A

• James Anderton
  James Anderton
  Sir Cyril James Anderton CBE is a British former police officer who served as Chief Constable of Greater Manchester from 1975 to 1991.-Career:...
  
  , former Chief Constable
  Chief Constable
  Chief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry...
  
   of Greater Manchester Police
  Greater Manchester Police
  Greater Manchester Police is the police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England...
  
  .
• Richard Ashcroft
  Richard Ashcroft
  Richard Paul Ashcroft is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer and occasional guitarist of alternative rock band The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their split in 1999, and continues as a lead vocalist working with guitars and keyboards...
  
  , Lead singer of The Verve
  The Verve
  The Verve were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space...
  
   Born in Billinge.
• Bill Ashurst
  Bill Ashurst
  William "Bill" F. Ashurst is an English former professional rugby league footballer of the 1960s and '70s, and coach of the 1980s who at representative level has played for Great Britain, and at club level for Wigan , Penrith Panthers, Wakefield Trinity, and Runcorn Highfield, playing at , i.e...
  
  , rugby league footballer of the 1960s and '70s for Great Britain, Wigan, Penrith Panthers, and Wakefield Trinity
• Chris Ashton
  Chris Ashton
  Chris Ashton is an English rugby union player who has represented England in both Rugby League and Rugby Union...
  
  - England rugby league and rugby union international.

E

• Shaun Edwards
  Shaun Edwards
  Shaun Edwards OBE is an English rugby union coach and former rugby league player. He is defence coach of Wales, a post he has held since 2008. In November 2011 he left London Wasps after 10 years with the club, latterly as head coach....
  
  , rugby league player and coach of London Wasps
  London Wasps
  London Wasps is an English professional rugby union team. The men's first team, which forms London Wasps, was derived from Wasps Football Club who were formed in 1867 at the now defunct Eton and Middlesex Tavern in North London, at the turn of professionalism in 1999...
  
   rugby union coach. Also Wales national rugby union team
  Wales national rugby union team
  The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...
  
   defence coach.
• Greg Ellis
  Greg Ellis (actor)
  Greg Ellis is an English actor known for his TV, movie, and video game voice over work. He has appeared in films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the 2009 Star Trek film , Titanic, Beowulf, To End All Wars, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith...
  
  , actor and voice over artist.

F

• Georgie Fame
  Georgie Fame
  Georgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...
  
  , real name Clive Powell, R & B singer and keyboard player.
• Andrew Farrell
  Andrew Farrell
  Andrew D. 'Andy' Farrell OBE is an English former professional dual-code rugby footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. A goal-kicking forward in rugby league, he captained the Great Britain team and his club, Wigan, with whom he won several championships and Challenge Cup titles as well as a range of...
  
  , former international rugby player of both codes, born and raised in Wigan
• Brian Finch
  Brian Finch
  Brian Finch was a British television scriptwriter and dramatist. He had long and/or influential associations with several British dramas. Perhaps his longest relationship was with the ITV1 soap opera, Coronation Street, for which he wrote 150 scripts between 1970 and 1989...
  
  , Wigan-born script-writer who contributed 151 episodes of Coronation Street over a period of 12 years.
• George Formby, Jr., comedian, ukulele
  Ukulele
  The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
  
   player and actor

G

• Joe Gormley
  Joe Gormley
  Joseph Gormley, Baron Gormley, OBE was President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1971 to 1982, and a Labour peer....
  
  , former president of the National Union of Mineworkers.
• Mike Gregory
  Mike Gregory
  Michael Keith "Mike" Gregory , was a rugby league player and later coach; the former head coach of Wigan and player for Warrington and Great Britain.-Playing career:...
  
  , former Great Britain national rugby league team
  Great Britain national rugby league team
  The Great Britain national rugby league team represents the United Kingdom in rugby league football. Administered by the Rugby Football League , the team is nicknamed "The Lions" or "Great Britain Lions"....
  
   and Warrington Wolves
  Warrington Wolves
  Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league football club based in Warrington, England that competes in Super League. They play at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2003....
  
   captain and former Wigan Warriors
  Wigan Warriors
  Wigan Warriors is an English rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club's first team squad competes in the engage Super League and the team are the current Challenge Cup holders as of the 27th August 2011....
  
   coach was born in Wigan,
• Andy Gregory
  Andy Gregory
  Andrew "Andy" Gregory is an English former rugby league footballer. A Great Britain international representative /, he is an inductee of the Wigan Hall of Fame...
  
  , former Wigan rugby league player, born and lives in Wigan
• John Elisha Grimshaw
  John Elisha Grimshaw
  Lieutenant-Colonel John Elisha Grimshaw VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.Born in Abram, Lancashire, he worked as a coal miner before enlisting in...
  
  , Recipient of the Victoria Cross of "6 VCs before breakfast" fame
• Lucy Gaskell
  Lucy Gaskell
  Lucy Gaskell is an English actress. She studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1998.Gaskell is known for the roles of Ruby Ferris in the BBC1 drama series Cutting It and Kirsty Clements in Casualty...
  
  , British actress.

H

• Eddie Halliwell
  Eddie Halliwell
  Eddie Halliwell is an international Trance DJ. Halliwell has held residencies at Goodgreef, Gatecrasher and Cream in Ibiza, was named DJ of the year by leading dance music magazine Mixmag in 2003 and 2005...
  
  , DJ
• Thomas Highs
  Thomas Highs
  Thomas Highs , of Leigh, Lancashire, was a reed-maker and manufacturer of cotton carding and spinning engines in the 1780s, during the Industrial Revolution...
  
  (1718–1803), inventor of cotton spinning machinery. Born in Leigh.

J

• Jennifer James
  Jennifer James
  Jennifer James, is an English actress born on 3 December 1977 in Billinge Higher End, Wigan, Greater Manchester.-Early life:...
  
  , actress who has played a role in television soap Coronation Street
  Coronation Street
  Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
  
  .
• Nikki Jayne
  Nikki Jayne
  __notoc__Nikki Jayne is the pseudonym of a pornographic actress who grew up in Wigan, England.-Film career:Born Samantha Haywood, she grew up in the Wigan suburb of Beech Hill and attended St John Fisher High...
  
  , pornographic actress who was raised in Wigan.

K

• Roy Kinnear
  Roy Kinnear
  Roy Mitchell Kinnear was an English character actor. He is best remembered for playing Veruca Salt's father, Mr. Salt, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
  
  , comedy actor born in Wigan.
• Shaun Keaveny
  Shaun Keaveny
  Shaun William Keaveny is a British broadcaster, who presents the breakfast show on digital radio station BBC 6 Music.- Career :He played guitar for John Ariss in the student band Mosque between 1987 and 1993....
  
   was born in Leigh, and on 11 February 2011, broadcast his BBC 6 Music
  BBC 6 Music
  BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
  
   breakfast show live from Leigh Library.

L

• Eric Laithwaite
  Eric Laithwaite
  Eric Roberts Laithwaite was a British electrical engineer, known as the "Father of Maglev" for his development of the linear induction motor and maglev rail system.- Biography :...
  
  , electrical engineer who developed the linear induction motor
  Linear induction motor
  A linear induction motor is an AC asynchronous linear motor that works by the same general principles as other induction motors but which has been designed to directly produce motion in a straight line....
  
   and Maglev rail system.
• James Lindsay, 24th Earl of Crawford
  James Lindsay, 24th Earl of Crawford
  James Lindsay, 24th Earl of Crawford and 7th Earl of Balcarres was an Earl in the Scottish peerage.James Lindsay was born on 24 April 1783 at Balcarres, Fife to Alexander Lindsay, 23rd Earl of Crawford and inherited the title of 7th Earl of Balcarres on his father's death in 1825...
  
   (1783–1869)- Earl of Balcarres - rebuilt Haigh Hall
  Haigh, Greater Manchester
  Haigh is a village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it is located next to the village of Aspull. The western boundary is the River Douglas which separates the township from Wigan. To the north a small brook...
  
  .
• Limahl
  Limahl
  Christopher Hamill better known by his stage name Limahl is an English pop singer. He rose to fame as the lead singer of the 1980s pop group Kajagoogoo, before embarking on a briefly successful solo career, which reached its peak with the 1984 hit "The NeverEnding Story", taken from the film of...
  
  , real name Christopher Hamill - pop rock/dance vocalist- lead singer of Kajagoogoo
  Kajagoogoo
  Kajagoogoo are a British pop band, best known for their hit single, "Too Shy", which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 5 on the U.S...
  
  .

M

• Ken Major
  Ken Major
  John Kenneth Major ARIBA, FSA, popularly known as Ken Major was an architect, author and world authority on industrial archaeology, particularly windmills, watermills and animal powered machines. As an author, he was known as J Kenneth Major.-Early life:Ken Major was born in Reading, Berkshire on...
  
   (1928–2009), architect
  Architect
  An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
  
  , author
  Author
  An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
  
   and molinologist
  Molinology
  Molinology is the study of mills or other mechanical devices which use the kinetic energy of moving water or wind to power machines for such purposes as hammering, grinding, pumping, sawing, pressing or fulling. Muscle-powered mills are also considered to be part of the field...
  
  , attended the Boy's Grammar School, Leigh from 1939-45.
• Paul Mason
  Paul Mason (journalist)
  Paul Mason is economics editor of BBC's Newsnight. He is the author of Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global and, more recently, a book on the global economic crisis: Meltdown - the End of the Age of Greed.- Early life :Mason was born in Leigh, Lancashire...
  
  , journalist and broadcaster was born in Leigh in 1960.
• Jennifer Moss, actress who has played a role in television soap Coronation Street
  Coronation Street
  Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
  
  .

P

• Sacha Parkinson
  Sacha Parkinson
  Sacha Louise Parkinson is a British actress best known for playing Sian Powers in the ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street from January 2009 onwards. Her character will leave the show in January 2012.-Career:...
  
   - Living in Tyldesley
  Tyldesley
  Tyldesley is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It occupies an area north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, east-southeast of Wigan and west-northwest of the city of Manchester...
  
  . Born in Salford, actress who plays Sian Powers
  Sian Powers
  Sian Powers is a fictional character on the UK soap opera Coronation Street, portrayed by actress Sacha Parkinson. Sian was introduced as a love interest for Sophie Webster . Sian joined the cast of Coronation Street alongside Ben Richardson in early 2009 as Sophie's schoolmates...
  
   in UK Soap Opera
  Soap opera
  A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
  
   Coronation Street
  Coronation Street
  Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
  
  .

R

• Frank Randle
  Frank Randle
  Frank Randle was an English comedian...
  
  , comedian
  Comedian
  A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
  
  . Born in Aspull.
• Ted Ray
  Ted Ray (comedian)
  Ted Ray was a popular English comedian of the 1940s, 50s and 60s....
  
  , comedian
• John Roby
  John Roby
  John Roby was an English banker, poet, and writer. Roby was born in Wigan, England in 1793, the son of Mary Aspull and a schoolmaster named Nehemiah Roby. He began his career as a banker in Rochdale, Lancashire...
  
  , folklorist

S

• Danny Sonner
  Danny Sonner
  Daniel James "Danny" Sonner is an English-born former Northern Ireland international footballer. He won thirteen caps in a seven year international career....
  
  , Wigan-born association football player who has represented Northern Ireland national football team
  Northern Ireland national football team
  The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. Before 1921 all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association...
  
  .
• Davey Boy Smith
  Davey Boy Smith
  Davey Boy Smith was a British professional wrestler, better known as "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, who was born in Golborne in North West England, United Kingdom. Smith is known for his appearances with Stampede Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling...
  
  , Former professional wrestler for the WWF and WCW as The British Bulldog.

T

• Georgia Taylor
  Georgia Taylor
  Georgia Taylor is an English actress, known for her role as Toyah Battersby in Coronation Street and currently for playing Ruth Winters on Casualty. She was born in Wigan, Greater Manchester....
  
  , actress who has played a role in television soap Coronation Street
  Coronation Street
  Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
  
  .
• Simon Tong
  Simon Tong
  Simon Tong is a guitarist and keyboardist who was a member of The Verve between 1996 and 1999 and is currently a member of Erland and the Carnival and Transmission. He has also played on tour with Blur, Gorillaz and the unnamed supergroup responsible for The Good, the Bad & the Queen...
  
  , bass guitarist with The Verve, Blur and Gorillaz. Born in Wigan.

W

• Dave Whelan, businessman with the nickname "Mr Wigan" as a result of his involvement in the town's sport. Founder of JJB Sports, owner of Wigan Athletic, and former owner of Wigan Warriors.
• Gerrard Winstanley
  Gerrard Winstanley
  Gerrard Winstanley was an English Protestant religious reformer and political activist during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell...
  
  , the founder of the 17th century Diggers, was born in Wigan.
• Danny Wilson, Wigan-born association football player and manager,