One quote that I heard recently regarding Churchill was that, regarding appeasement amongst the countries of Europe when trying to come to terms with Hitler, he said "Each one feeds the crocodile, hoping that the crocodile will eat him last" There is no doubt that, without his leadership we, as a nation, would have been "eaten" eventually.
Turning to others who could have been on the list, among the 100 worst people in Britain I would place Doctor Beeching, who electrocuted the railways instead of electrifying them. Thanks to short sightednness by him,and successive Govts, the West Coast Main Line will be closed for months with very few alternative routes left, as he had them all dismantled.
Among the 100 best I would place Isambard Kingdom Brunel, George Jackson Churchward (Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1902 until the 1920s) and the late Dai Woodham of Barry Scrapyard, South Wales, who never got round to cutting up 213 steam locomotives, thereby allowing idiots like me to buy one for restoration.
Oh yes, that chap Mitchell, who designed something called the Spitfire....:
