An English Mount Rushmore?

[stuartpaul]

Just back from a good wander across the pond and we visited Mount Rushmore simply because I'd always wanted to see it.

It got me thinking about the 'contents' of an English version. I've given no thought at all as to where it could be just the contents:

• Firstly, - Her Majesty the Queen. Decades of loyal service to her country makes her (for me) an obvious choice.
  Second, - Winston Churchill, great wartime leader and an example of that indefatigable spirit that is (supposedly) Britishness.
  Third, - Isaac Newton, - greatest English scientist ever?
  Fourth, - Ken Dodd, - he was just funny and a great example of the English sense of humour.

I actually found it quite difficult to pick four people.

Who would you choose and why?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... Ken Dodd, - he was just funny ... once in a blue moon just about funny.

 

[Droogs]

Before i put forth any suggestions i have to ask - do you mean English or British? Afterall the US is a recognised nation state whereas England is just a region within the United Kingdom along with the other "nations". Also Her Majesty can also be regard by many other nations to be theirs and Winston was half American. and any figure who is chosen due to actions carried out whilst in government or on a UK national stage would have to be considered British rather than English, just as Keir Hardy and Lloyd George should be rather than Scots or Welsh.

so will have a think about English figures and wait to see what everyone else thinks

 

[Brandlin]

Dodd? really? god no.

I think I'd have four scientists/engineers

newton darwin faraday hawkin perhaps

but may others from science plus the arts... nightingale, shakespeare, brunel, davy, lovelace, dickens, wordsworth, bronte, etc etc

too many arguments about politics, monarchy etc to choose leaders that get mass appeal

but we are british, we wouldn't be crass enough to carve mountains ... we issue stamps!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Linda Lovelace was American - why pick her?

 

[screwpainting]

Custard

 

[Bm101]

Other than the fact I think it says a quite a lot about human nature that that we would even consider blowing up a perfectly good mountain that has been about for Quite A While to represent the faces of 4 people who's influence in the greater scheme of things is fairly temporary in any fair minded appraisal, if we are going for it regardless, I'd say, in no particular order of merit:
Stephen Hawkinks. I've heard of most of his books and they sound OK if you read a bit more than I do.
Renee from Allo Allo. I know he's officially French but they did show it on English telly and it would probably get the tourists in. Which is good.
That bloke who invented sitting by a canal having a pint or 3 on a friday lunchtime when no one knows where you are or where you're supposed to be but you're not in work next week cos you've booked it off to tile the bathroom so you just post daft answers on Internet forums instead of doing anything useful. Can't remember his name but I can picture his face as if it was my own.
That's it. I wouldn't bother with 4 tbh. Things generally look better in threes I find.

 

[Bm101]

Linda Lovelace was American - why pick her?

Have you got more than one window open on Google Phil?
:shock:

 

[Tasky]

Given our long, long, looooooooooong history, we've had far more than just four great people in our history. We'd have to build a whole wall of mountain... Perhaps we could plonk it just the othr side of Offa's Dyke?
In fact, we could build a second wall just the other side of the Scottish border, with both comprising the heads of whichever historic figures did the most to **** off the nation beyond. We'd also have to build a massive two-fingered salute at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, of course...

Before i put forth any suggestions i have to ask - do you mean English or British?

Does it matter? Either have been around so much longer than the US, that we're not short of candidates.

and any figure who is chosen due to actions carried out whilst in government or on a UK national stage would have to be considered British rather than English

Err... Alfred the Great? Henry VIII? Elizabeth I? James I+IV? Harold? Richard I?
Many great leaders of England... the British lot are a whole new wall!!

 

[Brandlin]

Linda Lovelace was American - why pick her?

I have no idea what Linda was like at creating algorithms for embryonic computers - but then i have no ideawhat Ada was like in bed either...

 

[dzj]

Dodd? really? god no.

I think I'd have four scientists/engineers

newton darwin faraday hawkin perhaps..

Watt, Jenner, Fleming...

 

[lurker]

Dodd? really? god no.

I think I'd have four scientists/engineers

newton darwin faraday hawkin perhaps..

Watt, Jenner, Fleming...

I'll give you Jenner, but the other pair just nicked other people's ideas.
As did Darwin, I think Faraday wasn't whiter than white either.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

……. I'd say, in no particular order of merit:
Stephen Hawkinks. I've heard of most of his books and they sound OK if you read a bit more than I do.

Well, he should partner Linda Lovelace quite nicely.

Maybe Katie Price? Maybe not .... would need two Mount Rushmores.

 

[MikeG.]

Dreadful idea, but for the sake of the discussion I'll mention IK Brunel.

 

[RogerP]

William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Tim Berners-Lee must be in with a shout. The world wide web is a pretty significant invention. How about John Wycliffe - first person to translate the Bible into English; or some of the Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke or John Stuart Mill ('On Liberty'). Let's not forget Nelson and Wellington, too. Or Harry Ramsden. Then there's the inventor of mild steel, Henry Bessemer - and the man who made the Bessemer process work, David Mushet. Not to mention good old Benjamin Huntsman.

Decisions, decisions!

 

[Bm101]

Mad ridiculous thread although I don't doubt it was started in the right manner. Does raise some righteous questions.
I'm getting rid of Renee from Allo Allo ( I know! I know!) and swapping him for a Kingsley/Winston masterclass in acting. Storytelling. Probably the oldest human activity other than killing stuff to eat it. People have been doing it for ever.
Here's an example of when it's done properly. What is important?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT7FOjnGw1Q

 

[--Tom--]

To add some other names to the mix

Charles Babbage- computation engines
Alan Turing- founding a lot of modern computing
Tim berners-Lee - the World Wide Web
Emmeline Pankhurst - equal rights movement
Aneurin Bevan - founding the NHS
Frank whittle - jet engines
John Harrison- accurate timekeeping at sea
John logie Baird - TV
William Caxton - printing
James Watt- kickstarting the whole industrial revolution

It’s amazing how much of the modern world is built on the work of British people

 

[Garno]

Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger would be my choices.
I read about them in a history book called "Wind in the Willows"
Real heroes

 

[Stanleymonkey]

John Harrison
Isambard Kingdom Brunel