List of people from Kent
This is a list of notable residents of the county of Kent in England who have a Wikipedia page. Persons are grouped by occupation and listed in order of birth. Kent is defined by its current boundaries.
Academics, engineers and scientists
- Charles Culmer – supposedly built the fishermen's stairs which Broadstairs is named after
- William Caxton – first person to introduce a printing press into England
- Richard Knolles – Ottoman Empire historian
- Richard Baker – historian
- Robert Fludd – physicist and astrologer
- John Tradescant the elder – gardener and botanist
- John Tradescant the Younger – gardener and botanist
- William Harvey – anatomist
- John Wallis – mathematician given partial credit for the development of modern calculus
- Robert Plot – naturalist and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford
- Stephen Gray – physicist and astronomer
- Thomas Steers – civil engineer and canal builder
- Stephen Hales – physiologist and chemist
- George Sale – Islamic studies scholar
- Thomas Bayes – mathematician and formulator of Bayes' theorem
- Edward Jacob – antiquary and naturalist
- Edward Nairne – scientific instrument maker
- James Six – meteorologist and inventor of the maximum minimum thermometer
- Catharine Macaulay – historian
- Edward Hasted – Kent historian
- Lionel Lukin – possible inventor of the lifeboat
- William Congreve – inventor and rocket pioneer
- Thomas Frederick Colby – director of the Ordnance Survey
- Richard Jones – economist
- Joshua Trimmer – geologist
- John Stevens Henslow – botanist and geologist
- Anna Atkins – botanical photographer
- George Finlay – Greek historian
- George Newport – entomologist
- Robert Main – astronomer
- Edmund Law Lushington – Greek scholar and Rector of Glasgow University
- Joseph Prestwich – geologist
- Edward Betts – railway civil engineering contractor
- Thomas Russell Crampton – engineer and designer of the Crampton locomotive
- Charles Kettle – New Zealand town planner
- Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister – surgeon and President of the Royal Society
- Nathaniel Barnaby – Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy
- Edward James Reed – Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy
- John Hulke – surgeon and geologist
- Alexander Henry Green – geologist
- Fleeming Jenkin – Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh
- Robinson Ellis – Professor of Latin at Trinity College, Oxford
- James Holden – locomotive engineer
- Frank Rutley – geologist and petrographer
- William Robert Brooks – American astronomer
- Henry George Smith – chemist
- James Fletcher – Canadian entomologist, botanist and writer
- Aubyn Trevor-Battye – zoologist and writer
- Henry Watson Fowler – lexicographer
- Alfred North Whitehead – mathematician and philosopher
- Herbert Baker – South Africa architect
- Baillie Scott – architect
- Patrick Young Alexander – aeronautical pioneer
- Frank Finn – ornithologist
- Reginald Punnett – geneticist and creator of the Punnett square
- William Sealy Gosset – chemist and statistician
- Vita Sackville-West – novelist, traveller and gardener
- Henry Tizard – chemist and inventor
- John Edensor Littlewood – mathematician
- Verena Holmes – mechanical engineer and multi-field inventor
- Arthur Waley – orientalist and sinologist
- Reg Balch – ecologist and photographer
- Ralph Bagnold – geologist, desert explorer, and soldier
- A. J. Arkell – North African scholar
- Stanley Hooker – jet engine engineer
- Simone Weil – French philosopher and mystic
- Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching – engineer and chairman of British Railways
- Maurice Lister – chemist
- Sheila Sherlock – physician and hepatologist
- George E. P. Box – statistician
- John Aspinall – zoo owner
- Peter Hemingway – architect
- David Harvey – Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York
- Michael Pearson – expert on clocks and clock-making
- David L. Clarke – archaeologist noted for his work on processual archaeology
- Diarmaid MacCulloch – Professor of 'the History of the Church' at the University of Oxford
- Daniel Tammet – autistic savant and record pi reciter
- Sonia Chadwick Hawkes – archaeologist specialising in the early Middle Ages
Actors
- Thomas Robson Brownhill – theatre actor and comedian
- Ellen Ternan – actress and mistress of Charles Dickens
- Francis Robert Benson – actor and theatre manager
- Lilian Braithwaite – actress and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Sydney Greenstreet – actor in films such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon
- Philip Hewland – stage and film actor
- Victor McLaglen – 1935 Academy Award winner for Best Actor
- Ballard Berkeley – actor noted for his role as Major Gowen in TV's Fawlty Towers
- Margot Grahame – actress in films such as The Informer and The Crimson Pirate
- Harry Andrews – actor in films such as Superman and Watership Down
- Trevor Howard – Academy Award nominated film actor
- Peter Cushing – film actor of the Hammer Films, Star Wars and Dr Who and the Daleks
- Bob Todd – comedy actor and sidekick of Benny Hill and Spike Milligan
- Hattie Jacques – comedy actress of the Carry On films and TV's Sykes
- Frederick Treves – prolific TV actor
- Alec McCowen – Golden Globe nominated film, theatre and TV actor
- Peter Barkworth – BAFTA winning actor
- Dinsdale Landen – TV actor
- Lance Percival – comedy actor
- Patsy Byrne – actress noted for her role as Nursie in TV's Blackadder II
- Tom Baker – actor in TV's Doctor Who and Little Britain
- Joanna Van Gyseghem – actress in TV's Duty Free and Rumpole of the Bailey
- Michael Crawford – Tony Award-winning comedy, film and musical actor
- Brenda Blethyn – Academy Award nominated actress
- Rusty Goffe – dwarf actor in the films Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Willow
- Fiona Reid – Canadian TV and film actress
- Mark Rylance – theatre actor
- Jack Dee – TV actor and comedian
- Martin Ball – theatre and TV actor
- Shaun Williamson – TV presenter and actor in TV's Eastenders
- Paul Ritter – actor in TV's Friday Night Dinner, No Offence
- Tamsin Greig – actress in TV's Friday Night Dinner
- Naomi Watts – Academy Award nominated actress
- Matthew Holness – comedy writer and actor in TV's Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
- Ben Moor – comedy writer, and actor in TV's Fist of Fun
- Mackenzie Crook – actor in TV's The Office
- Shane Taylor – actor in TV's Band of Brothers
- Chris Simmons – actor in TV's The Bill
- Orlando Bloom – actor in the film series The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean
- Oliver Chris – actor in TV's Green Wing, The Office and Rescue Me
- Kevin Bishop – actor in the film Muppet Treasure Island and TV's Grange Hill
- Tom Riley – actor in TV's Da Vinci's Demons and The Nevers
- Gemma Arterton – actress
- Dominic Sherwood – actor in TV's Shadowhunters
- Joseph McManners – musical theatre actor and singer
- Tommy Knight – actor in TV's The Sarah Jane Adventures
- Jack Scanlon – TV and film actor
- Isaac Hempstead-Wright – actor in TV's Game of Thrones
- Hrvy – presenter from Friday Download
Artists
- William Woollett – engraver
- William Alexander – painter and illustrator
- J. M. W. Turner – landscape painter
- Thomas Sidney Cooper – painter
- Elizabeth Gould – illustrator
- Samuel Palmer – landscape painter
- Richard Dadd – painter
- John Hassall – illustrator
- Mary Tourtel – artist and creator of Rupert Bear
- Margaret Beale – marine artist
- Colin Gill – painter
- Hugh Cecil – photographer
- Compton Bennett – film director and producer
- Tyrone Guthrie – Tony Award-winning theatre director
- Don Potter – sculptor
- Michael Powell – film director
- Peter Rogers – film producer of the Carry On series
- Oliver Postgate – animator and co-creator of Bagpuss, The Clangers and Ivor the Engine
- Peter Firmin – animator and co-creator of Basil Brush, Bagpuss and The Clangers
- Frank Auerbach – painter
- Peter Blake – pop artist, designer of the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album sleeve
- Mary Quant – fashion designer; inventor of the miniskirt and hot pants
- Antoinette Sibley – ballerina
- Zandra Rhodes – fashion designer
- Tim Page – Vietnam War photojournalist
- Roger Dean – album cover artist
- Dick Pope – cinematographer
- Bill Lewis – founder member of the Stuckists art group
- Mike Bernard – painter
- Gary Hume – painter
- Tracey Emin – Royal Academy artist
- Tacita Dean – visual artist
- Angus Fairhurst – photographic and visual artist
- Joe Machine – founder member of the Stuckists art group
- Remy Noe – founder member of the Stuckists art group
- George Henry Horton – filmmaker
Clergy
- Laurence of Canterbury – saint and the second Archbishop of Canterbury
- Paulinus of York – first Bishop of York
- Edith of Wilton – saint and illegitimate daughter of King Edgar the Peaceful
- William Addison – recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Thomas Becket – saint and Archbishop of Canterbury
- John Kemp – Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor
- John Morton – Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor
- John Frith – Protestant priest and writer, executed for heresy
- Roger Filcock – executed for preaching Catholicism
- Dudley Fenner – puritan theologian
- Edmund Duke – martyr, executed for preaching Catholicism
- Richard Clarke – Anglican scholar and preacher
- John Lothropp – Anglican minister and founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts
- Robert Abbot – Puritan theologian
- Peter Gunning – Royalist and Bishop of Chichester
- William Wall – Anglican theologian
- White Kennett – Bishop of Peterborough
- Nathanial Lardner – theologian
- Edward Perronet – Anglican preacher
- George Horne – Bishop of Norwich
- Charles Thomas Longley – Archbishop of Canterbury
- Henry Edward Manning – cardinal
- Alfred Saker – Baptist missionary
- George Hills – Bishop of British Columbia
- Christopher Newman Hall – Anglican abolitionist
- John R. Winder – leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Edward King – Anglican bishop
- E. W. Bullinger – Anglican clergyman, Biblical scholar, and dispensationalist theologian
- Arthur Tooth – Anglican clergyman, prosecuted under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874
- John Neale Dalton – chaplain to Queen Victoria and tutor to George V of the United Kingdom
- Charles Bousfield Huleatt – Anglican priest and discoverer of the Magdalen papyrus
- Nelson Wellesley Fogarty – Bishop of Damaraland, Namibia
- Frank W. Boreham – Baptist theologian
- Edward Knapp-Fisher – Sub-Dean of Westminster Abbey
- John A. T. Robinson – Bishop of Woolwich
Entrepreneurs
- William Adams – trader and first British navigator to reach Japan
- William Claiborne – early settler of Virginia and Maryland
- Christopher Branch – early settler of Virginia
- Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron – landowner in Virginia
- William Colgate – founder of the Colgate toothpaste company
- Gregory Blaxland – settler of Australia and wine-maker
- Thomas Fletcher Waghorn – postal pioneer who developed a new route from Great Britain to India
- Darrell Duppa – co-founder of Phoenix, Arizona
- Edward William Cole – successful bookshop owner in Melbourne, Australia
- Charles Elkin Mathews – publisher and bookseller
- George Marchant – soft-drink manufacturer in Australia
- Bronson Albery – theatre director and impresario
- Freddie Laker – founder of Laker Airways
- Michael Farmer, Baron Farmer - businessman and life peer in the House of Lords
- Ian Davis – Managing Director of McKinsey & Company
- John Charman – CEO/President/Director of Bermuda-based Axis Capital Holdings Ltd
Musicians
- John Ward – composer
- John Jenkins – composer
- John Gostling – bass singer and a favourite of Charles II of England
- Isaac Nathan – English-Australian musician
- George Job Elvey – organist and composer
- Sydney Nicholson – founder of the Royal School of Church Music
- Edward Norman Hay – composer and musicologist
- Malcolm Sargent – leading conductor of choral works
- Percy Whitlock – organist and composer
- Roy Douglas – composer
- Alfred Deller – opera singer
- Daphne Oram – composer and electronic musician
- Tony Coe – jazz musician
- Bill Wyman – bassist for the band The Rolling Stones
- Richard Rodney Bennett – film score and jazz composer
- Crispian St. Peters – pop singer
- Mick Jagger – singer and songwriter for the band The Rolling Stones
- Keith Richards – guitarist and songwriter for the band The Rolling Stones
- Dick Taylor – bassist for the band The Rolling Stones
- Mike Ratledge – keyboardist for the band Soft Machine
- Phil May – singer for the band The Pretty Things
- Kevin Ayers – singer and bassist for the band Soft Machine
- Judge Dread – reggae and ska artist
- Hugh Hopper – progressive rock and jazz bass guitarist and composer
- Noel Redding – bassist for the band The Jimi Hendrix Experience
- John Paul Jones – bassist, keyboardist and co-songwriter for English rock band Led Zeppelin
- Trevor Pinnock – conductor and harpsichordist
- Richard Coughlan – drummer for the band Caravan
- Dave Sinclair – keyboardist for the band Caravan
- Gordon Giltrap – guitarist and composer
- Richard Sinclair – guitarist for the band Caravan
- Bill Bruford – drummer for the bands Yes and King Crimson
- Nigel Egg – singer/songwriter
- Peter Frampton – musician, most famous for Frampton Comes Alive!
- Alan Clayson – record producer and songwriter
- Harry Christophers – conductor
- David Wright – New Age keyboard player and composer
- Gary Barden – songwriter and guitarist for the band Michael Schenker Group
- Anne Dudley – orchestral composer and pop musician
- Sid Vicious – bassist for the band The Sex Pistols
- Shane MacGowan – singer and songwriter for the band The Pogues
- Kate Bush – pop musician
- Billy Childish – singer, guitarist, artist and poet
- Pete Tong – record producer and DJ for BBC Radio 1
- Guy Fletcher – keyboardist for the band Dire Straits
- Boy George – singer with the band Culture Club
- Sexton Ming – musician, artist and poet
- Andrew Giddings – keyboardist for the band Jethro Tull
- Paul Oakenfold – record producer and DJ
- Nitin Sawhney – songwriter and record producer
- Jay Darlington – keyboardist for the band Kula Shaker
- Omar Lye-Fook – soul singer, songwriter and musician
- Justin Chancellor – bass player for the rock band Tool
- Richard Hughes – drummer for the band Keane
- Tom Perchard – musicologist
- David Ford – singer-songwriter
- Vicky Beeching – worship leader and musician
- Ben Mills – singer and contestant on TV's The X Factor
- Rik Waller – singer and contestant on TV's Pop Idol
- Lee Ryan – member of the boy band Blue
- Oliver Sykes – metal singer
- Joss Stone – BRIT and Grammy Award-winning R&B singer/songwriter
- Declan Galbraith – singer
- Mimi Webb – pop singer and songwriter
- PinkPantheress – pop musician
Politicians, statesmen and lawyers
- Charles Abbott, 1st Baron Tenterden – Lord Chief Justice
- Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston – Conservative Home Secretary
- Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst – Governor General of British North America
- Josceline Amherst – member of Western Australia's first Legislative Council under responsible government
- Richard Ash Kingsford – alderman and mayor of Brisbane Municipal Council, a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, Australia, and a mayor of Cairns, Queensland
- Bob Astles – associate of Ugandan presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin
- Wallace Bickley – early settler of Western Australia and Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council
- Anne Boleyn – wife of King Henry VIII
- Francis Bond Head – Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada during the rebellion of 1837
- Jonathan Bowden – writer and political theorist
- Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork – Lord High Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland
- Audrey Callaghan – Greater London Councillor and wife of Prime Minister James Callaghan
- Thomas Cheney – Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
- Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington – Member of Parliament and art critic
- Nicky Crane – neo-Nazi activist
- Sackville Crowe – Member of Parliament and Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
- Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham – Lord Chancellor
- Sir John Peyton – Governor of Jersey
- John Scott of Scott's Hall – Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
- William Scott of Scott's Hall – Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
- Miles Sindercombe – leader of a group that tried to assassinate Oliver Cromwell
- Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford – peer
- Roger Twysden – politician and antiquarian
- James Weaver – Wisconsin State Assemblyman
- Sophie, Countess of Wessex – wife of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
- Nicholas Wotton – ambassador to France
- Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke – Lord Chancellor
- Henry Young – fifth Governor of South Australia
- Thomas Hinckley, – Governor Plymouth Colonies
- Francis Lovelace – second governor of the New York colony
- Daniel Horsmanden – judge who tried the supposed conspirators in the New York Slave Insurrection of 1741
- Thomas Paine – revolutionary
- Charles Larkin – electoral reformer
- Elizabeth Fry – prison reformer
- Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet – Conservative Member of Parliament for East Kent
- George Gipps – Governor of the colony of New South Wales, Australia
- William Locke Brockman – early settler of Western Australia and Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council
- Edmund Walker Head – Governor General of the Province of Canada
- Charles Sladen – sixth Premier of Victoria, Australia
- Edith Pechey – suffragette and one of the first UK female doctors
- George Herbert Murray – civil servant and Permanent Secretary of the Treasury
- William Hall-Jones – Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Janet Stancomb-Wills – mayor of Ramsgate and philanthropist
- Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster – seventh Governor-General of Australia
- Grote Stirling – Member of Parliament in Canada
- Wendy Wood – campaigner for Scottish independence
- Philip Lucock – Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in Australia
- Edward Heath – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- Ron Ledger – Labour Member of Parliament
- John Vinelott – High Court judge
- Jeanne Hoban – trade unionist in Sri Lanka
- Geoff Braybrooke – New Zealand Member of Parliament
- Michael Farmer, Baron Farmer - businessman and life peer in the House of Lords
- Brian Haw – anti-war protester
- Anne, Princess Royal – only daughter of Elizabeth II
- Nick Brown – Labour Member of Parliament
- John Redwood – Conservative Member of Parliament
- James Arbuthnot – Conservative Member of Parliament
- Paul Clark – Labour Member of Parliament
- Sean Gabb – director of the free market and civil liberties think-tank, Libertarian Alliance
- Nigel Farage – leader of the UK Independence Party
Presenters and entertainers
- Kenneth Clark – art historian and TV presenter
- Frank Muir – comedy writer and TV presenter
- Michael Bentine – comedian and member of the Goons
- Tony Hart – artist and children's TV presenter
- Bob Holness – presenter of TV's Blockbusters and Call My Bluff
- Rod Hull – TV entertainer, known for his puppet Emu
- David Frost – TV presenter, satirist and journalist
- Jan Leeming – TV presenter and newsreader
- Roger Day – radio presenter for BBC Radio Kent
- David Starkey – historian and TV presenter
- Reg Bolton – circus clown and writer
- Michael Hogben – antiques dealer and presenter of TV's Auction Man
- Jilly Goolden – wine critic and TV presenter
- Lorraine Michaels – Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for April 1981
- Carol McGiffin – radio presenter and panellist on TV's Loose Women
- Ian Hislop – TV presenter and editor of Private Eye magazine
- Fiona Phillips – presenter of TV's GMTV
- Mark Steel – socialist comedian and newspaper columnist
- Anton Vamplew – astronomer and TV presenter
- Nick Bateman – Big Brother contestant, TV presenter and writer
- Nicki Chapman – TV presenter and judge on TV's Popstars and Pop Idol
- Naomi Cleaver – interior designer and presenter of TV's Other People's Houses and Honey I Ruined the House
- David Bull – doctor and guest on TV's Most Haunted Live, The Wright Stuff and Watchdog
- Alistair Appleton – presenter of TV's Cash in the Attic and House Doctor
- Melanie and Martina Grant – presenters of TV's Fun House
- Alex Lovell – presenter of TV's Playhouse Disney and BrainTeaser
- James Tanner – chef on TV's Ready Steady Cook
- Luke Burrage – juggler
- Matt Morgan – co-host of Russell Brand's BBC Radio 2 show
- Kelly Brook – model, actress and TV presenter
Soldiers
- Francis Thynne – officer of arms at the College of Arms, London
- Samuel Argall – Navy admiral and kidnapper of Pocahontas
- Sir William Brockman – politician and military leader during the English civil war
- John Boys – Royalist captain during the English Civil War
- George Rooke – naval commander during the Dutch Wars
- George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington – First Lord of the Admiralty
- Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham – First Lord of the Admiralty
- James Wolfe – military officer who defeated the French and established British rule in Canada
- Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis – British general in the American War of Independence
- Peter Rainier – Royal Navy Admiral and Member of Parliament
- John Nicholson Inglefield – Royal Navy Captain of the Fleet
- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington – field marshal and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge – field marshal and Governor-General of India
- James Mouat – recipient of the Victoria Cross
- John Miller Adye – general
- William Sutton – recipient of the Victoria Cross
- George Truman Morrell – Royal Navy commander
- John French, 1st Earl of Ypres – World War I field marshal
- Harold Stephen Langhorne – brigadier-general
- Alexander Godley – World War I general
- Henry Edward Manning Douglas – recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Arthur Borton – recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Thomas Highgate – first British soldier to be convicted of desertion and executed during World War I
- James McCudden – recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Dick White – Head of the Secret Intelligence Service
- Charles Henry Pepys Harington – general
- Roderick Alastair Brook Learoyd – recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Peter Allen Norton – awarded the George Cross for his service in Iraq
- Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill – Flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force killed in Iraq
Sportsmen
- Edwin Head – noted cricket patron and team captain in the 1720s and early 1730s
- George Louch – cricketer
- Robert Clifford – cricketer for Kent
- Fuller Pilch – cricketer for Kent and Norfolk
- Henry Tracey Coxwell – balloonist
- H T Waghorn – cricket statistician and historian
- Spencer Gore – first Wimbledon tennis champion
- Cuthbert Ottaway – England football captain
- Frank Marchant – cricketer for Kent
- Fred Waghorne – ice hockey referee in Canada
- Douglas Carr – cricketer for Kent and England
- Syd King – footballer and manager of West Ham United
- Archie Cross – footballer for Woolwich Arsenal
- Edward Walter Solly – cricketer for Worcestershire
- Frank Woolley - cricketer for Kent and England
- Walter Tull – UK's second black professional footballer and first black infantry officer
- John Stanton Fleming Morrison – golf course architect
- Louis Zborowski – racing driver
- Wally Hammond – cricketer for Gloucestershire and England
- Dick Edmed – footballer for Liverpool
- Les Ames – cricketer for Kent and England
- Alec Rose – sailed single-handed around the world
- Hopper Levett – cricketer for England
- Art Potter – Canadian ice hockey administrator
- Sam King – golfer
- Arthur Fagg – cricketer for Kent and England
- William Murray-Wood – cricketer for Kent
- Jack Conley – footballer for Torquay United
- Godfrey Evans – cricketer for Kent and England
- Ted Ditchburn – footballer for Tottenham Hotspur and England
- Malcolm Allison – footballer for West Ham United and football manager
- Colin Cowdrey – cricketer for Kent and England
- Brian Moore – TV sports commentator
- George Wright – footballer for West Ham United
- Brian Luckhurst – cricketer for Kent and England
- Mike Denness – cricketer for Kent and England
- Barry Davies – TV sports commentator
- Bill Ivy – motorcycle racer
- John Shepherd – cricketer for Kent and West Indies
- Asif Iqbal – cricketer for Kent and Pakistan
- Alan Ealham – cricketer for Kent
- Derek Underwood – cricketer for Kent and England
- Alan Knott – cricketer for Kent and England
- Bob Woolmer – cricketer for Kent and England
- Brian Rose – cricketer for Somerset and England
- Bernard Julien – cricketer for Kent and West Indies
- Paul Gilchrist – footballer for Southampton, Portsmouth and Swindon Town
- Kevin Jarvis – cricketer for Kent and Gloucestershire
- Tony Godden – footballer for West Bromwich Albion, Chelsea and Birmingham City
- Dave Carr – footballer for Luton Town and Torquay United
- David Gower – England cricket captain and TV presenter
- Bob Bolder – footballer for Charlton Athletic, Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday
- Graham Dilley – cricketer for Kent and England
- Richard Ellison – cricketer for Kent and England
- Barry Knight – football referee
- Steve Bennett – football referee
- Gary Brazil – footballer for Fulham, Preston North End and Sheffield United
- Jamie Spence – golfer
- Andy Townsend – TV presenter; footballer for Aston Villa and Republic of Ireland
- David Bowman – footballer for Heart of Midlothian, Dundee United and Scotland
- Geoff Parsons – Commonwealth Games silver medal winning high jumper
- Tim Berrett – Canadian Olympic race walker
- Andy Hessenthaler – footballer and manager of Gillingham
- Mark Ealham – cricketer for Nottinghamshire and England
- Nigel Llong – cricketer for Kent
- Doug Loft – footballer
- Kelly Holmes – 800 metres and 1500 metres Olympic gold medalist
- Mark Hammett – rugby union footballer for New Zealand
- Rob Short – field hockey player for Canada
- Jamie Staff – Commonwealth Games medal winning cyclist
- Gary Breen – footballer for Coventry City, Sunderland and Republic of Ireland
- Neil Shipperley – footballer for Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Wimbledon
- Takaloo – Iranian boxer
- Matthew Rose – footballer for Arsenal, QPR and Yeovil Town
- Kevin Hunt – footballer for Gillingham, Hong Kong Rangers and Bohemians FC
- Ed Smith – writer, and cricketer for Kent and England
- Georgina Harland – 2004 Olympic bronze medallist in the Modern pentathlon
- Peter Hawkins – footballer for Wimbledon, York City and Rushden & Diamonds
- Jon Harley – footballer for Sheffield United, Fulham and Chelsea
- David Flatman – rugby union footballer for Bath and England
- Michael Yardy – cricketer for Sussex
- Sarah Ayton – Olympic gold medal winning sailor
- Gary Mills – footballer for Rushden & Diamonds
- Danny Spiller – footballer for Gillingham
- Richard Rose – footballer for Gillingham and Hereford United
- James Tredwell – cricketer for Kent and England
- Rhys Lloyd – American footballer for Frankfurt Galaxy
- Lisa Dobriskey – Commonwealth Games 1500 metres gold medallist
- Billy Jones – footballer for Leyton Orient and Kidderminster
- Barry Fuller – footballer for Barnet and Stevenage
- Adam Birchall – footballer for Mansfield Town, Barnet and Wales Under–21s
- Andrew Crofts – footballer for Gillingham
- Dave Martin – footballer for Crystal Palace
- Tom Varndell – rugby union footballer for Leicester Tigers and England
- Joe Denly – cricketer for Kent and England
- Sammy Moore – footballer for Ipswich Town
- Zack Sabre Jr – professional wrestler
- Chris Smalling – footballer with Manchester United F.C.
- Adrian Quaife-Hobbs – Formula BMW racing driver
- Luis Binks - Footballer
Writers
- Edwin Arnold – poet and journalist
- Edwin Lester Arnold – author
- Alfred Austin – Poet Laureate
- Enid Bagnold – author and playwright
- Rachel Beer – editor of The Observer and The Sunday Times newspapers
- Aphra Behn – dramatist among earliest professional female writers
- Robert Blatchford – socialist author
- Daniel Blythe – author
- Robert Bridges – Poet Laureate
- Michael Busselle – writer and photographer
- Elizabeth Carter – linguist
- Geoffrey Chaucer – diplomat and author of The Canterbury Tales
- Joseph Conrad – novelist
- Caroline Cornwallis
- Arthur Shearly Cripps – poet, writer and Anglican priest
- Rana Dasgupta – writer
- Charles Dickens – foremost Victorian novelist
- Sarah Dixon – poet
- Keith Douglas – poet
- David Edwards – political journalist
- Ernest Elmore – writer of fantasy and crime novels
- U. A. Fanthorpe – poet and recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
- Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea – poet
- Robert Fisk – journalist
- Phineas Fletcher – poet
- Frederick Forsyth – author of thriller novels such as The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File
- Caroline Fry – Christian writer
- John Fuller – poet and author
- John Gillespie Magee, Jr. – Air Force pilot and poet
- John Gower – poet
- Thom Gunn – Anglo-American poet
- Christopher Harte - sports writer and bibliographer
- William Hazlitt – essayist and literary critic
- Thomas Head Raddall – historical fiction writer
- David Hewson – crime and mystery novelist
- Robert Holdstock – fantasy author
- M. R. James – mediaeval scholar and author
- Lionel Johnson – poet, essayist and critic
- Sidney Keyes – war poet
- Winifred Mary Letts – novelist and poet
- Richard Lovelace – poet and Royalist
- John Lyly – writer and originator of the linguistic style Euphuism
- John Lloyd – comedy writer, and TV producer for Blackadder, Spitting Image and Not the Nine O'Clock News
- Christopher Marlowe – dramatist, poet and translator
- Ronald James Marsh – novelist
- E. Nesbit – children's author and poet
- William Nicholson – Academy Award nominated screenwriter, playwright, and novelist
- Alice Oseman – author
- William Painter – author
- James Parton – American biographer
- Stel Pavlou – author and screenwriter
- Mervyn Peake – author of the Gormenghast books
- Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany – writer and dramatist
- Dudley Pope – author of nautical fiction
- Peter Quennell – poet and literary historian
- Bruce Robinson – BAFTA award-winning screenwriter
- George W. M. Reynolds – author
- William Pett Ridge – author
- Sarah Sands – editor of The Sunday Telegraph newspaper
- Siegfried Sassoon – war poet
- Philip Sidney – poet and military general
- Christopher Smart – poet
- Robert Smythe Hichens – journalist and novelist
- W. Somerset Maugham – playwright and novelist
- David Lee Stone – fantasy author
- John Russell Taylor – film critic
- Russell Thorndike – novelist and actor
- Thomas Turner – diarist
- Gilbert Waterhouse – war poet
- H. G. Wells – writer
- John Wells – satirical writer and comedy performer
- Norman Worker – comic book writer
- Thomas Wyatt – poet and diplomat
- Dornford Yates – novelist
Miscellaneous
- Elizabeth Barton - Catholic nun executed by Henry VIII
- Mary Carleton – fraudster
- Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst – one of the earliest known sets of conjoined twins
- Kevin Foster – investment fraudster
- Frank John William Goldsmith – survivor of the RMS Titanic disaster
- Tony Hayward – CEO of BP Group
- Alice Liddell – inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- Marcus Sarjeant – fired six blank shots at Elizabeth II
- Sophia Stacey – friend of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and writer Mary Shelley
- Walter Tirel – killed William II of England, possibly accidentally
- John Ward – pirate