List of people from Walsall

Walsall (/ˈwɔːlsɔːl/ ^ⓘ, or /ˈwɒlsɔːl/; locally /ˈwɔːrsʌl/) is a large market town and administrative centre in West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Birmingham, 7 miles (11 km) east of Wolverhampton and 9 miles (14 km) from Lichfield. This list a list of notable people who were born in, lived in, or were otherwise strongly associated with Walsall.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Culture

Acting

Sue Nicholls, 2010

• Bobby Ash (1925–2007), British-Canadian actor born in Walsall^[1]
• Zoe Dawson (born 1979 in Walsall) actress, minor roles in the BBC soap opera Doctors^{[citation needed]}
• Don Gilet (born 1967 in Caldmore) actor, roles in BBC productions Babyfather, EastEnders and 55 Degrees North.^{[citation needed]}
• Jeffrey Holland (born Jeffrey Michael Parkes, 1946 in Walsall) actor,^[2] roles in TV sitcoms and in Hi-de-Hi!, attended Queen Mary's Grammar School.
• Matthew Marsden (born 1973 in West Bromwich) stage and film actor,^[3] brought up on the Yew Tree Estate in Walsall and schooled in Wednesbury and Great Barr.
• Peter McEnery (born 1940 in Walsall) stage TV and film actor.^[4] Gave Hayley Mills her first "grown-up" screen kiss in the 1964 film The Moon-Spinners.
• Sue Nicholls (born 1943 in Walsall) actress,^[5] played Audrey Roberts in Coronation Street.
• Erin O'Connor (born 1978 in Brownhills) model and TV actress, attended Brownhills Community School^{[citation needed]}
• Meera Syal (born 1961) comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress. Brought up in Essington and attended Queen Mary's High School.
• Richard Wattis (born 1912 in Wednesbury – 1975), actor
• Frank Windsor (born 1927 in Walsall) actor,^[6] mainly on TV. Attended Queen Mary's Grammar School. Played DS John Watt in Z-Cars from 1962 to 1965.

Music

Noddy Holder, 1981

Mark Duffus (Blak Prophetz) & Chris Brown at Los Angeles Awards, USA, 2013

• Amar (born 1982), British Indian singer
• Andy C (born 1976), DJ, record producer and co-founder of RAM Records^[7]
• Blak_Prophetz aka Mark Duffus (born 1967 in Caldmore Green, Walsall) DJ, Musician, Record_Producer, Rapper attended Whitehall Infants, Blue Coat C of E Junior and Secondary School. Founder/Owner of the Record label Digital_Jukebox_Records.
• Rob Collins (1963 in Rowley Regis – 1996) musician,^[8] original keyboardist of The Charlatans
• Martin Degville (born 1961 in Walsall) lead singer and co-songwriter^[9] of the UK pop band Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
• Goldie aka Clifford Joseph Price, (born 1965 in Walsall) musician,^[10] DJ, graffiti artist, visual artist and actor, attended St. Francis of Assisi RC Secondary School in Aldridge
• Rob Halford (born 1951 in Sutton Coldfield) raised in Walsall, singer songwriter,^[11] lead vocalist for the heavy metal band Judas Priest.
• Noddy Holder (born 1946 in Caldmore) musician and actor,^[12] lead singer and guitarist in glam rock band Slade
• Tom Major-Ball (1879 in Bloxwich – 1962) music hall and circus performer^[13] and father of John Major, former Prime Minister
• Frank Mullings (1881 in Walsall – 1953) a leading English tenor^[14] with Beecham Opera Company and its successor, the British National Opera Company
• Mark Rhodes (born 1981 in Darlaston) singer and TV presenter, finished 2nd in the 2nd series of Pop Idol, lives in Wombourne.^{[citation needed]}
• Jorja Smith (born 1997 in Walsall) singer-songwriter^{[citation needed]}
• Connie Talbot (born 2000) from Streetly, teen singer^[15] 2nd place in the first series of Britain's Got Talent (series 1)
• Kathryn Tickell (born 8 June 1967 in Walsall) is an English musician, noted for her mastery of the Northumbrian smallpipes and fiddle.^[16]
• Dave Walker (born 1945 in Walsall) singer and guitarist,^[17] front-man for a number of bands; including Idle Race, Savoy Brown, Fleetwood Mac, and, briefly, Black Sabbath.
• John Cooke guitarist and bassist, member of Napalm Death, Venomous Concept, and Malevolent Creation.

TV and radio

• Alex Lester (born 1956 in Walsall) radio broadcaster,^[18]
• Andrew Peach (born in Bloxwich c. 1970) BBC Radio presenter^[19]
• Bob Warman (born 1946) TV presenter,^[20]
• Leila Williams (born in Walsall 1937) beauty queen and Blue Peter presenter from 1958 until 1962^[21]

Visual Arts

• Orlando Dutton born in Walsall 1 April 1894, was an English-born Australian monumental, figurative and architectural sculptor^[22]

Politics

Valerie Vaz MP, 2017

• William Dixon Allott, (1817–1892) born in Walsall, Mayor of Adelaide 1873–1874^[23]
• David Ennals, Baron Ennals (1922–1995) Labour Party politician born in Walsall^[24]
• Bruce George (born 1942) Labour Party politician,^[25] MP for Walsall South 1974–2010
• Eddie Hughes (born 1968) Conservative Party politician,^[26] MP for Walsall North 2017 to date.
• Joseph Leckie (Born Glasgow 24 May 1866 – 9 August 1938) after whom Joseph Leckie school, now an academy was named. MP for Walsall 1931 - 1938.
• Sir Harmar Nicholls (later Lord Harmar-Nicholls) (1912 in Walsall – 2000) Conservative Party politician,^[27] MP for Peterborough 1950–1974. Father of Sue Nicholls (see above).
• John Stonehouse (1925 – 1988) Labour Party politician,^[28] MP for Walsall North 1974–1976, notable for his unsuccessful attempt to fake his own death in 1974
• David Winnick (born 1933) Labour Party politician,^[29] MP for Walsall North 1979–2017.
• Jenny Tonge, Baroness Tonge (born 1941 in Walsall) politician,^[30] Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park in London 1997–2005, made a life peer in June 2005.
• Valerie Vaz (born 1954) Labour politician^[31] and solicitor MP for Walsall South 2010 to date.

Public service and commerce

Francis Asbury

John Henry Carless, VC

• Francis Asbury (1745 Hamstead Bridge – 1816) joint founder of the Methodist movement in the United States, brought up in Gt Barr, emigrated 1771.^[32]
• Mike Ashley (born 1964), British billionaire retail entrepreneur focused in the sporting goods market^[33]
• Sir Terence Beckett (1923 in Walsall – 2013) businessman,^[34] chairman of Ford and later, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry
• Margaret Bromhall (born 1890 in Walsall)^[35] first radiotherapist appointed to a radiotherapy department, at North Middlesex Hospital in London^[36]
• John Henry Carless (1896 in Walsall – 1917) recipient of the Victoria Cross^[37] during the First World War
• Reverend Harry Moore Dauncey (1863 in Walsall – 1932) missionary in Papua New Guinea^[38]
• Sister Dora (1832–1878) Anglican nun^[39] and a nurse in Walsall. She is honoured for her compassion and her medical work by a statue in the centre of town.^{[citation needed]}
• Michael L. Fitzgerald (born Walsall in 1937) Roman Catholic Cardinal,^[40] expert on Muslim-Christian relations
• Martin Fowler (born 1963 in Walsall) software developer^[41]
• Frederick Gibbs (born 1899 in Walsall) World War I Flying Ace^[42]
• Sir Harry Hinsley (1918 in Birchills – 1998) historian and cryptanalyst,^[43] worked at Bletchley Park and became Master of St John's College, Cambridge University
• James Alexander Holden (1 April 1835 – 1 June 1887) was the businessman who founded the South Australian company which eventually produced the Holden automobile.
• Sir Len Peach (1932 in Walsall – 2016) Chief Executive^[44] of the National Health Service 1986 – 1989.
• Air Chief Marshal Stuart William Peach, Baron Peach (born Walsall, 1956) former RAF officer and Chief of the Defence Staff.
• Sir Edwin Thomas Smith (6 April 1830 – 25 December 1919) was an English-born South Australian brewer, businessman, councillor, mayor, politician and philanthropist.
• Air Vice-Marshal Sidney Webster (1900 in Walsall – 1984) aviator^[45] and senior officer in the RAF

Sport

Mark Lewis-Francis, 2007

Ellie Simmonds, 2008

• Norman Ashe (born 1943), footballer
• Fred Bakewell (1908 in Walsall – 1983) was a Northamptonshire and England opening batsman,^[46] renowned largely because of his unorthodox methods
• David Brown (born 1942 in Walsall) former English cricketer,^[47] attended Queen Mary's Grammar School played in twenty six Tests from 1965 to 1969
• Colin Charvis (born 1972 in Sutton Coldfield) attended Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall,^[48] a former captain of the Wales national rugby union team
• Leon Drysdale (born 1991), footballer
• Nick Gillingham (born 1967 in Walsall) swimmer,^[49] competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona
• Terry Holbrook (born 1945 in Walsall) football referee formerly in the Football League and Premier League
• Dean Keates (born 1978 in Beechdale) retired footballer and former First Team manager of Walsall.
• Vaughan Lee (born 1982) Mixed Martial Artist formerly competing in UFC.^{[citation needed]}
• Mark Lewis-Francis (born Darlason 1982) 100 metres sprinter,^[50] member of the gold medal winning 4x100 metres relay team at the 2004 summer Olympics.
• Robert Marshall (1869–1937), cricketer
• Rupert Moon former Llanelli and Welsh rugby international, known as the "Walsall Welshman" he became a radio and television presenter in Wales.^[51]
• Lee Naylor (born in 1980 in Mossley) former professional footballer^{[citation needed]}
• Jaydon Paddock (born 2001 in Walsall), English trampoline gymnast
• David Platt (born Walsall 1966) English-born^[52] Australian darts player
• Rachel Unitt (born 1982 in Bentley) England Women's footballer^[53]
• Ellie Simmonds (born 1994) Paralympian swimmer,^[54] won gold in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Paralympics.

Writing

Jerome K. Jerome, 1890

• John Byrne (born 1950 in Walsall) comic book creator, raised in West Bromwich^[55]
• Peter Corey (born 1946 in Walsall) author^[56] of the Coping With children's book series and also a TV actor.
• Jerome K. Jerome (1859 in Caldmore – 1927) writer ^[57] and humourist,^[58] author of comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889).
• Paul McDonald (born 1961 in Walsall) comic novelist^[59] and academic.^[60]
• Sir Henry Newbolt (1862 in Bilston – 1938) poet, novelist and historian^[61] and old boy of Queen Mary's Grammar School.
• Nick Redfern (born 1964 in Pelsall) author and UFO researcher^[62]

Science

• Lindon Eaves (1944–2022) geneticist and Anglican priest, born in Walsall
• John Edward Gray (1800–1875), zoologist, born in Walsall.^[63]

Murderers

• Raymond Morris (1929 in Walsall – 2014) convicted of the Cannock Chase murders in the late 1960s, served 45 years in prison.
• Louise Porton (born 1996) woman who murdered her two children in 2018, formerly lived in Walsall

Others

• Thomas Hughes, (1818–1876), Anglican minister and abolitionist