Famous Bratfud
Lads & Lasses
A Short List with Omissions
•
Jacob Unna and Jacob Behrens, founders of the Bradford
Chamber of Commerce.
•
Charles Semon, elected Bradford's first Jewish and foreignborn mayor.
•
Berthold Reif, from Czechoslovakia, comes to Bradford and
became a merchant and then mill owner in the Great
Depression. He was said to possess 'The Spice of Adventure'.
•
Joseph Kagen, later Lord Kagan, a Holocaust survivor,
initially comes to Bradford at the end of the war. He went on
to found Kagen Textiles Ltd.
• Shabir Hussain – Founder and Chief executive of Akbar’s
restaurants
• Mumtaz Khan Akbar – Founder of Mumtaz Food Industries
and owner of one of the largest Asian restaurants in Europe.
• Mohammed Saleem – Founder of Kashmir Crown Bakery.
• Mohammed Ajeeb CBE– The first Asian Lord Mayor of
Bradford.
• Samuel Lister (1815 -1906) – Owned Lister’s Mill
(Manningham Mill), Became Bradford’s MP in 1832, invented
the Lister’s nip comb which separated & straightened the
wool before it could be spun into Worsted yarn. This
revolutionised the textile industry.
• J.B. Priestly (1894 -1984) – Novelist (26), playwright &
Broadcaster
• Sir Edward Appleton (1892 – 1965) – Physicist & Nobel Prize
winner (for Physics), discovered the Ionosphere (The upper
part of the atmosphere), which led to the development of
Radar.
• David Hockney – Painter. Considered one of the most
influential British painters of the 20th century.
• Sir Ken Morrison CBE- Is the Life President and former Chair
of Morrisons Supermarkets, the 4th largest food retailers in
the country. His parents William & Hilda set up a chain of
grocers in Bradford in 1899.
• Benjamin (1877 – 1963) & William (1880 – 1965) Jowett –
Founded the Jowett Motor Manufacturing Company, which
produced family & Sports cars in Bradford between 1904 &
1953. They then sold the factory to International Harvesters
who made tractors. They in turn packed in, in the 1980’s and
Morrisons bought the site and build the 5 lanes End
Morrisons complex there.
• Charlotte (1816 -1855), Emily (1818 – 1848), Anne (1820 –
49) & Bramwell (1817 -1848) Bronte - Were poets and
Novelists, Born in Thornton, but moved to Haworth in 1820
when their Father Patrick became the Curate of Haworth.
• Peter Firth – Actor, currently plays Sir Harry Pearce in the T.V.
Drama, Spooks
• Gareth Gates – Singer, shot to fame on the T.V. Show, Pop Idol,
when he came runner up in the first series.
• Kimberly Walsh – Singer & Actress, rose to fame with the
group Girls Aloud.
• Timothy West – Actor, performed in numerous T.V. series,
Plays & Films.
• Richard Whitley (1943 – 2005) – T.V. Presenter on Countdown
& Calendar.
• Adrian Edmondson – Comedian, actor & musician, probably
best known for his role as Vivian the Punk in the 1980’s T.V.
series, The Young Ones.