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About Emsworth - Notable Residents (Past & Present)


 
Sir Peter Blake - Yachtsman, buried at nearby Warblington Church.


 Denise Black - Actress, best known for playing Denise Osbourne in the ITV1 soap Coronation Street and Hazel in Queer As Folk in 1999/2000.
 
Len Butt 1926-2021 (Capt L. G. Butt Ex D-Day Sapper 184 Field Coy., R.E), D-Day Veteran
 Of the 61,000 British soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy 70 years ago on June 6th 1944, fewer than 500 are still alive, amongst them is Len Butt. Len, born in Emsworth in 1926, spent his early years in one of the cottages at the junction of the High street and North Street where Central Building stands, now lives in Westbourne.
In 2004 Len wrote an account of his D-Day experiences which can be read HERE.
 
 

Albert Finney, was an English actor who worked in film, television and theatre. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in the theatre. He maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television.

He was known for his roles in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (also 1960), Tom Jones (1963), Two for the Road (1967), Scrooge (1970), Annie (1982), The Dresser (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), Big Fish (2003), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), The Bourne Legacy (2012), and the James Bond film Skyfall (2012).

A recipient of BAFTA , Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards, Finney was nominated for an Academy Award five times, as Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984), and as Best Supporting Actor for Erin Brockovich (2000). He received several awards for his performance as Winston Churchill in the 2002 BBC–HBO television biographical film The Gathering Storm.

  He died at age 82 from a chest infection on 7 February 2019, at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

Rear Admiral Phillip David “Percy” Gick (1913-2002) Naval aviator and  chairman of the Emsworth Shipyard Group.  Read more HERE
 
Tim Gudgin (born November 1929) is a British radio presenter and voiceover artist. He is best known for announcing the football results on the BBC sports programme Final Score. He was educated at the independent Whitgift School in South Croydon, London, but did not go to university. He succeeded Len Martin after his death in 1995. He had previously worked on the programme announcing the rugby and racing results. He retired on 19 November 2011. Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker described Gudgin as "one of the most familiar voices in sport" and "a quintessential part of Saturday afternoons in this country".
Gudgin has broadcast with the BBC since 1952. His voice has been heard on the BBC Radio 4 quiz Quote... Unquote, Housewives' Choice, Top of the Form and Friday Night is Music Night, amongst others. Interviewed in November 2011 Gudgin said, "I did an in-vision commercial for Square Deal Surf which bought me the first house I ever had without a mortgage, so that was well worth it."Gudgin is a Crystal Palace supporter and lives in Emsworth, Hampshire.Tim Gudgin died in November 2017.

Sir Mark Evelyn Heath - Diplomat, British Ambassador to Chad (1975–1978), the first British Ambassador to Holy See (1982–1985) and Head of Protocol for the Hong Kong Government (1985–1988).

Lt-Gen Sir Brian Horrocks (1895-1985) -  the prominent WWII general, commander of XXX Corps at Arnhem, retired from the army after the war as a result of wounds received during the earlier Tunisian campaign. Described by Eisenhower as “the outstanding British general under Montgomery,” he was Black Rod in the House of Lords 1949-63, writer of military histories, and more widely known for

 presenting several TV war documentaries. His home in Emsworth was the Poor House adjacent to St James’s church. When his daughter married John Herbert, son of A P Herbert, he gave the couple his cottage on the Town Millpond. In wartime, General Montgomery used to refer to him as “Jorrocks,” a nod to the good-natured sporty character in R S Surtees’ Victorian stories – and he was similarly known for his affability in Emsworth.  Read an extract from Lt-General Horrocks' autobiography HERE

 

General Sir David Richards formerly the Chief of the Defence Staff 2009-13


 
Noel Kinnell - civic leader, brewery owner and benefactor  Read More HERE

Nicholas Lyndhurst - Actor, best known for playing Rodney Trotter in Only Fools and Horses.

 J. C. Reger (1926-2006) - Teacher, Historian and author Read More HERE

Lee Spencer - Musician, music theorist and record producer.

Malcolm Waldron -Footballer, former Southampton, Burnley and Portsmouth player.

 William Whitcher - Former Hampshire cricketer.

George Wilder - Former Hampshire and Sussex cricketer whose name is inscribed on a stone at Emsworth Post Office dated 1906.

P.G. Wodehouse Writer see  PG Wodehouse in Emsworth