page_title: Wolverhampton
section_title: Notable people
hierarchical_section_title: Wolverhampton / Notable people
caption_attribution_description: English: Official portrait of Baroness Hayman
context_page_description: Wolverhampton is a city, administrative centre and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 249,470. The demonym for people from the city is 'Wulfrunian.'
  Historically part of Staffordshire, the city grew initially as a market town specialising in the woollen trade. In the Industrial Revolution, it became a major centre for coal mining, steel production, lock making, and the manufacture of cars and motorcycles. The economy of the city is still based on engineering, including a large aerospace industry, as well as the service sector.
context_section_description: There are a number of notable people who are associated with Wolverhampton.
  Political figures associated with Wolverhampton include Enoch Powell MP, Sir Charles Pelham Villiers MP, who holds the record for the longest serving MP, Helene Hayman, Baroness Hayman, who was the first Lord Speaker within the House of Lords, former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers, current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, who briefly worked as a writer for the Express & Star, David Wright, a former UK Ambassador to Japan, and Button Gwinnett, who was a signatory of the US Declaration of Independence and briefly served as Governor of Georgia.
  There are many sportspeople associated with the city, with footballers such as Billy Wright, Steve Bull, Bert Williams and Jimmy Mullen; along with Percy Stallard and Hugh Porter within the world of cycling, the Olympic medallist swimmer Anita Lonsbrough, professional darts player Wayne Jones, racing driver and winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans Richard Attwood as well as athletes such as Tessa Sanderson and Denise Lewis and cricketer Vikram Solanki who grew up here and played for Wolverhampton Cricket Club before joining Worcestershire.
  Entertainers include actors Nigel Bennett, Goldie, Frances Barber, Meera Syal and Eric Idle; and musicians Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Beverley Knight, Dave Holland, Maggie Teyte, Edward Elgar, Mitch Harris, Robert Plant, Bibio, Paul Raven, trap-metal rapper Scarlxrd, and Liam Payne of the group One Direction; and television presenters Suzi Perry, Mark Rhodes and Mark Speight.
  Within the area of commerce and industry, Sir Alfred Hickman (first Chairman of Tarmac), Sir Geoffrey Mander, John Marston founder of Sunbeam Cycles and Sunbeam Motor Car Company, John 'Iron Mad' Wilkinson (pioneer of Cast iron) and Mervyn King Governor of the Bank of England are amongst the most notable. Prof Ernest Geoffrey Cullwick, a specialist in electromagnetism and its effects on atomic particles, was born and raised in Wolverhampton.
caption: Baroness Hayman, 2018
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