[Alex Murphy]

....Cromwell was not merely exceptionally religious. He belonged to a particular religious group — the Puritans — who believed that the frivolous Charles I, with his stubborn faith in the Divine Right of Kings and his fondness for elaborate Catholic-style church ceremonies, was betraying the Protestant Reformation.

[onona]

Sir Douglas Bader would get my vote.

[Mandingo Conservative]

The most famous of Brits.

James Bond 007,
British, secret agent, of Scottish & Swiss parentage.

Mrs. Emma Peel(The Avengers)
British, dilettante secret agent, partner to John Steed

John Steed(The Avengers)
British, secret agent

The Prisoner
British, former British secret agent?

Sherlock Holmes
British, pioneering consulting detective

Mr. Lee(Enter the Dragon)
Chinese, Hong Kong, British subject, Kung Fu master

Mrs. Emma Peel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Peel
James Bond
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond
Mr. Steed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steed
Simon Templar aka: The Saint
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Templar

[PzLdr]

That would be the ONLY Englishman the English themselves granted the sobriquet “Greast” to: Alfred the Great, the man who kept England from going down completely to the Danes.

[frithguild]

Cromwell was the devil personified.

[Oratam]

I’m just a lonely boy
Lonely and blue
I’m all alone
With nothin’ to do

I’ve got everything
You could think of
But all I want
Is someone to love

Someone, yes, someone to love
Someone to kiss
Someone to hold
At a moment like this

I’d like to hear
Somebody say
I’ll give you my love
Each night and day

I’m just a lonely boy
Lonely and blue
I’m all alone
With nothin’ to do

I’ve got everything
You could think of
But all I want
Is someone to love

Somebody, somebody
Somebody, please
Send her to me
I’ll make her happy
Just wait and see

I prayed so hard
To the heavens above
That I might find
Someone to love

I’m just a lonely boy
lonely and blue
I’m all alone
With nothin’ to do

I’ve got everything
You could think of
But all I want
Is someone to love

[NonValueAdded]

Reference bump

[wmfights]

Unlike other commanders, he refused to promote men on the basis of birth and breeding. His officers, sneered one fellow commander, the Earl of ­Manchester, were ‘common men, poor and of mean parentage’.

But Cromwell was unrepentant: as he famously wrote in 1643, ‘I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else.’

His officers were middle-class ­yeomen, not simpering aristocrats.

My kind of guy!

Thanks Alex, well worth the read at the link.

[dfwgator]

Churchill is the greatest Englishman, hands down.

[Interesting Times]

Cromwell ping.