Well-known people who have made Edinburgh their home
The National Library of Scotland is the home for Scotland's literary and historical treasures. It preserves and shares Scotland's
- history
- literature
- cultural heritage.
The library has been working with us to share stories of people who have made Edinburgh their home, enriching our cultural diversity as well as our city’s achievements.
Did you know these well-known people from a variety backgrounds made Edinburgh their home over the centuries?
- The paternal grandparents of Muriel Spark (née Camberg) were from Lithuania
- Prominent academic and human rights campaigner Ruth Adler, who was born in Devon to German refugee parents, lived in Edinburgh from the 1960s.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was of Irish descent.
- Elias Fürst, born to an immigrant rabbi, was one of the longest serving chairmen of Heart of Midlothian Football Club at a time when football remained the bastion of locals and gentiles. He helped the club rise for crisis to financial security and oversaw the development of Tynecastle.
- Professor Charlotte Auerbach, a Jewish-German zoologist and geneticist, fled Nazism in Germany and pursued a PhD in genetics at the University of Edinburgh.
- Rabbi Salis Daiches and his sons, Lionel Daiches QC, and David Daiches, a prolific literary historian and critic, came from Lithuania
- John Edmonstone was enslaved man from Guyana. Brought to Scotland where he as emancipated and moved to Edinburgh. He became a commercial taxidermist and worked with the University of Edinburgh. He is renowned for teaching Charles Darwin the skill of taxidermy.
- And well-known milkman and actor Thomas Sean Connery was descended from people from Wexford, Ireland.