Your Five Personal Heroes

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Ardross

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Do you have heroes ? Or heroines . I don't mean necessarly people you hero worship but people who have inspired you or whose work cheers you up or continues to inspire you when down .

I have got it down to a rather disparate five - not inclduing obviously family and friends who would probably feature in any person's list


Lester Piggott ( to whom I owe my interest in racing by being thrilled by some of his rides when I was a kid )


PG Wodehouse ( for making me laugh even at the blackest times - not for making naive broadcasts for the Nazis ! )


Kathleen Ferrier ( for her singing and for an object lesson in courage how to deal with adversity)


Whoever invented alcoholic drinks especially wine :lol:


Clement Attlee ( for the 1945-51 Labour Govt )
 
For me

Paul Gascoigne; Need i say much he just made you love and want to play football and many football pro's around the world say he was the best.

Pat Eddery; Ok i missed Lester so it has to be Pat for me, great from the front, strong and knows everything worth knowing about racing.

Kelly Jones; The Stereophonics frontman, this guy is one of the best songwriters alive and has an outstanding voice and musical talent.

and the last two George Bush and Tony Blair; For both realising that if we dont try and stamp out this evil it will never improve, yes it has got worse for the moment but it has to before it will get better and once they realise they wont win the world will be a better place.
 
Heroes? I don't know that I have any at all.

I suppose that I admire people who tried very hard to make the world a better place and whether they succeeded or not doesn't really matter.

The ones who immediately spring to mind are:

Gladstone
Mandela & DeKlerk
Gorbachov/Thatcher/Reagan
Lennon & McCartney
Vincent O'Brien
 
You are very good at these thought provoking topics, Ardross.

Top of my head.

Che Guevara
Gorbachev
Jimmy Carter
Garret Fitzgerald
Paula Radcliffe.
 
Caligula, Attila, Vlad the Impaler, Lucrezia Borgia, and Oliver Cromwell. None of them afraid to take risks (mainly with other people's lives), fly in the face of popular opinion, and do it their way. No doubt role models for Dubya and Tone. :(
 
I am anxious for reading the names of Castro,Stalin or Mao in the lists of some here...... :D ....yes, they were nice guys...
 
Typical of post imperialist Britain that Oliver Cromwell should be mentioned. As all Irish children know, this potato nosed fascist is one step removed from Beelzebub.
 
1. Mark Knopfler (because he is brilliant)
2. Paula Radcliffe (because she is the gutsiest athlete I have ever seen, despite
what the people who have never ran 3 miles in their life might think)
3. William Hague (the best prime minister we never had)
4. Mohammed Al Fayed (because he is funny, and mainly because he rescued Fulham F.C.)
Muhamed Ali (because the man is a legend)
 
Just the one for me:

My dad - not just for being my dad but for living with one of the worst types of cancer and never losing the courage, bravery and good humour that saw him outlive the doctors prognosis by 4 years
 
My Mum and Dad - for everything.

More frivolously, or not:
Churchill
Steve Coppell
Professor Williams at Harefield Hospital who gave my Dad another year which got him past their 50th wedding anniversary.
 
Erm...Mohammed al Fayed is a bloody crook!!

My 5 would be -

Elizabeth I
Anne Boleyn
Alexander The Great
Julius Caesar
Henry VIII

...I guess!!
 
SL - that suggests you are a power crazed megalomaniac with three nipples and a penchant for cutting off heads :blink:
 
AC: dearie me, don't tell me your sense of irony's slipped! Ollie Cromwell was included especially for you, the rest were listed because of their equally wonderful services to humankind.

There are way too many men and women who can be classed as 'heroes', but I'd say my medical heroes are Lister (discovery of bacteria and how to combat the little buggers), Curie, and Salk (polio vaccine), and the other two would be the intrepid explorers Magellan and da Gama. There are just SO many others, a mere five doesn't begin to do justice to the pantheon!
 
That is the point Krizon . It is meant to be five people who are particular heroes to you . Of course there are thousands of people who have done great things
 
I think I would rate my Great, Great, Great Grandfather in my list of hero's. I have heard so many stories about him, and his friendship with Charles Darwin (my Great, Great, Great Grandfather was actually a pall bearer at this funeral) This same man was also a great explorer and evidently introduced many exotic plants to this country back in the 1800's. He was also the first Director of Kew Gardens, and was responsible to introducing the now famous Palm House to the gardens. His son (another avid traveller) also did massive amounts for horticulture both in England and worldwide. He seems to have been the most amazing man. The family married into the famous Wedgewood dynasty, and they had many dealings with Queen Victoria through their association with Kew Gardens. It is the most amazing story and one that I would like to investigate fully when time eventually allows.

One of my heroines would definitely be the great Edith Blyton who helped me believe in fairies & pixies and introduced me to The Famous Five. She gave me an innocent world in which to live in as a child, when my "own world" was less than perfect.
 
Nice of you to go and check my story Simmo but you've got the wrong bloke !! :blink:

Lets face it, I wouldn't be here if my Great, Great, Great Grandfather hadn't got any children - and it's not the sort of thing I would make up is it! B)
 
Apologies then Kathy, I have re-checked and there is another (later mind!) chappie who is also credited as being the first director of Kew. Sir William Hooker? Who also established the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow. Doesn't sound quite as interesting mind you, I'd have preferred the Joseph Banks story myself. Not sure that I approve wholeheartedly with someone's idea of sticking pictures of graves on the web either.
 
Doesn't sound quite as interesting? :blink: Read on, it's an amazing story. My (Great, Great, Great) Grandfathers portrait actually hung in Charles Darwins study as they were great friends. His picture hangs in the National Portrait Gallery Simmo and his son was probably as famous as his father, if not more so. There have been many books written about him and even a recent documentary about him on the telly! In fact, his son was my Grandmother's Grandfather if that helps. It always seems so much more real when I put it like that. I lived with my Grandmother for over 10 years, and she frequently spoke of her Grandfather who I didn't realise quite how famous he was until after her death and until after I had done some research of my own. I just thought he liked gardening and travelling when I was young! :D
 
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