graeme obree
james dean bradfield
kate bush
mike oldfield
dave gilmour
peter green
guthrie govan
i can go on ... (p.s i'm part scottish/welsh also.hoping that i'm part irish too 😀
nonk - MemberTJ in elderly care what would the categorization of EMI for an individual mean exactly?
(sorry for the off topicness)
Elderly mentally infirm.
zippy i just googled that, i had never seen that pic before. 🙂
Ah cheers tj that make sense now.
David hume.
I.K. Brunel
Alan Turing
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p.s i'm part scottish/welsh also.hoping that i'm part irish too
If it turns out you are part irish you can join my part english part scottish part welsh part irish club. I'm also 1/8th dwarf. My irish bit isn't linked to a bit of irelands history you'd want to celebrate though.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
Alive Sir David Attenborough.
Dead Harry Patch.
Barry chuckle
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No one , I don't get patriotism at all. That isn't a criticism, it just means nothing to me.
Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama
From these guys...
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To her...
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we do this better than pretty much everywhere else 
I like
Sir Francis Drake, mainly because I was hopelessly lost in LA. Having walked for miles along the beach I went inland to get some shade I then walked another mile through an industrial area looking for a cab. I finally find a cab and start chatting to the cabbie who knew a lot about LA. He then said; "You know that English guy I really like" I'm thinking go on then Beckham, Lennon, Bond. "Sir Fwancis Dwake" He then gave me a history lesson I'll never forgot. Top guy.
Steve Peat, For showing that nice guys do win. I loved seeing him win the worlds!
Robin Day, For designing the most ubiquitous of items.
count [ the typo got caught by the swear filter] zero and his services to pedantry.
Tony Hibbert is another guy who makes you proud to be British. Overcomes hideous limitations in ability and plays premiership football each week. Apparently gets paid, too.
No one , I don't get patriotism at all. That isn't a criticism, it just means nothing to me.
it is indeed just a patch of land you happened to be born on.
Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg Battenberg
Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg Battenberg
I'll see your Battenberg and raise you a Mr Kippling
Don't you have to have contributed to something to be proud of it? How can someone born in the same country, doing something better than you've done, make you proud? Just asking like.
Must be January/mid life crisis month.
Be proud of what you have achieved.
It tends to be what the person who you're proud have has done, if your proud of them because they did nothing and you did something that would make no sense.
so idave I should feel equally about Ghandi or stalin as I contributed nothing to their achievements then
I suppose I could use living example as well. I see nothing wrong with admiring folk for what they have achieved even though i have done nothing to help them achieve it
I dont give a toss about being British but people from Britain I admire are, Iain Banks, Tim Roth, Stephen Fry and Thom Yorke. I also have alot of time for Jamie Oliver. Although a bit nippy at times he;s done alot of good for our kids. Nice to see someone use their fame for good.
I feel quite lucky to be British.
I mean there are a few other nationalities I wouldn't mind being, but I'm pretty glad not to be Nigerian, or North Korean, or Bangladeshi.
I'm sure people from those countries will also be proud of their nationalities, but
they don't half increase your chances of having a pretty tough life.
How about this guy?
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Morrissey.
Joe Strummer
rightplacerighttime - Member
How about this guy?
For parking his van somewhere scenic and having a w@nk? Or being a "scruffy truck fitter"? 🙂
I like Guy, admire his skill and racing spirit, also his honesty and 'joie de vivre' - but does he make me proud to be British? No.
I admire people mentioned above, other Brits too - just not in a different way than I admire any other individual, regardless of nationality. Maybe I just don't get patriotism.
To paraphrase Doug Stanhope - "Britain is just a government trying to make you behave in a certain way. We're not British; we're just people, individuals. I'm no more British than I am a virgo or an uncle, it's something you called me and I just was here"
The Armstrong clans (border reivers) of the west march for freshening up the English gene pool.Could you imagine how bad the neighbours would be without 400 years of this valuable input/freshening of their gene pool?
Forget your shouty shouty "look at me, look at me" explorer types like Scott* and Sir Ranulph Fiennes* and bring me Shackleton.
Shackleton was the MAN.
PS: TazzyMTB: Not sure Mr. Crowley was a great rep for Britain....as mad as a box of frogs maybe....
*Other opinions may exist. This is my opinion only.
myself
Living.
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Dead.
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@ Kojaklollipop a great hero of mine there and wrote the best book I've ever read.
If it turns out you are part irish you can join my part english part scottish part welsh part irish club. I'm also 1/8th dwarf. My irish bit isn't linked to a bit of irelands history you'd want to celebrate though
Daddy!!!!!
Elfinsafety for me.
William Wilberforce.
Anyway - a great Englishman (Before the time of Great Britain)
John Lilburne, Leader of the Levellers, writer of two of the greatest tracts of political thought ever written,
An Agreement Of The People
England's New Chains
Put on trial for treason by BOTH sides during the Civil Wars, a real pain in the 'arris for King and Cromwell alike.
Also the instigator of the American Constitution over 100yrs before it was written, an inspiration for people like Thomas Payne.
How about this guy?
Wolverine is working as a mechanic now?
Oh and Alfred the Great. Only King from these isles to get called that. Good reasons too.
John Terry as well.
Good reasons too
To distinguish him from King Alfred the Shortarse ?
Shackleton was the MAN.
He certainly was. But wasn't he Irish?
Tanni Grey-Thompson
The Guinea Pig Club
Shakespeare
Elgar
Stubbs
Munnings
And many, many more.
Well he was born and died British, thanks to British imperialism. There was no such thing as Irish nationality during Shackleton' life.
@ tazzymtb - I think Jimmy Page would agree.
There's so many: Alan Turing, John Lennon, Shakespear, Sir Christopher Wren, Willian Blake, John Barry and that's just the dead ones.