George Anson, Admiral
One of the most decorated men of the Royal Navy, joined the Navy at 15, became an officer at 21 and by 27 was a Captain and commanded his own ship.
Anson made a round the world journey that lasted nearly 4 years, he was promoted to rear-admiral, in 1744. In 1747 he led the fleet that defeated the French at Cape Finisterre and was made promoted to vice-admiral.
In 1748 he became a full admiral, first lord of the admiralty.

Sir Frances Austen
Sir Francis Austen (1774 - 1865) was a British officer who spent most of his long life on active duty in the Royal Navy, rising to the position of Admiral of the Fleet.
In October 1805, as commander of the HMS Canopus, a captured French ship of the line, Austen was temporarily detached from Admiral Nelson's fleet for convoy duty in the Mediterranean and missed fighting in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Austen's rapid early promotions were largely due to the patronage of the powerful Warren Hastings, who was a friend of the Austen family and was alleged to be the actual father of Frank's cousin (and later sister-in-law), Eliza de Feuillide.
Austen was brother to novelist Jane Austen, and likely the model for the character William Price in the novel Mansfield Park.
Francis Austen is buried at St Peter and St Paul church, Wymering.

Sir Henry Ayers
Sir Henry Ayers (1 May 1821 - 11 June 1897) was a Premier of South Australia and is best remembered for having Ayers Rock (now Uluru) named for him, by the explorer WC Gosse.
Henry Ayers was born in the the Portsea area of Portsmouth, England, on 1 May 1821, youngest child of shipwright and dockman William Ayers and his wife, Elizabeth.
On leaving school he entered a law office, he emigrated to South Australia in 1840, with his wife Anne, on a free passage.

Hertha Ayrton
One of the first female students to be accepted to Cambridge University at Girton College.
Born in 1854 as Sarah Marks, at 6 Queen Street, Portsea, the third child of a Polish Jewish watchmaker.
She married Professor William Ayrton in 1885, he was her lecturer at Finsbury Technical College where she was studying at the time.
Her scientific work led to great improvements to the arc lamp, widely used for street lighting.
Hertha was proposed but turned down as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the institute stating that "married women are not eligible as Fellows of the Royal Society."

Sir Walter Besant
Walter Besant 1836 -1901, born in Portsmouth, English novelist and humanitarian, grauated from Christ's College, Cambridge, 1859.
Many of Besant's novels, dealt with social problems; among them were All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1882) and Children of Gibeon (1886).
Besant was one of the most widely read novelists of the late 19th century. He was knighted in 1895.

Denise Black
Actress Denise Black, real name Denise Nixon, was born in 1959 in Portsmouth, to mother Stella, a bank teller and Lieutenant Don Nixon, an engineering officer in the Royal Navy.
Her first professional drama role was as a cat in Miniatures at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.
In 1992, Denise appeared in The Bill, A Touch of Frost and as a Police woman in Between The Lines before joining Coronation Street as hair dresser Denise Osbourne, a role she played until February 1996, she returned for another 6 months in Coronation Street at the end of 1992.