List of British people with German ancestry

This is a list of notable British people with German ancestry.

Academia

• Ralf Dahrendorf, sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician; born in Hamburg, he acquired British citizenship in 1988
• Edgar Feuchtwanger, historian and author
• Timothy Reuter, historian of medieval Europe whose father was born in Germany^[1]
• John Stein, professor of physiology and fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford; brother of the chef Rick Stein
• J. R. R. Tolkien, writer, poet, philologist, linguist and professor of Anglo-Saxon; his family had German roots but had been living in England since the 18th century; "Tolkien" derives from the German "tollkühn", meaning "foolhardy"

Aristocracy and royalty

• The Astor family, originally from Walldorf but gained prominence in both America and England; the English branch holds two hereditary peerages: Viscount Astor and Baron Astor
• The British Royal Family, who belong to the House of Windsor (a branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha); George V of the United Kingdom changed the name of his branch from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor in 1917; through Queen Victoria, the current royal family are also descended from the House of Hanover (see entry below)
  • Queen Mary of Teck, consort of George V; born in Kensington Palace, London, she was a member of the House of Württemberg (through her father Francis, Duke of Teck) and also a descendant of the House of Hanover (through her mother Prince Mary Adelaide of Cambridge)
  • Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, member of the British Royal Family by marriage (consort of Elizabeth II), and member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg by birth
• John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, referred to simply as Lord Acton, Catholic historian, politician and writer, whose mother was a scion of the noble German Dalberg family
• Lady Mary Victoria Douglas-Hamilton (later Hereditary Princess of Monaco), whose mother was a member of the House of Baden
• Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, wife of Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, and great-granddaughter of Julius Wernher
• The House of Hanover, a German royal dynasty who produced seven British monarchs: George I, George II, George III, George IV, William IV and Victoria
• Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Baronet, peer, grandfather of the above Natalia Grosvenor (née Phillips) and son of Julius Wernher

Art

• Walter Sickert, Munich-born painter of Danish-German, English and Irish descent (son of the painter Oswald Sickert)

Commerce

• Ernest Cassel, merchant banker of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, born in Cologne^[2]
• Tiny Rowland, originally Roland Walter Fuhrhop, Rhodesian-British chairman of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1994

Entertainment

• Simon Callow, actor of English, Danish, German and French descent
• Julian Clary, comedian with a great-grandfather (on his father's side) and a great-grandmother (on his mother's side) who were born in Germany^[3]
• Ernest Cossart, actor born as Emil von Holst; brother of the composer Gustav Holst and consequently of German, Swedish, British, Latvian and Spanish descent
• Rupert Everett, actor whose great-great-grandmother, Augusta Clara de Schmiedern, was a scion of the aristocratic Schmiedern family (Barons von Schmeidern)
• Richard E. Grant, actor of Dutch-Afrikaner, Hungarian and half-German descent^[4][5]
• Jenny Hanley, actress of English descent through her father, Jimmy Hanley, and Russian-Jewish and German descent through her mother Dinah Sheridan
• Derek Jacobi, actor and film director, whose great-grandfather, William Jacobi^[6] emigrated from Germany to England in the 19th century^[7]
• Jodhi May, actress of French-Turkish Jewish and German descent
• Robert Morley, actor whose mother, Gertrude Emily (née Fass), came from a German family that had emigrated to South Africa
• Carol Reed, film director and illegitimate son of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
• Oliver Reed, actor who had Dutch, Lithuanian and German ancestry through his grandfather Herbert Beerbohm Tree
• Enn Reitel, actor and impressionist; his family arrived as refugees from Estonia and Germany
• Sean Pertwee, actor; son of actor John Pertwee and his German wife, Ingeborg (née Rhoesa)
• Mark Sheppard, actor and musician, born in London of an Irish and German background
• Dinah Sheridan, actress of Russian-Jewish and German descent
• Claire Stansfield, actress, director, fashion designer and model of half-English and half-German descent
• Herbert Beerbohm Tree, actor and theatre manager who was born as Herbert Draper Beerbohm, son of Julius Beerbohm; his father was of Dutch, Lithuanian and German origin
• Iris Tree, actress, poet and artists' model; daughter of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
• Viola Tree, actress; daughter of Herbert Beerbohm Tree
• Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and dramatist of Russian, German, Polish-Jewish and Ethiopian noble descent
• Gordon Warnecke, actor of Indo-Guyanese and German descent

Food

• Rick Stein, chef, restaurateur and television presenter whose father, Eric Stein, was of German descent (an ancestor, Julius Otto Stein, emigrated from Germany in the 19th century)^[8]

Literature

• Sybille Bedford, novelist born in Charlottenburg
• Max Beerbohm, essayist, novelist and caricaturist who was of German descent by virtue of his relationship to Herbert Beerbohm Tree, his half-brother; their father was Julius Beerbohm
• Ford Madox Ford, novelist whose father, Francis Hueffer, was from Germany
• Robert Graves (full name Robert von Ranke Graves), poet, novelist and scholar, whose German mother was a great-niece of the historian Leopold von Ranke
• Adam Hart-Davis, historian, photographer, television presenter and scientist; son of Rupert Hart-Davis
• Duff Hart-Davis, biographer and journalist, son of Rupert Hart-Davis
• Rupert Hart-Davis, man of letters, publisher and editor; great-great-great grandson of King William IV and, in turn, the German House of Hanover (and other prominent German dynasties)
• Frieda Hughes, poet and painter; daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath; Sylvia's father, Otto Plath, was German while her mother, Aurelia Plath, was of Austrian descent
• Judith Kerr, author of children's books, born in Berlin
• John Lehmann, man of letters and editor, whose Hamburg-born grandfather, Augustus Frederick Lehmann, was a businessman and Liberal politician
• Patrick O'Brian (born Richard Patrick Russ), novelist and translator, the son of a physician of German descent
• Stephen Spender, poet and novelist, whose mother (Violet Hilda Schuster) had German parents
• J. R. R. Tolkien, writer, poet, philologist, linguist and Professor of Anglo-Saxon (also see above entry in 'Academia')

Music

• Antony Beaumont, musicologist, writer, composer and conductor; born in London of Anglo-German and Greek-Romanian heritage
• David Bedford, composer and musician; brother of Steuart Bedford (below) and grandson of Liza Lehmann
• Steuart Bedford, conductor and pianist; brother of the above David Bedford and grandson of Liza Lehmann
• Frederick Delius, composer born as Fritz Theodore Albert Delius in Bradford, Yorkshire to German parents
• Gustav Holst, composer of British, Swedish, Spanish, Latvian and German descent
• Bert Jansch, folk musician and descendant of a family originally from Hamburg, who had settled in Scotland during the Victorian era

News and journalism

• Rachel Johnson, editor, journalist, television presenter and writer; sister of Boris and Jo Johnson, and descendant of the House of Württemberg through an illegitimate line
• Laura Kuenssberg, journalist; granddaughter of Ekkehard von Kuenssberg

Politics and government

• Andrew Brons, BNP politician and former Member of European Parliament, whose great-grandfather was German^[9]
• David Cameron, Conservative Party politician and former Prime Minister, who is descended from the German House of Hanover through an illegitimate line
• Eyre Crowe, former diplomat whose mother, Asta von Barby, was a German noblewoman
• Natascha Engel, Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament (half-German and half-English descent, born in Berlin)
• Nigel Farage, UKIP politician, whose great-grandfather Charles Justus Schrod (born Carl Julius Schrod), a clerk in the General Post Office,^[10] was born to German parents^[11][12]
• Boris Johnson, Conservative Party politician and current Mayor of London who is descended from the royal German House of Württemberg (and the House of Hanover) through his German great-great-great grandmother Karolina von Rothenburg (born to Prince Paul of Württemberg and his mistress Frederike Porth)^[13]
• Jo Johnson, Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament; brother of Boris and Rachel Johnson, and descendant of the House of Württemberg through an illegitimate line
• Joseph Jonas, former Mayor of Sheffield and Imperial German Consul to the city^[14]
• William Joyce
• Angus Robertson, SNP politician and Member of Parliament; born to a Scottish father and German mother
• Gisela Stuart (born Gisela Gschaider), Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament

Science

• Andre Geim, Soviet-born Dutch-British physicist working in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester^[15]
• John Herschel, English mathematician, astronomer, chemist and inventor; son of William Herschel, the Hanover-born astronomer who emigrated to Great Britain at the age of nineteen
• William Herschel, 2nd Baronet, forensic scientist; son of the above John Herschel and grandson of William Herschel
• Frederick Lindemann, scientific adviser and physicist; son of Adolph Friedrich Lindemann, an engineer born in the Palatinate

Sport

• Nicky Butt, former English international footballer
• Geoff Hurst, former English international footballer; his mother, Evelyn Blick, was from Gloucestershire but her family originally came from Germany^[16]
• Glen Roeder, former English Club football coach

See also

• British people
• German migration to the United Kingdom
• German people

References