List of Scots

Scotland, part of the United Kingdom, seems to have more than its fair share of famous and influential men and women for its size and population. The following is a list of some of the best known.

Actors

Robbie Coltrane

Sean Connery

Billy Connolly

Tom Conti

Brian Cox

James Robertson Justice

Artists

James MacGillivray -- sculptor

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Business

David Buick -- Founded the Buick car company

Andrew Carnegie -- Ruthless steel magnate and death-bed philanthropist

Composers

Hamish MacCunn

James Macmillan

Engineers and Inventors

Alexander Graham Bell -- Telephone, National Geographic, Hydrofoil

John Boyd Dunlop -- Inventor of the modern rubber tyre

John McAdam inventor of modern road construction

Charles Macintosh -- patented waterproofing

James Nasmyth -- inventor, Steam Hammer

Thomas Telford

James Watt

Musicians

Ali Bain fiddler

Phil Cunningham accordionist

Donovan

Sheena Easton

Roddy Frame songwriter Aztec Camera

Hamish Henderson folk song collector and writer

Annie Lennox

Harry Lauder

Michael Marra songwriter

Dougie MacLean contemporary folk songwriter

Ewan MacColl - folk-singer/songwriter

Kenneth McKellar

Jimmy Shand

Philosophers

David Hume -- Inspired Immanuel Kant

James McCosh

Rulers, Politicians

Tony Blair -- UK Prime Minister

Robert Cunningham-Graham (‘Don Roberto’) aristocrat socialist

Tom Johnston aka Tam Johnston, post WW2 Secretary of State for Scotland

Mary I of Scotland also known as Mary, Queen of Scots

Macbeth -- King on the receiving end of a bad press

John MacCormick - Nationalist

Margo MacDonald -- Nationalist

Ramsay Macdonald -- UK Prime minister

Robert the Bruce -- Robert 1 of Scotland

Malcolm Macdonald

William Wallace a.k.a. Braveheart

Scientists

James Dewar -- Low temperature physicist, invented the vacuum flask

Alexander Fleming -- biologist

Joseph Lister -- surgeon, pioneered antisepsis techniques

James Hutton -- Put geology on a scientific basis

James Clerk Maxwell -- thermodynamics and electromagnetic theorist

John Napier -- mathematician (see logarithms)

Robert Watson-Watt -- invented radar

Paraffin Young a.k.a. James Young, James (Paraffin) Young

Sportsmen and -women

Ken Buchanan world champion boxer

Jimmy Clark Formula 1 driver

David Coulthard Formula 1 driver

Kenny Dalglish footballer

Alex Ferguson footballer and manager

Dougal Haston mountaineer

Benny Lynch boxer

Hamish MacInnes mountaineer

Colin MacRae world champion rally driver

Graham Obree broke world hour record (on a home-made bike)

Jackie Stewart world champion Formula 1 driver

Theologians

John Knox

Thomas McCrie

Writers

James Matthew Barrie -- creator of Peter Pan

Ian Banks aka Ian M. Banks

Norman MacCaig -- poet

Hugh MacDiarmid -- poet

George Macdonald -- poet, novelist

Duncan McIntyre -- Gaelic poet, aka Duncan Ban McIntyre

John Mackail -- classical scholar and writer

Sorley MacLean -- Scottish Gaelic poet

William Topaz McGonagall -- poet, novelist

Alistair MacLean

A.A. Milne ???

Ian Rankin -- creator of Inspector Rebus crime novels

Sir Walter Scott

Robert Louis Stevenson

Others

Ian Anderson

David Byrne

Thomas Graham

John Paul Jones -- Admiral of the Russian and American Navies

Captain Kidd -- Pirate

David Livingstone -- Explorer, Missionary

Flora Macdonald -- Jacobite and Empire Loyalist

Rob Roy MacGregor -- Romantic outlaw

John James Richard Macleod

John Muir -- 19th century environmentalist

Robert Noble

Allan Pinkerton

Sir William Ramsay

John Charles Walsham Reith aka Lord Reith, first Director General of BBC

James Clark Ross -- Explorer

Alexander Selkirk inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

Moira Shearer

Adam Smith -- Economist, free trade, laisser-faire, division of labour

Josephine Tey

Robert William Thomson