[Misc] Who are the true British geniuses? (and it's not 'genii' - I checked)

[highflyer]

John Maynard Keynes

Armando Iannucci

 

[seagully]

Nigel Farage
Jeremy Corbyn

 

[Nitram]

George Best

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

[MENTION=38333]Swansman[/MENTION]. This honorary Brit has a phenomenal grasp of the nuances of the English language and an equally amazing knowledge of association football at all levels in this country. If NSC ever dusted off it’s fabled pizza and smoke evening social (#You okay, hun?) Swanny would be the star turn.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I think a trowel and a ladder would be required too

Plus bricks, cement, and a shed load of Irish navvies.

 

[boik]

Lol!

My old boss worked for Chain for a bit. One quote: "I don't have time to read the (scientific) literature - I'm too busy writing it"

OK, here are a few of mine (apologies if others have already mentioned some of them).

Sir James Whyte Black. Nobel prizewinner. He literally invented the first beta blocker (practolol, followed swiftly by the safer analogue, propranolol) and, for an encore, invented the first H1 antihistamine (cimetidine). I met him several times. One of his obituaries described him as 'peppery'. He left Scotland because he was never going to get promotion because he hated writing and publishing his research.

James Dyson (you don't have to like him). The vacuum man.

Eric Laithwaite. The linear induction motor and Maglev.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The internet

Denis Potter. Playwrite

Declan McManus. Songwriter

Point of order. Tim Berners-Lee didn't invent the internet. I was happily using the internet before Tim launched the Web.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Some might argue Tony Blair for duping the British electorate three times?

But seriously IMHO Amy Winehouse. (albeit a tortured one)

 

[FamilyGuy]

As mentioned on the Turing thread, I consider Tommy Flowers to be a true computing genius. Designed and built the world's first electronic programmable computer during the war. Even paid for a lot of it himself. After the war he was given £1000 for his efforts which was less than he had put in. Even so he shared it with his team. He applied for a loan from the bank of England to build computers but was denied because "it would never work". Because he had signed the official secrets act he couldn't tell them he had already built one!

You beat me to it - however I contend that he had Turing and his work as a catalyst (and vice versa).
A great double act, right time, right people, right place.

TF, very much unsung.

 

[boik]

You beat me to it - however I contend that he had Turing and his work as a catalyst (and vice versa).
A great double act, right time, right people, right place.

TF, very much unsung.

Absolutely. Tommy couldn't have thought of the computer on his own, and Turing had no real idea how to put his brilliant ideas into hardware.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

Who are the true British geniuses?

Shout out to all those on social media who would have known exactly when to lock down and when to relax lockdown and knew when to take expert advice and when to ignore it .. safely seeing us through this Covid nightmare virtually unscathed.

 

[El Presidente]

Johnny Crumplin

 

[Norman Potting]

Absolutely. Tommy couldn't have thought of the computer on his own, and Turing had no real idea how to put his brilliant ideas into hardware.

I get the feeling that it was a case of Turing saying "...Tommy, we need a device to this that and the other by tomorrow - could you go away, invent and build if for us please..". It must have been a fascinating place to work, lots of eccentric, slightly bonkers and brilliant folk of both sexes who, as someone once mentioned, would probably not have been tolerated in Nazi Germany.

Flowers Wiki page is worth a read, from humble beginnings he worked hard to reach the pinnacle of telecoms and lived long enough to see recognition. Lovely thought that "...in 1993, he received a certificate from Hendon College, having completed a basic course in information processing on a personal computer...."

 

[Swansman]

Aldous & Julian Huxley. Thomas Henry as well, arguably. Feel free to categorise them yourselves. Its a bad joke that at least Aldous didnt get a mention yet.

Others:

AJP Taylor - history
Anthony C. Sutton - journalism
James Tilly Matthews - paranoid schizo or genius? Who knows.

 

[Charity Shield 1910]

Douglas Jardine although strictly speaking he was born in India.

 

[Bakero]

How the hell is Shakespeare even considered as a genius, he wrote some rather crappy stories with allegations of plagiarism.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

Francis Crick and James Watson for discovering the structure of DNA. As with most individuals credited with such discoveries there was a large contribution from other scientists like Rosalind Franklin.

 

[Dick Head]

Starting with Edward Jenner

And, before him, the Chinese right back to as early as the 10th century.

 

[carlzeiss]

Not me , that's for sure .

 

[Don Quixote]

Dickens and the Brontë sisters are genius level in English Literature.


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[rogersix]

john harrison