[2] The Elizabethan navigator and slave trader, Sir Francis Drake was born in nearby town of Tavistock and was the mayor of Plymouth.
[3] He was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world and was known by the Spanish as El Draco meaning "The Dragon" after he raided many of their ships.
[6] Antarctic explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Frank Bickerton both lived in the city.
Joshua Reynolds, the famous 18th-century portrait painter and the first president of the Royal Academy was born in Plympton, and more recently artists have included Beryl Cook whose paintings depict the culture of Plymouth[9] and Robert Lenkiewicz, whose paintings looked at themes such as: vagrancy, sexual behaviour and suicide, lived in the city from the 1960s until his death in 2002.
[11] Famous politicians Michael Foot and David Owen are from Plymouth and notable athletes include swimmer Sharron Davies,[12] diver Tom Daley,[13] dancer Wayne Sleep,[14] and footballer Trevor Francis.