Creighton Carvello (14 November 1944 – 18 November 2008) was a British

mnemonist The title mnemonist refers to an individual with the ability to remember and recall unusually long lists of data, such as unfamiliar names, lists of numbers, entries in books, etc. Some mnemonists also memorize texts such as long poems, speeches, o ...

. Carvello was born in

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, India but lived in the UK from 1949 until his death. His first World Record for memory was in 1979 when he recited the first 20,013 places of pi. In 1987 he appeared on the

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

programme ''

Record Breakers ''Record Breakers'' was a British children's TV show, themed around world records and produced by the BBC. It was broadcast on BBC1 from 15 December 1972 to 21 December 2001. Format The programme was a spin-off series from '' Blue Peter'' wh ...

'', memorising one shuffled deck of cards in 2 minutes 59 seconds. It was this feat of memory which first inspired

Dominic O'Brien Dominic O'Brien (10 August 1957) is a British mnemonist and an author of memory-related books. He is the eight time World Memory Champion and works as a trainer for Peak Performance Training. He began developing his mnemonic techniques in 198 ...

, who later went on to gain the title of

World Memory Champion The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of ...

eight times.

Memory Feats

Carvello frequently appeared on radio and television demonstrating his knowledge of sport, namely the teams, players, scores and referees of

FA Cup Finals FA, Fa or fa may refer to: People * Fa of Xia, King of China 1747–1728 BC * Fa Ngum (1316–1393), founder and ruler of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang * Fa Ziying (1964–1999), Chinese serial killer Places * Fa, Aude, a commune of the ...

and the horses and jockeys of The Derby and

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

horse races. Carvello memorised the telephone numbers of every person in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

named Smith.

References

External links

Carvello's personal website, which has been maintained since his death in 2008. 1944 births British mnemonists 2008 deaths Sportspeople from Patna Indian mnemonists Game players from Bihar British people in colonial India {{UK-sport-bio-stub