Famous Residents in and around Guildford

Guildford and the surrounding area have drawn many people to the area through the ages, as a place to live, work or stay. The following list gives a few of the more famous examples. If you have more, then please do let us know.

Historical:

George Abbot (1562-1633) became the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1611. Guildford remembers the Archbishop with a statue in the High Street, a pub and also a secondary school named after him.

Mildred Cable (1878-1952) was a British Protestant Christian missionary in China. She served with the China Island Mission.

Writing:

P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) was born in Guildford.

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, had a house in Guildford and is buried in the Mount Cemetery.

Edward Carpenter, poet, anthologist, philosopher and early gay activist, moved to Guildford after the First World War and lived there until his death in 1929. He is also buried in Mount Cemetery.

Entertainment:

Yvonne Arnaud (for whom the theatre is named after) was a singer and actress who lived in the town for many years before she died.

One of the Monty Python writers, Terry Jones, went to the Royal Grammar School from 1953-61.

One of the stars from Dancing on Ice, Bonnie Langford, has lived in and around Guildford for some years.

Roger Fry, the English artist, critic and member of the Bloomsbury Group, lived in the house he designed and built in the town from 1909 to 1919.

Michael Buerk, BBC newsreader.

Mike Rutherford, the bassist and founding member of the rock band Genesis, was born in Guildford.

The fictional Ford Prefect, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, claimed to be from Guildford.