British overseas dependencies include the British Indian Ocean Territory and St. Helena (described in the Africa volume under UK African Dependencies); and Bermuda, the British Antarctic Territory, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, The Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla and Montserrat (described in the Americas volume under UK American Dependencies).
Gibraltar

The colony of Gibraltar (5.83 sq km/2.25 sq mi in area), the smallest UK dependency, is a narrow peninsula connected to the southwest coast of Spain. From a low, sandy plain in the north, it rises sharply in the 430-m (1,400-ft) Rock of Gibraltar, a shrub-covered mass of limestone, with huge caves. Gibraltar has a pleasantly temperate climate, except for occasional hot summers. Average annual rainfall is 89 cm (35 in). There is a rainy season from December to May. The resident civilian population, almost entirely of European origin, was estimated at 27,714 in mid-2002. Gibraltar is an important port of call for cargo and passenger ships. There is a naval base at the northeast gate of the Strait of Gibraltar and a military airfield that is used by private companies. Telegraph, radio, and television are privately operated. The telephone system is government owned.

Known as Calpe in ancient times, Gibraltar was successively occupied by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, and Visigoths. Its strategic value was recognized early. In AD 711, it was captured by Moors under Tariq, and since then it has been known as Jabal Tariq or Gibraltar. It remained in Moor hands, except for short periods, until Spain took it in 1462. In 1704, a combined English-Dutch fleet captured Gibraltar, and it was officially transferred to Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Since 1964, Spain has tried to negotiate the return of Gibraltar to Spanish control. However, in a referendum held in 1967, Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly (12,138 to 44) to retain their link with Britain. Since then, Spain has continued to raise the issue at the UN and put direct pressure on the Gibraltarians by closing the land frontier between the peninsula and the Spanish mainland and suspending the ferry service between Gibraltar and Algeciras; the border was reopened to limited pedestrian traffic in December 1982 and fully reopened in February 1985.

Under the 1969 constitution, Gibraltar is governed by a House of Assembly with 18 members, 15 of whom are elected by popular vote. The governor (who is also commander of the fortress) retains direct responsibility for defense and external affairs and can intervene in domestic affairs.

Gibraltar was once largely dependent on British subsidies, but in the late 1990s had made the transition to private sector industry. Tourism (with about 6 million visitors annually), reexports (largely fuel for shipping), shipping services, and duties on consumer goods contribute to the economy. Local industries are tobacco and coffee processing. The Gibraltar pound is at par with the British pound. The financial sector accounts for about 15% of GDP. Exports in 1998 (mainly reexports of petroleum and petroleum products) totaled an estimated US $81.1 million, and imports US $492 million. There is an income tax and an estate duty.

Illiteracy is negligible. Education is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 15. There are 12 primary schools, two single-sex comprehensive secondary schools, and the College of Further Education. The armed forces have their own schools; attendance by civilian children is available. Language spoken at home include Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, but the language of business and schools is English. The colony has a serious housing shortage.
Pitcairn Island

Pitcairn is a mountainous island of volcanic origin about 4.5 sq km (1.75 sq mi) in area, in the South Pacific at 25°4′ S and 130°6′ W . Three smaller islands (Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno) associated with Pitcairn are uninhabited. Pitcairn Island was discovered in 1767 by the British and settled in 1790 by H.M.S. Bounty mutineers and the Polynesian women who accompanied them from Tahiti. The population, mainly descendants of the Bounty mutineers, after reaching a peak of 233 in 1937, decreased to 120 in 1962 and to about 52 in 1992 to 47 in 2002. Most of the younger members of the community have migrated to New Zealand. The climate is warm, with very little change throughout the year.

There is one village, Adamstown. Pitcairn is administered, together with the three other small islands, as a UK colony by the UK high commissioner in New Zealand. The local government consists of an island magistrate and a 10-member Island Council. Six of the Council's members are elected. New Zealand dollars ( NZ $) are used locally; NZ $1 = US $0.5132 (or US $1 = NZ $1.9486). There is no port or harbor; goods from ships are conveyed ashore in longboats. Cargo ships plying the route between Panama and New Zealand call periodically.

The main occupation is subsistence agriculture. A small surplus of fresh fruit and vegetables is sold to passing ships. Fish are abundant. Imports, mainly food, come from New Zealand. Fruit, woven baskets, carved curios, and stamps are sold to ships' passengers.

English rulers of renown include Alfred the Great (849–99), king of the West Saxons, who defeated and held off the Danish invaders; William I (the Conqueror, 1027–87), duke of Normandy, who conquered England (1066–70) and instituted many changes in the structure of English government and society; Henry II (1133–89), who centralized the power of the royal government, and his sons Richard I (the Lion-Hearted, 1157–99), leader of the Third Crusade, and John (1167?–1216), from whom the barons wrested the Magna Carta; Edward I (1239–1307), who subdued Wales and established the parliamentary system; Edward III (1312–77), who for a time conquered part of France, and did much to promote English commerce; Henry VIII (1491–1547), who separated the Anglican Church from the Roman Catholic Church and centralized administrative power; Elizabeth I (1533–1603), during whose reign, begun in 1558, England achieved great commercial, industrial, and political power, and the arts flourished; and Victoria (1819–1901), under whom Britain attained unprecedented prosperity and empire.

Among the statesmen distinguished in English history are Thomas à Becket (1118?–70), archbishop of Canterbury, who defended the rights of the church against the crown; Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester (1208?–65), who in 1265 summoned the first Parliament; and Thomas Wolsey (1475?–1530), cardinal, archbishop of York, and Henry VIII's brilliant lord chancellor. Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) established a republican and Puritan Commonwealth. Sir Robert Walpole, first earl of Oxford (1676–1745), unified cabinet government in the person of the prime minister and laid the foundations for free trade and a modern colonial policy. As England moved increasingly toward democratic government, important progress was achieved under the liberal statesmen William Pitt, first earl of Chatham (1708–78); his son William Pitt (1759–1806); and Charles James Fox (1749–1806). Outstanding statesmen of the 19th century were William Wilberforce (1759–1833); Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865); Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850); Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield (1804–81); and William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98). Twentieth-century leaders include David Lloyd George, first earl of Dwyfor (1863–1945), prime minister during World War I; and Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874–1965), prime minister during World War II, historian, and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953. In 1979, Margaret (Hilda Roberts) Thatcher (b.1925) became the nation's first woman prime minister. The reigning monarch since 1952 has been Queen Elizabeth II (b.1926). The heir to the throne is Charles, prince of Wales (b.1948), whose marriage on 29 July 1981 to Lady Diana Frances Spencer (1961–1997; at marriage, Diana, princess of Wales) was seen by a worldwide television audience of 750 million people.
Explorers and Navigators

British explorers and navigators played an important part in charting the course of empire. Sir Martin Frobisher (1535?–94), who set sail from England in search of the Northwest Passage, reached Canada in 1576. Sir Francis Drake (1545?–96) was the first Englishman to sail around the world. John Davis (1550?–1605) explored the Arctic and Antarctic, sailed to the South Seas, and discovered the Falkland Islands. Henry Hudson (d.1611) explored the Arctic regions and North America. Sir Walter Raleigh (1552?–1618) was a historian and poet, as well as a navigator and colonizer of the New World. James Cook (1728–79) charted the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. Scottish-born David Livingstone (1813–73) explored central Africa while doing missionary work. Welsh-born Henry Morton Stanley (John Rowlands, 1841–1904) was sent by a US newspaper to find Livingstone in 1871 and, having done so, returned for further exploration of Africa. Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–90), an Orientalist known for his translation of the Arabian Nights, and John Hanning Speke (1827–64) explored central Africa while searching for the source of the Nile.

Great British military figures include John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), who attained many victories in the War of the Spanish Succession and in later campaigns against the French; Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758–1805), the foremost British naval hero, whose career was climaxed by victory and death at Trafalgar; the Irish-born soldier-statesman Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), whose brilliant campaigns culminated in the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo; General Charles George Gordon (1833–85), who gained victories in China, acquiring the nickname "Chinese," and died while fighting against the Mahdi in Khartoum; Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery (Bernard Law Montgomery, 1887–1976), British military leader during World War II; Welsh-born Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888–1935), known as "Lawrence of Arabia," who led the Arabs in uprisings against the Turks during World War I; and Lord Mountbatten of Burma (Louis Battenberg, 1900–1979), supreme Allied commander in Southeast Asia (1943–46) and last viceroy and first governor-general of India (1946–48).
Philosophers and Legal Scholars

Sir Thomas Littleton (1407?–81) wrote Tenures, a comprehensive work on English land law that was used as a textbook for over three centuries. Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634), a champion of the common law, wrote the Institutes of the Laws of England, popularly known as Coke on Littleton. Sir William Blackstone (1723–80) wrote Commentaries on the Laws of England, which became a basic text in modern legal education and strongly influenced the evolution of jurisprudence in the US as well as in Britain. The jurist-philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) championed liberal law reform.

Roger Bacon (1214?–92), philosopher and scientist, wrote treatises ranging over the whole field of human knowledge. John Duns Scotus (1265?–1308) was a Scottish-born dialectician and theologian. William of Ockham (1300?–1349) laid the foundation of the modern theory of the separation of church and state. John Wesley (1703–91) was the founder of Methodism. Chief among modern philosophers are Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), the Irish-born bishop and idealist thinker George Berkeley (1685–1753), John Stuart Mill (1806–73), Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), George Edward Moore (1873–1958), Ludwig Joseph Johann Wittgenstein (b.Austria, 1889–1951), and Sir Alfred Jules Ayer(b.1910-1989). A philosopher and mathematician who widely influenced contemporary social thought was Bertrand Arthur William Russell, third Earl Russell (1872–1970).
Historians and Economists

Noted historians include Raphael Holinshed (d.1580?), Edward Gibbon (1737–94), John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–92), William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1836–1903), John Richard Green (1837–83), Frederic William Maitland (1850–1906), George Macaulay Trevelyan (1876–1962), Giles Lytton Strachey (1880–1932), Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier (1880–1960), Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889–1975), and Edward Hallett Carr (1892–1982).

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) and David Ricardo (1772–1823) were among the first modern economists. Robert Owen (1771–1858) was an influential Welsh-born socialist, industrial reformer, and philanthropist. Walter Bagehot (1826–77) was a distinguished critic and social scientist. The theories of John Maynard Keynes (Baron Keynes, 1883–1946) have strongly influenced the economic practices of many governments in recent years. Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941), a Scottish-born anthropologist and author of The Golden Bough, was a pioneer in the fields of comparative religion and comparative mythology. Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was an influential economic and social philosopher. Sir Arthur John Evans (1851–1941) was an archaeologist who explored the ruins of ancient Crete. Anna Freud (b.Austria, 1895–1982), daughter of Sigmund Freud, and Melanie Klein (b.Austria, 1882–1960) were psychoanalysts influential in the study of child development. Noted anthropologists include Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917); Polish-born Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski (1884–1942); Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (1903–72) and his wife, Mary Leakey (1913–96), who discovered important fossil remains of early hominids in Tanzania; and Ashley Montagu (1905–1999).
Scientists

Present-day concepts of the universe largely derive from the theories of the astronomer and physicist Sir James Hopwood Jeans (1877–1946), the astronomers Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1946) and Sir Fred Hoyle (1915–2001), and the radio astronomers Sir Martin Ryle (1918–84) and Anthony Hewish (b.1924), who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1974. Other British scientists and inventors who won fame for major contributions to knowledge include William Harvey (1578–1657), physician and anatomist, who discovered the circulation of the blood; Irish-born Robert Boyle (1627–91), physicist and chemist, who investigated the properties of gases; Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), natural philosopher and mathematician, who discovered gravity and made important advances in calculus and optics; German-born physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), who introduced the temperature scale named after him; James Watt (1736–1819), the Scottish-born engineer who invented the modern condensing steam engine; Edward Jenner (1749–1823), who discovered the principle of vaccination; the great chemists John Dalton (1766–1844), who advanced the atomic theory, and Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829); George Stephenson (1781–1848), inventor of the locomotive steam engine; Michael Faraday (1791–1867), a chemist and physicist noted for his experiments in electricity; Scottish-born geologist Sir Charles Lyell (1797–1875), the father of modern geology; Charles Darwin (1809–82), the great naturalist who advanced the theory of evolution; James Prescott Joule (1818–89), a physicist who studied heat and electrical energy; Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95), a biologist who championed Darwin's theory; James Clerk Maxwell (1831–79), the Scottish-born physicist who developed the hypothesis that light and electromagnetism are fundamentally of the same nature; Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955), bacteriologist, who received the 1945 Nobel Prize for medicine for the discovery of penicillin in 1928; and Francis Harry Compton Crick (b.1916) and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (b.New Zealand, 1916), two of the three winners of the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their research into the structure of the DNA molecule.
Literature and the Arts

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400) wrote the Canterbury Tales and other works that marked the height of medieval English poetry. Other major medieval poets were John Gower (1325?–1408) and William Langland (1332?–1400?). William Caxton (1422–91) was the first English printer. Sir Thomas Malory (fl.1470) derived from French and earlier English sources the English prose epic traditionally known as Morte d'Arthur. Two religious reformers who translated the Bible into English, making it accessible to the common people, were John Wycliffe (1320?–84), who made the first complete translation, and William Tyndale (1492?–1536), who made the first translation from the original languages instead of Latin.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, England's golden age, emerged the dramatist and poet William Shakespeare (1564–1616), a giant of English and world literature, and a galaxy of other fine poets and playwrights. Among them were Edmund Spenser (1552?–99), Irish-born author of the Faerie Queene; the poet and soldier Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86); and the dramatists Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) and Ben Jonson (1572–1637). Outstanding writers of the Stuart period include the philosopher, scientist, and essayist Francis Bacon (1561–1626), first Baron Verulam Viscount St. Albans; John Donne (1572–1631), the greatest of the metaphysical poets; the lyric poet Robert Herrick (1591–1674); John Milton (1608–74), author of Paradise Lost and other poems and political essays; John Bunyan (1628–88), who created the classic allegory Pilgrim's Progress; and the poet, playwright, and critic John Dryden (1631–1700). The greatest Restoration dramatists were William Wycherley (1640–1716) and William Congreve (1670–1729). Two authors of famous diaries mirroring the society of their time were John Evelyn (1620–1706) and Samuel Pepys (1633–1703).

Distinguished writers of the 18th century include the Irish-born satirist Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), author of Gulliver's Travels; the essayists Joseph Addison (1672–1719) and Sir Richard Steele (1672–1729), whose journals were the prototypes of modern magazines; the poets Alexander Pope (1688–1744) and Thomas Gray (1716–71); the critic, biographer, and lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709–84); and the Irish-born playwrights Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–74), also a poet and novelist, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816). The poet and artist William Blake (1757–1827) worked in a unique mystical vein.

The English Romantic movement produced a group of major poets, including William Wordsworth (1770–1850); Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834); George Noel Gordon Byron, sixth Lord Byron (1788–1824); Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822); and John Keats (1795–1821). Victorian poets of note included Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92); Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61); her husband, Robert Browning (1812–89); Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1822–82); his sister, Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–94); Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909); and Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Edward FitzGerald (1809–83) is famous for his free translations of Omar Khayyam's Rubáiyát. Matthew Arnold (1822–88) was a noted poet and critic. Other prominent critics and essayists include Charles Lamb (1775–1834), William Hazlitt (1778–1830), Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859), John Ruskin (1819–1900), Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), and William Morris (1834–96). Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) was a distinguished statesman, essayist, and historian. John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801–90) was an outstanding Roman Catholic theologian. Irish-born Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900) was famous as a playwright, novelist, poet, and wit.

Major poets of the 20th century include Alfred Edward Housman (1859–1936); Walter John de la Mare (1873–1956); Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964); US-born Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965), winner of the Nobel Prize in 1949; Wystan Hugh Auden (1907–73); Welsh-born Dylan Thomas (1914–53); Philip Larkin (1922–85); and Ted Hughes (b.1930). Prominent critics include Frank Raymond Leavis (1895–1978) and Sir William Empson (1906–84).

The English novel's distinguished history began with Daniel Defoe (1660–1731), Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), Henry Fielding (1707–54), and Laurence Sterne (1713–68). It was carried forward in the 19th century by Jane Austen (1775–1817), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63), Charles Dickens (1812–70), Charles Reade (1814–84), Anthony Trollope (1815–82), the Brontë Sisters—Charlotte (1816–55) and Emily (1818–48)—George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans, 1819–80), George Meredith (1828–1909), Samuel Butler (1835–1902), and Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), who was also a poet. The mathematician Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832–98) became world-famous for two children's books, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), author of novels, stories, and poems, received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) is known throughout the world as the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Twentieth-century fiction writers of note include the Polish-born Joseph Conrad (Teodor Józef Konrad Korzeniowski, 1857–1924); Herbert George Wells (1866–1946), who was also a popular historian and a social reformer; Arnold Bennett (1867–1931); John Galsworthy (1867–1933), also a playwright, who received the Nobel Prize in 1932; William Somerset Maugham (1874–1965), also a playwright; Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970); Virginia Woolf (1882–1941); David Herbert Lawrence (1885–1930); Joyce Cary (1888–1957); Katherine Mansfield(b.New Zealand, 1888–1923); Dame Agatha Christie (1881–1976), also a playwright; Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett (1892–1969); Dame Rebecca West (b.Ireland, 1892–1983), also known for her political writings and as an active feminist; Aldous Huxley (1894–1963); John Boynton Priestley (1894–1984), also a playwright; Irish-born Robert Ranke Graves (1895–1985), also a poet, novelist, scholar, and critic; George Orwell (Eric Blair, 1903–50), also a journalist and essayist; Evelyn Waugh (1903–66); Graham Greene (1904–91); Anthony Dymoke Powell(b.1905); Henry Green (Henry Vincent Yorke, 1905–74); Charles Percy Snow (Baron Snow, 1905–80), also an essayist and a physicist; William Golding (1911–93), Nobel Prize winner in 1983; Lawrence George Durrell (b.India, 1912–90); Anthony Burgess (1917–93); Doris Lessing (b.Iran, 1919); and John Le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell, b.1931). The dominant literary figure of the 20th century was George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Dublin-born playwright, essayist, critic, and wit. The playwright-composer-lyricist Sir Noel Coward (1899–1973) directed and starred in many of his sophisticated comedies. Harold Pinter (b.1930) has been a highly influential playwright.
Actors and Actresses

The British stage tradition dates back to Richard Burbage(d.1619), the greatest actor of Shakespeare's time, and Edmund Kean (1787–1833), the greatest tragedian of the Romantic era. Luminaries of the modern theater are Dame Ellen Alicia Terry (1848–1928), Dame Sybil Thorndike (1882–1976), Dame Edith Evans (1888–1976), Sir Ralph Richardson (1902–83), Sir John Gielgud (1904–2000), Laurence Olivier (Baron Olivier of Brighton, 1907–1989), Sir Michael Redgrave (1908–85), and Derek George Jacobi (b.1938). Prominent stage directors are Peter Stephen Paul Brook (b.1925) and Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall (b.1930). Major contributors to the cinema have included the comic actor and director Charlie (Sir Charles Spencer) Chaplin (1889–1977); the directors Sir Alexander Korda (Sandor Corda, b.Hungary, 1893–1956), Sir Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980), Sir Carol Reed (1906–76), Sir David Lean (1908–91), and Sir Richard Attenborough (b.1923); and actors Cary Grant (Archibald Alexander Leach, 1904–86), Sir Alec Guinness (1914–2000), Deborah Kerr (b.1921), Welsh-born Richard Burton (1925–84), Irish-born Peter O'Toole (b.1932), Maggie Natalie Smith (b.1934), Vanessa Redgrave (b.1937), and Glenda Jackson (b.1936).
Architects

Great English architects were Inigo Jones (1573–1652) and Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723). Famous artists include William Hogarth (1697–1764), Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92), Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88), Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), John Constable (1776–1837), the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley (1872–98), Graham Sutherland (1903–80), Francis Bacon (b.Ireland, 1910–92), and David Hockney(b.1937). Roger Eliot Fry (1866–1934) and Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (Lord Clark, 1903–83) were influential art critics. Sir Jacob Epstein (b.US, 1880–1959), Henry Moore (1898–1986), and Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903–75) are world-famous British sculptors. The most famous British potter was Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95).
Composers

English composers of note include John Dunstable (1370?–1453), whose works exerted a profound influence on continental musicians; William Byrd (1543–1623) and Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625), who were proficient in both sacred and secular music; the great lutenist and songwriter John Dowland (1563–1626); the madrigalists John Wilbye (1574–1638) and Thomas Weelkes (1575?–1623); Henry Purcell (1659?–95), a brilliant creator of vocal and chamber works; German-born George Frederick Handel (Georg Friedrich Händel, 1685–1759), a master of baroque operas, oratorios, and concerti; and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900), whose musical settings of the librettos of Sir William Schwenk Gilbert (1836–1911) are among the most popular comic operas of all time. Significant 20th-century figures include Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Frederick Delius (1862–1934), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), Sir William Walton (1902–83), Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (b.1905), Edward Benjamin Britten (Baron Britten, 1913–76), Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934), and, in popular music, John Winston Lennon (1940–80) and James Paul McCartney (b.1942) of the Beatles. Notable performers include pianists Dame Myra Hess (1890–1965) and Sir Clifford Curzon (1907–82), violinist Sir Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), guitarist-lutenist Julian Bream(b.1933), singers Sir Peter Pears (1910–86) and Dame Janet Baker(b.1933), and conductors Sir Thomas Beecham (1879–1961), Sir Adrian Boult (1889–1983), Sir John Barbirolli (1899–1970), Sir Georg Solti (b.Hungary, 1912–1997), and Sir Colin Davis(b.1927).
Athletes

Notable British athletes include Sir Roger Bannister (b.1929), who on 6 May 1954 became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes; golfer Tony Jacklin (b.1944), winner of the British Open in 1969 and the US Open in 1970; three-time world champion John Young "Jackie" Stewart (b.1939), a Scottish race-car driver; and the yachtsman Sir Francis Chichester (1901–72), winner of the first single-handed transatlantic race (1970) and the first sailor to make a solo circumnavigation of the globe (1966–67).
Natives of Scotland and Wales

Duncan I (r.1034–40) was the first ruler of the historical kingdom of Scotland. Macbeth (r.1040–57), who killed Duncan and seized the throne, furnished the subject of one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. Margaret (d.1093), Duncan's daughter-in-law, reformed the Church, won fame for piety and charity, and was made a saint. William Wallace (1272?–1306) led a rebellion against the English occupation. Robert the Bruce (1274–1329), ruler of Scotland (1306–29), won its independence from England. Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart, 1542–87), a romantic historical figure, is the subject of many plays and novels. Her son James VI (1566–1625) became England's King James I.

Before the union with England, outstanding poets writing in Scottish include Robert Henryson (1425?–1500?), William Dunbar (1460?–1520?), Gavin Douglas (1474–1522), and Sir David Lindsay (1490?–1555). One of the finest Scottish poets was William Drummond (1585–1649). Sir Thomas Urquhart (1611–60) produced a noted translation of Rabelais. John Knox (1514?–72) was the founder of Presbyterianism. David Hume (1711–76) was an outstanding philosopher and historian. Economist and philosopher Adam Smith (1723–90) influenced the development of world economy and politics. James Boswell (1740–95) wrote the brilliant Life of Samuel Johnson. The 18th century produced several important poets, notably Allan Ramsay (1686–1758), James Thomson (1700–48), James Macpherson (1736–96), and the national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns (1759–96). A major 19th-century essayist and social critic was Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881). Scottish novelists of prominence include Tobias George Smollett (1721–71); Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832); Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94), also a poet; John Buchan, first Lord Tweedsmuir (1875–1940); and Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860–1937), who also wrote popular plays.

Distinguished figures who were active primarily in Wales include the 6th-century monk Dewi (d.588?), who became St. David, the patron saint of Wales; Rhodri the Great (844–77), who attained rule over most of Wales and founded two great ruling houses; Howel the Good (Hywel Dda, 910–50), whose reformed legal code became the standard of Welsh law for centuries; the Lord Rhys ap Gruffydd (1155–97), ruler of southern Wales, who founded the national Eisteddfod; Dafydd ap Gwilym (fl.1340–70), a remarkable poet; and Owen Glendower (Owain ap Gruffydd, 1359?–1416), the national hero of Wales, who led a rebellion against English rule. Bishop William Morgan (1541?–1604) made a Welsh translation of the Bible which, with revisions, is still in use. Among literary figures are Ellis Wynne (1671–1734), Daniel Owen (1836–95), and Sir Owen Morgan Edwards (1858–1920).

Two natives of Northern Ireland—Betty Williams (b.1943), a Protestant, and Mairead Corrigan (b.1944), a Roman Catholic— received the Nobel Peace Prize (awarded in 1977) for their leadership of a peace movement in Ulster.

The United Kingdom is a popular tourist destination, rich in natural as well as cultural attractions. Landscapes range from farmlands and gardens to sandy beaches, moors, and rocky coasts. Architectural sights include stone and thatched cottages, stately country houses, mansions, and castles. Among the many historic dwellings open to the public are the Welsh castles Cilgerran (11th century), Dolbadarn (12th century), and Conway and Caernarvon (both 13th century); 10-century-old Traquair House near Peebles, the oldest continuously inhabited house in Scotland, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh; and Warwick Castle, near Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Distinguished cathedrals include St. Paul's in London and those in Canterbury, Exeter, Norwich, Winchester, and York. At Bushmills, in Northern Ireland, the oldest distillery in the world may be visited, and some of Scotland's 100 malt whiskey distilleries also offer tours.

Among London's extraordinary attractions are Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and Westminster Abbey. Of the wide range of entertainment available, London is particularly noted for its theater, including the Royal Shakespeare Company. Folk music may be heard throughout the United Kingdom; traditional community gatherings for music and dancing, called ceilidhs, are held in Scotland, often in pubs, and Edinburgh is the site of one of the world's largest folk festivals, as well as an annual festival of classical music and other performing arts.

Scotland, where golf developed in the 15th century, has many superb golf courses, as does the rest of the United Kingdom; some 70 Highland Games and Gatherings take place in Scotland from May to September. Other popular sports include fishing, riding, sailing, rugby, cricket, and soccer football. Wimbledon is the site of perhaps the world's most prestigious tennis competition. London hosted the summer Olympics in 1908 and 1948. England hosted and won the World Cup soccer championship in 1966.

In principle, foreigners entering the United Kingdom must have a valid passport and a visa issued by British consular authorities abroad. However, citizens of Ireland do not need a passport, and citizens of OECD, Commonwealth, and Latin American countries, among others, need no visa. Tourism yields a substantial income from overseas; in 2000, 25,211,000 foreign visitors spent $19.5 billion in the United Kingdom. There are more than one million beds available in hotel and other accommodations.

According to 2002 US government estimates, the cost of staying in London was $336 per day.

The Post Office, founded in 1635, was the first in the world to institute adhesive stamps as proof of payment for mail. It now operates nearly all postal services. As authorized by 1981 legislation, the Thatcher government relaxed postal and telecommunications monopolies in some areas. The Telecommunications Act of 1984 further promoted competition and denationalized British Telecommunications (Telecom), which as of 1997 encompasses a system of over 34 million telephone exchange lines. In 1998 there were an additional 13 million mobile cellular phones in use throughout the country. As of 1995, there were 63,500 telex connections, and 500,000 data transmission terminals. Some 170 countries can be dialed directly.

Radio and television broadcasting services are provided by the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), which was established as a public corporation in 1927, and by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Radio Authority, commercial concerns whose powers are defined in the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act of 1973. The BBC broadcasts on two television channels and the Independent Television Commission broadcasts on ITV and Channel Four, which began operating in 1982. BBC Radio offers five national radio networks in the medium- and long-wave bands, as well as FM programming and an overseas service in 37 languages. Both the BBC and IBA operate local radio services; the BBC has 39 local stations (including 2 for the Channel Islands). In September of 1992, the first national commercial radio station, Classic FM, was inaugurated, and two other similar stations were planned. As of 1999, there were 225 AM and 525 (mostly repeater) FM radio stations and 78 television stations. In 2000, there were 1,432 radios and over 500 television sets for every 1,000 people. The same year, there were about 338 personal computers in use for every 1,000 people and 245 Internet service providers were serving 33 million people by 2001.

Although circulation totals have been decreasing, UK newspaper readership per capita was the second highest in the world in 1995. As of that year there were about 101 daily and Sunday newspapers, some 2,000 weekly papers, numerous specialized papers, and about 7,000 periodicals. Nine Sunday papers and 12 daily morning papers are "national" in the sense of circulating throughout Britain.

In 2002, the newspaper with the highest circulation was the tabloid News of the World , which distributes over 4 million papers per week. Six other the Sunday papers have circulations in the millions. The provincial press included more than 100 daily and Sunday newspapers and some 1,600 weeklies in 1992.

The weekly Berrow's Worcester Journal, founded in 1690, claims to be the world's oldest continuously circulating newspaper. Scotland has six morning, five evening, and four Sunday papers, plus the Scottish editions of the Daily Mail and the Sunday Express. The Glasgow Herald (2002 circulation 95,718) and The Scotsman (82,270), an Edinburgh paper, are the most influential.About 120 weekly papers are published in Scottish towns. Northern Ireland has two morning papers, one evening paper, and one Sunday paper, all published in Belfast (with circulations ranging from 32,780 to 111,330), plus a number of weeklies. The evening paper is the Belfast Telegraph (circulation 111,330).

Britain's ethnic minorities publish over 60 newspapers and magazines, most of them weekly, fortnightly or monthly. These include the Chinese Sing Tao and Wen Wei Po, the Urdu Daily Jang, and the Arabic Al-Arab (the foregoing are all dailies), as well as newspapers in Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi and Punjabi. The Weekly Journal, aimed at Britain's black community, was begun in 1992.

The over 7,000 periodicals published weekly, monthly, or quarterly cover a huge range of special interests. Leading opinion journals are New Statesman, The Economist, and Spectator. The Times Literary Supplement is highly influential in cultural affairs. The chief news agency is Reuters, a worldwide organization servicing British papers with foreign and Commonwealth news and the world press with British and foreign news.

Although there is no government censorship of news or opinion, the Official Secrets Act, stringent libel and slander laws, and restrictions governing the disclosure of court proceedings do impose limitations on press freedom. In addition, the press regulates itself through the Press Council, which adjudicates complaints about newspaper practices from local officials and the public. Views critical of the government are well established.
 

A vast number of organizations in the United Kingdom carry on programs in every phase of human activity. Voluntary social service organizations number in the thousands. Social work on a national scale is carried out under religious sponsorship. Cooperation between Protestant churches is fostered by the British Council of Churches. The Council of Christians and Jews works for cooperation between these faiths. The principal coordinating body in general social service is the National Council of Social Service.

Voluntary organizations are active in adult education. The British Council promotes a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and its people abroad and develops cultural relations with other countries. There are more than 300 learned societies. The Arts Council of Great Britain (founded in 1946) promotes the fine arts and higher artistic standards, and advises government bodies on artistic matters. The Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy are other leading bodies in the arts. The National Book League, the Royal Society of Literature, the British Academy, the English Association, the Bibliographical Society, and other groups foster interest in literature, language, and scholarship. The Arts Council of Wales was established in 1967. Arts and Cultural organizations in Scotland include the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture; the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society; the Scottish Arts Council; and the Scottish Games Association. Clan associations are also popular in Scotland, with many providing genealogical research and social events and contact.

The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services includes most of the largest youth groups. The leading political parties, major religious denominations, and some adult voluntary organizations, such as the Red Cross, maintain youth organizations. There is also a Scouts Association and a Girl Guides Association. There are numerous sports associations for participants of all ages.

The national body representing British industry is the Confederation of British Industry, incorporated in 1965 and directly or indirectly representing about 250,000 companies. The Association of British Chambers of Commerce (founded in 1860) has 240 affiliated UK chambers. Agricultural organizations include the National Farmers' Union, agricultural cooperative societies, and other specialized associations.

London has more than 500 libraries, among them the British Library, the largest in the United Kingdom, with about 16 million volumes. The National Library of Scotland, with about seven million volumes, is in Edinburgh, and the National Library of Wales, with some four million volumes, in Aberystwyth. The Bodleian Library at Oxford University has about 6.7 million volumes, and the Cambridge University Library has 5.9 million. Each of these five is a copyright library, entitled to receive a copy of every new book published in the United Kingdom.

Other major libraries in London include the University of London Central Library (two million), the London Library (the largest public subscription library), the Science Museum Library (600,000), the Victoria and Albert Museum Art Library, the Public Record Office (containing such national historical treasures as the Domesday Book), and the libraries of such institutions as the Royal Institute of International Affairs (140,000), the Royal Commonwealth Society (150,000), the Royal Geographical Society (150,000), the Royal Academy of Arts (22,000), and the National Library for the Blind. In 2002 a Women's Library opened in London giving a home to publications documenting women's lives in Britain. There are major libraries at the Universities of Edinburgh (2.4 million), Glasgow (1.4 million), Queen's University in Belfast (1.1 million), and St. Andrew's (920,000). Manchester Metropolitan University has one million volumes.

Public libraries are administered by public library authorities (councils of counties, county boroughs, municipal boroughs, and urban districts). Public libraries also lend music scores, cassettes, and records. Rural areas are served by traveling vans.

The United Kingdom is a museum-lover's dream. Almost every city and large town has museums of art, archaeology, and natural history. There are more than 1,000 museums and art galleries, ranging from nearly two dozen great national institutions to small collections housed in a few rooms. London has the British Museum (founded 1759), with its vast collections of archaeological and ethnographic material from all over the world, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, including extensive collections of works of fine and applied arts. In the late 1990s, the British Museum was struggling financially; trustees rejected admission fees, and a multimillion-dollar deficit was projected when the government, which had funded most of the $84.5 million budget through the National Lottery, began reducing contributions. The National Gallery, the Tate Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery are among other prestigious London art museums. Other museums located in London include the London Transport Museum (founded 1978), the National Maritime Museum (1934), the Natural History Museum (1963), and the Science Museum (1857). There is also a collection of royal ceremonial dress at Kensington Palace, and the Sherlock Holmes Museum, featuring Victorian memorabilia, opened in 1990. The Tate Gallery of Modern Art, featuring rotating exhibits arranged by theme, opened in May 2000. The National Museum of Wales is in Cardiff, and there are six national museums and art galleries in Edinburgh. Belfast has a quasi-national museum and art gallery and is the site of the Northern Irish Folk Museum. There are important museums and art galleries in Liverpool, Manchester, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol, Norwich, Southampton, York, Glasgow, Leeds, and other cities. Oxford and Cambridge each have many museums, and several other universities also have important collections. Private art collections in historic family mansions are open to the public at specified times.

By the mid 1990s there were more than 23 million dwellings in the United Kingdom. Nearly 70% were owned by their occupants; almost 30% were owned by public authorities; the remainder (mainly older houses) were rented from private landlords. About 50% of families now live in a post-1945 dwelling, usually a two-story house with a garden. Most homeowners finance their purchase through a home mortgage loan from a building society, bank, insurance company, or other financial institution. The degree of overcrowding in the United Kingdom is lower than in most European countries.

New houses are built by both the public and private sectors, but most are built by the private sector for sale to owneroccupiers. The main providers of new subsidized housing are housing associations, which own, manage, and maintain over 600,000 homes in England alone and completed over nearly 30,000 new homes for rent or shared ownership per year in the mid-1990s. Local housing authorities were in the past primarily concerned with slum clearance; however, large-scale clearance virtually ended in the mid-1980s, with emphasis shifting to modernization of substandard homes and community improvement.

Preliminary data of the 2001 census indicated that there were about 21,660,475 households in England and Wales. About 33% of all households lived in semi-detached houses.