Jeremiah Chubb (inventor of the Chubb lock mechanism)
The brothers Charles and Jeremiah Chubb were born in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, Charles in 1779 and Jeremiah in 1793.
Having been apprenticed as a blacksmith, Charles opened a buisness as a ships' ironmonger in Winchester before moving to Portsea in 1804.
In February 1818 Jeremiah Chubb patented the "detector lock".

Barry Cunliffe
Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, CBE, born December 10th 1939 known as Barry Cunliffe, was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007. Barry attended Portsmouth Northern Grammar School and went on to read archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge.
He made his name in the excavations at Fishbourne Roman Palace, but became an authority on the Iron Age through work on the Danebury hillfort.
Sir Barry Cunliffe has served on a variety of public bodies in the Archaeology sector, including the Ancient Monuments Board, the Museum of London, the British Museum, the Mary Rose Trust and the Council for British Archaeology. He has published numerous books on archaeology and also presented the Radio 4 programme, 'Age to Age'. He was knighted in 2006.

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens, the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens, was born in Landport, at 387, now 393 Commercial Road, on 7th February 1812.
John Dickens worked as a clerk at the Navy pay office in Portsmouth.
In 1833 Dickens had his first story published in the Monthly Magazine. Using the pen-name of 'Boz', Dickens also began contributing short stories to the Morning Chronicle and the Evening Chronicle. These stories were so popular that they were collected together and published as a book entitled Sketches by Boz (1836).
The publisher, William Hall, now commissioned Dickens to write The Pickwick Papers in twenty monthly installments. This was followed by Oliver Twist, published in Bentley's Miscellany (1837-38) and Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39), also published monthly.
Read more here about Charles Dickens and the birthplace museum in Portsmouth.

Sarah Doudney
Born 15th January 1841 in Portsea, Sarah was a poet and novelist and is probably best known as a childrens writer.
Her works include, Psalms for Life, 1871, a collection of 60 hymns, Under Grey Walls 1871, 'Where Swallows Build', Girl's Own Paper 1898, Thy Heart's Desire 1888, Katherine's Keys 1896 and The Vanished Hand 1896.
She died on the 8th December 1926 in Oxford.

Nicola Duffet
Born 22 January 1963, Portsmouth.
She remains best known for two long-running soap opera roles.
After appearing as Debbie Bates in EastEnders from 1993 to 1995 she went into the role of boozy floozie Cat Matthews in Family Affairs. Cat first appeared in Family Affairs in late 1998 and has been a key character in the show's storylines ever since.
Prior to her success in soap opera Duffet played a key role, that of Mrs Bast, in Ismail Merchant and James Ivory's 1992 film adaption of Howards End.

Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes was a prolific writer.
His large body of work includes poetry, plays, historical fiction, commentary on social and legal reform, war and military chronicles, enthusiastic articles on various sport, and finally writings on behalf of Spiritualism.
In 1882 he came to Portsmouth and set up his first practice at 1 Bush Villas, Elm Grove 41, was a member of Portsmouth (North End) Cricket Club and Southsea Bowling Club, in 1884 he was a founder member of Portsmouth Football Club and played for the club as goalkeeper.