List of people from the London Borough of Bexley

Sir Cloudesley Shovell

• George Albert Cairns (1913–1944), winner of the last Victoria Cross of World War II, lived and worked in Sidcup.[1]
• Sir John Champneys (1495–1556), Lord Mayor of London in 1534, began the building of Hall Place in 1537. He is buried in St. Mary the Virgin Church in Old Bexley.[2]
• William Claiborne (c.1600–c.1677), originally from Crayford, pioneer, early settler in the Americas, and from 1621 the surveyor of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, later establishing, in 1631, the first permanent European settlement in Maryland, on Kent Island where his own residence was called Fort Crayford.[3][4][5]
• Sir Frederick Currie (1799–1875), British diplomat and colonial administrator, lived at the Manor House, May Place.[6][7]
• Godfrey Huggins (1883–1971), 1st Viscount Malvern, Commonwealth statesman and Prime Minister of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, was born in Bexley.[8]
• Melita Norwood (1912–2005), Cold War Soviet spy, lived undetected in Bexleyheath until her death.[9]
• Harry Ord (1819–1885), colonial administrator who served as governor of Bermuda and Western Australia, born in North Cray.[10]
• Mike Rann (1953–), Premier of South Australia, politician, born in Sidcup, lived in Blackfen prior to emigrating to New Zealand with his parents.[11]
• Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell (1650–1707), naval officer, lived at May Place between 1694 and 1707.[12][13]
• Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769–1822), politician and Foreign Secretary from 1812, lived at Loring Hall, North Cray, until his suicide by knife in 1822.[14] His residency at Loring Hall is marked by an English Heritage blue plaque.[2][15]
• Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (1733–1800), politician and Cabinet minister, lived in Frognal House, Foots Cray.[16]
• Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley (1766–1851), politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1812–22). Created Baron Bexley on his resignation as Chancellor, Vansittart lived in Foots Cray Place with his wife until his death. As he died without children, he was the only Baron Bexley.[17]
• James Wellbeloved (1926–2012), politician, first leader of newly created Bexley London Borough Council (1956–65), Labour MP for Erith & Crayford (1965–83), lived in Erith.[18]
• Henry Wheatley (1777–1852), keeper of the privy purse for King William IV and Queen Victoria from 1830 to 1846, born and raised in Lesney House, Erith.[19]

Hiram Maxim

• Patrick Young Alexander (1867–1943), aeronautical pioneer, born in Erith or Belvedere.
• Sir William Anderson (1834–98), engineer and philanthropist, lived in Erith from 1864 until 1889 and contributed substantial time and money to the local community.[20]
• Augustus Applegath (1788–1871), inventor of the vertical printing-press, also built Shenstone House, lived and worked in Crayford.[21]
• Sheila Callender (1914–2004), haematologist, born in Sidcup.[22]
• Frank Farmer (1912–2004), physicist, pioneer in developing medical applications for physics, born in Bexleyheath.[23]
• Ivan Magill (1888–1986), innovative anaesthetist, worked in Sidcup.[24]
• Sir Hiram Maxim (1840–1916), inventor of the Maxim Gun, moved his works to Crayford in 1884 and lived in Stoneyhurst from then until 1889.[25][26]
• Anthony Reckenzaun (1850–93), engineer, worked at the Erith Ironworks and set up evening classes for the workmen.
• Flaxman Charles John Spurrell (1842–1915), archaeologist, geologist and photographer, moved to the borough as a child and later lived at The Priory, Picardy Road, Belvedere. Spurrell Avenue in Bexley is named after him.[27]
• Joshua Trimmer (1795–1857), geologist, born in North Cray.[28]
• Jack Wall (1932–2018), inventor of the Crayford focuser, which is incorporated into many modern telescopes.[29]

• William Auld (1924–2006), Scottish poet, author and Esperantist, born in Erith.[30]
• Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951), ghost story writer, journalist and broadcaster, lived in Crayford Manor House between 1871 and 1880 as a child, and the house features in his work 'A Prisoner in Fairyland' as 'Crayfield Manor House'.[31][32]
• Denis Bond (1946–), children's author, actor and scriptwriter, lives in Sidcup.[32]
• Garry Bushell (1955–), journalist, lives in Sidcup.[33]
• Hall Caine (1853–1931), author, lived in Aberleigh Lodge, Bexleyheath from 1884 to 1889 with his wife Mary and son Gordon Ralph, next door to Red House, home of William Morris.[34] Aberleigh Lodge was demolished in the 1970s.[35]
• Wendy Cope (1945–), poet and author, born in Erith.[2][36]
• Edward Shepherd Creasy (1812–1878), author of The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, born in Bexley.[37]
• Roald Dahl (1916–1990), Welsh-born children's author, lived at Oakwood, Hurst Road, Bexley, from 1927 to 1934, when not at boarding school.[38][39]
• Thomas Harman, author of a work about vagabonds and rogues in 1566, resided in Crayford from 1547.[40]

William Morris

• Neal Lawson (1963–), politician and commentator, grew up and went to school in Bexleyheath.[41]
• James Leasor (1923–2007), journalist and author, born in Erith.[42]
• Gerard Shelley (1891–1980), author, translator and Catholic bishop, born in Sidcup.[43]
• Nevil Shute (1899–1960), novelist and aeronautical engineer, lived in Hatherley Road, Sidcup, in the late 1920s, while working at Vickers in Crayford.[13]
• Jim Sterling (1984–), video game journalist, born and grew up in Erith.[44]
• Anne Swithinbank (1957–), horticulturist and gardening writer, born in Belvedere.
• Elizabeth Wiskemann (1899–1971), historian and journalist, born in Sidcup.[45]

• Marjory Allen, Lady Allen of Hurtwood (1897–1976), landscape architect and child welfare campaigner, born in Bexleyheath.[109]
• Anjem Choudary (1967–), Islamist political activist, born and grew up in Welling.[110]
• David Conner (1947–), Anglican bishop and Dean of Windsor, attended Erith Grammar School (now Erith School).[111]
• Douglas Macmillan (1984–1969), founder of Macmillan Cancer Support, lived in Knoll Road, Sidcup, from 1924 until 1966, and also ran his charity from that address. Bexley Civic Society placed a blue plaque on the house in 2010.[52]
• Jo Malone (1963–), perfumer and businesswoman, raised in a council flat in Bexleyheath.[112]
• Lee Murray (1977–), former kickboxer and mixed martial arts champion, convicted of the Securitas depot robbery, lived in Sidcup.[113]
• Robert Napper (1966–), serial murderer and rapist, born in Erith.[114]
• Emma Noble (1971–), glamour model, born in Sidcup.[115]
• Kenneth Noye (1947–), gangster and convicted murderer, born on Lavernock Road, Bexleyheath, attended Bexleyheath School.[116]
• Bill Peyto (1869–1943), Canadian pioneer and mountain guide, born in Welling.[117]
• Delia Smith (1941–), TV chef, grew up in Bexleyheath, attended Bexleyheath School.[13][118][119]
• Denis Thatcher (1915–2003), husband of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, headed the family-owned Atlas Preservatives, based in Erith, until 1965.[120][121]

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