Famous People

Weston-super-Mare may be best known as holiday resort but it has also been home to a number of famous people and here’s our guide to just a few of them. It is also the town where the bouncing bomb, used in the Dambusters raids, was developed and it has  been the venue for some landmark historical events, adding to its list of famous connections.

Paulo Francesco Radmilovic 1886-1968

The four-times Olympic gold medal winner is Weston’s most decorated sportsman. The swimmer, who was known affectionately as Raddy, won his first gold as part of the British water polo team at the 1908 London Olympics where he scored twice in the final.  He then doubled his gold medal tally when he was called up as a last minute stand-in for the 4x200 relay race. His third gold came four years later at the Stockholm 1912 Olympics where he was part of the British team that beat Austria 8-0 in the water polo final. The first World War meant there were no Olympic Games in 1916 so he had to wait until the 1920 Antwerp games for his fourth gold medal where he scored the winner in the water polo final against hosts Belgium. His goal didn’t go down well with the home spectators and Paulo and his team-mates had to be protected by the Belgian police. Raddy went on to compete in two more Olympics, in 1924 and 1928, to clock up six successive Olympic Games. His haul of four gold medals remained a British record until rower Sir Steve Redgrave surpassed it with a fifth gold in 2000. He was born in Wales but moved to Weston in 1904 – two years before his first Olympics – and became a member of Weston Swimming Club. In 1967 he was inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Away from the pool, he was a publican in Weston. He was a licensee at the Globe, Cavendish, Sutherland Hotel, Glasses Hotel and the Imperial.He died in September 1968 and is buried in Weston’s Milton Road Cemetery. A blue plaque is in his honour at The Imperial at 14 South Parade.

Beatrice Page 1889-1972

Beatrice became assured of her place in British history when she became the first female tram driver in the country. She stepped up to the plate and became a trailblazer for female workers when, along with many other women, she answered the call to cover “men’s jobs” when the men marched off to fight in the First World War. And in 1914 she got a job on the tramway and became the first female tram driver in the country although her pay was less than what her previous male counterparts had been. And when the men returned from battle in 1918 she had to hand her job back. However, Beatrice, sho had lived in Whitecross Road, she was invited to drive the last tram in Weston before the tracks were ripped up in 1942.

Alfred Leete 1882-1933

Weston’s Alfred Leete is the man behind the famous Lord Kitchener “Your Country Needs You” recruitment posters. The artist who grew up in Weston-super-Mare, where his parents ran the seafront Addington Hotel, originally penned the illustration for the front page of the Opinion magazine in 1914. It became a rallying cry during the First World War and is now one of the most iconic and most copied posters the world has ever seen. It was adopted again in the Second World War, this time with Sir Winston Churchill’s head on it, and it was also adapted by the Americans accompanied by the words Uncle Sam Needs You.  Although Alfred was born in Northamptonshire he was schooled at Weston’s Kingsholme School where he showed a real aptitude for drawing. His father recognised his talent and arranged for him to leave school as a 12-year-old to go and work for a surveyor in Bristol.  In 1897 he had his first cartoon accepted by the Daily Graphic and he also submitted to the Bristol Magpie before moving to London to become a commercial artist. It took him time to get recognised but persistence paid off and magazines such as Punch, Tatler and The London Opinion regularly published his drawings. Although he is best known for that 1914 poster, he also had illustrations published in cartoon books and produced successful advertising campaigns for huge companies such as Bovril, Guinness, the London Underground and Rowntrees. Alfred died in 1993 and he is buried in Weston’s Milton Road cemetery but his legacy lives on.

Jill Dando 1961- 1999

Weston’s favourite daughter was one of television’s most popular figures. She was described as the Golden Girl of TV before she was murdered on her doorstep in Fulham in 1999, aged 37. After cutting her teeth as a reporter on her hometown newspaper, The Weston Mercury, where both her brother and father also worked, she became a favourite of the nation as a BBC television presenter. She was the face of many peak-time programmes such as the BBC News, Crimewatch, BBC Breakfast News and the Holiday programme. She had always had a love for journalism, performing and television. She was a keen actress and had been a member of the Weston-super-Mare Amateur Dramatic Society. As a child she had written to TV show Jim’ll Fix It asking if she could appear on television. She went to school at Worle comprehensive and after O Levels she became head girl at the town’s Broadoak Sixth Form. Weston remained close to her heart even when she moved away to pursue her BBC career and she adopted Weston Hospicecare as her favourite charity. Her death stunned the nation. BBC Television’s Ground Force team, led by Alan Titchmarsh, produced a garden in Weston’s Grove Park in her memory. It is known simply as Jill’s Garden.

John Cleese Born 1939

It’s perhaps befitting that Mr Fawlty Towers himself should have grown up in a town with so many guest houses and bed and breakfast establishments! Basil Fawlty, as John is perhaps most affectionately known, was born in Weston and grew up here. He went to St Peter’s School as a boy and later he returned to the school as a teacher for two years before going to Cambridge University. His first experiences of acting and the stage came when he was at school in Weston and he was also taken to the town’s Knightstone Theatre to watch shows by his parents. However at that age he showed no aspiration for a career in that direction. He has since gone onto greatness as television’s favourite eccentric hotelier Basil Fawlty, in Fawlty Towers, and in Monty Python and a Fish Called Wanda to name just a few. As all comedians do, he has sometimes poked fun at his home town in his material, but his affection for the place is clear, none more so than when he joined the campaign to help save the town’s derelict Birnbeck Pier.  In an interview, published in Somerset Life, he once said: “I owe much to the fact that I was born in a seaside town where entertainment is so important. The pier, the crazy golf, the donkeys and all the great attractions are not just for the visitors. Us locals have loved them too. “You never forget your roots and I have never forgotten Weston-super-Mare. I have joked about it a few times but it was never meant. I have great affection for the place.” However, he might have been named Cheese instead of Cleese. His father Reg was born Reginald Cheese but changed his name to Cleese upon joining the army in 1915.

Roald Dahl 1916 -1990

There must be something in the water at St Peter’s School in Weston-super-Mare because both children’s author Roald Dahl and actor John Cleese both attended it, although with a few years in between. Roald, the author of James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and BFG to name but a few, was first. He was sent to St Peter’s in 1925 after arriving in Weston on a paddle steamer from his home in Wales. It was his first boarding school and he didn’t particularly like his time at the 150-boy school where 20 slept in each dormitory. He was homesick during his first term and pretended to have appendicitis in a bid to leave. He spent four years at the school which was demolished in the 1970s and replaced with a housing estate where one of the roads is named St Peters Avenue. A blue plaque, in his honour, has been erected on the site of the former school.

Lord Jeffrey Archer Born 1940

The Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare is the official title of the former Conservative MP turned novelist who became a life peer in 1992. However, before he became a best-selling author with books published in around 100 countries, his early jobs included renting out deckchairs on the seafront and selling ice creams on the Grand Pier.And he has never forgotten his roots. He is a frequent visitor to the town and took part in Weston’s first Literary Festival early in 2018. He is believed to be the only author to have been the number one bestseller in fiction, non-fiction and short stories. He even had a small walk on part on Bridget Jones’ Diary. Lord Archer was forced to stand down from the Conservative Party in 2001 after being charged with perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and served two years.

Doctor Edward Longfox 1761-1835

Weston began life as a small seaside village until health tourism changed the face of the town and brought people flocking into the bay. In Victorian times the town developed a reputation as a natural healing centre because of the quality of its fresh sea air and saltwater bathing. The air was believed to be so good for healing and the water thought to have magical powers that people escaped to Weston on week-long health breaks. Dr Edward Longfox created a therapeutic spa with hot and cold baths on Knightstone Island where the Doctor Fox Tea Rooms are now named in his honour. He was also known for his caring treatment of people with mental illnesses at a time when often those patients weren’t always treated that humanely.

Deborah Kerr 1921 - 2007

Deborah was one of the most iconic film stars of the last century and a Golden Globe winner. The Hollywood star was also nominated for six Oscars but did not receive a cherished statuette until 1944 when an honorary statuette came her way for her lifetime’s work. She was at the pinnacle of her profession for 45 years and worked alongside the likes of Clark Gable, Ava Gardner David Niven, Cary Grant, Burt Lancaster and Robert Mitchum. She also received a Bafta Special Award in 1991. Her screen career got off to something of a false start though as a cigarette girl in the 1940 film Contraband where her scenes never made it out of the editing room. As well as her film career, sge also performed on Broadway. She was born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer, in Scotland, but moved to Weston in 1938 and went to the town’s Rossholme School.

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence 1867 -1954

Emmeline was one of the key players in the women’s suffragette movement and was sent to prison several times for her beliefs. She was first arrested and jailed for trying to make a speech in the lobby of the House of Commons. But she stuck to her beliefs and helped transform the Women’s Social and Political Union. She set up weekly meetings and provided lunches for women who had been released from prison. She also chose the union’s white green and purple colours to symbolise purity, hope and dignity and was a key player in the fight to give women the vote.

And people who visited Weston and put it on the map because of their work here:

Bentfield Charles Hucks 1884 - 1918
The airman made history when he became the first aviator to fly over the Bristol Channel when he successfully flew his Blackburn monoplane from Weston to Cardiff and back again in 1911.

Guglielmo Marconi 1874 -1937
The Italian is assured of his place in world history and Weston-super-Mare history because he made the world’s first radio transmission across water in 1897. He set up a transmitting mast on the island of Flat Holm and a receiving mast in Wales. His first attempts failed but perseverance paid off and, after raising the mast, Marconi’s signals were successfully received in Wales.