Auden, Kerr, Day-Lewis: is this Britain's most talented town?
Stratford has Shakespeare. Blenheim boasts Churchill. And Dickens boosts the coffers of Broadstairs. But when it comes to fame by association, nowhere, it seems, can surpass a small seaside town in Scotland.
For Helensburgh has 'Heroes' - 75 of them at the last count, and rising. Residents believe it is the most talented town in Britain and are looking to create a Hollywood-style 'Walk of Fame' to shout it from their elegant Victorian rooftops.
The Glasgow town, on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde, is laying claim to a gallery of actors, poets, inventors, writers, sportsmen and women and the odd Prime Minister. Hollywood star Deborah Kerr, TV inventor John Logie Baird, the steamship pioneer Henry Bell and the least known of Britain's PMs, Andrew Bonar Law - all have links to Helensburgh.
'For a population of less than 20,000, we seem to have produced or inspired more than our fair share of talented and historical people,' said Phil Worms, originally from London, who is spearheading the 'Helensburgh Heroes' campaign. 'We believe no other town of a similar size could match Helensburgh for talent.'
No association is too tenuous to prevent acceptance as a son or daughter of the town, along with a bronze star on its esplanade. Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish architect, is included because he designed Hill House on Helensburgh's outskirts. Bonar Law, the Canadian-born Tory who succeeded David Lloyd George but held office for just seven months, married there. WH Auden, who briefly taught at the Larchfield School - as did former Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis - is forgiven despite writing of Helensburgh's reputation as 'a snob town'. Emma Sanderson, the first British woman and youngest person to finish the Around Alone, a solo round-the-world yacht race, lived in the town as a child and competed in dinghy world championships.
'Not everyone on the roll of honour was born here, but when we drew up the list we included people who were either from here or were living here at the time they were going through their meteoric rise to fame and fortune,' explained Worms. 'The only one who is possibly contentious is Mackintosh. But although he wasn't born or lived in Helensburgh, the town is forever associated with one of the best examples of his work.'
Others are hardly household names. But veterinary parasitologist George Urquhart and mathematician Horatio Carslaw were, no doubt, giants in their field.
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For Helensburgh has 'Heroes' - 75 of them at the last count, and rising. Residents believe it is the most talented town in Britain and are looking to create a Hollywood-style 'Walk of Fame' to shout it from their elegant Victorian rooftops.
The Glasgow town, on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde, is laying claim to a gallery of actors, poets, inventors, writers, sportsmen and women and the odd Prime Minister. Hollywood star Deborah Kerr, TV inventor John Logie Baird, the steamship pioneer Henry Bell and the least known of Britain's PMs, Andrew Bonar Law - all have links to Helensburgh.
'For a population of less than 20,000, we seem to have produced or inspired more than our fair share of talented and historical people,' said Phil Worms, originally from London, who is spearheading the 'Helensburgh Heroes' campaign. 'We believe no other town of a similar size could match Helensburgh for talent.'
No association is too tenuous to prevent acceptance as a son or daughter of the town, along with a bronze star on its esplanade. Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish architect, is included because he designed Hill House on Helensburgh's outskirts. Bonar Law, the Canadian-born Tory who succeeded David Lloyd George but held office for just seven months, married there. WH Auden, who briefly taught at the Larchfield School - as did former Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis - is forgiven despite writing of Helensburgh's reputation as 'a snob town'. Emma Sanderson, the first British woman and youngest person to finish the Around Alone, a solo round-the-world yacht race, lived in the town as a child and competed in dinghy world championships.
'Not everyone on the roll of honour was born here, but when we drew up the list we included people who were either from here or were living here at the time they were going through their meteoric rise to fame and fortune,' explained Worms. 'The only one who is possibly contentious is Mackintosh. But although he wasn't born or lived in Helensburgh, the town is forever associated with one of the best examples of his work.'
Others are hardly household names. But veterinary parasitologist George Urquhart and mathematician Horatio Carslaw were, no doubt, giants in their field.