World War II leader Winston Churchill was elected Sunday the "greatest Briton", beating out candidates including Princess Diana and John Lennon in a nationwide vote of more than one million people.

The wartime Conservative prime minister who told the people of Britain after coming to power in May 1940 he had "nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" came in a clear first with 447,423 votes, 56,000 ahead of second-placed Isambard Kingdom Brunel, builder of the first transatlantic steam vessel.

Other top 10 finalists in the competition held by the BBC were William Shakespeare, Admiral Horatio Nelson, naturalist Charles Darwin, astronomer and physicist Isaac Newton, Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell.

Over one month the BBC presented portraits of people who had contributed to the culture and history of Britain. Each one was put forward by a celebrity. Television viewers voted by phone or on the Internet.

Presenting the winner, ex-Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam declared: "If Britain – its eccentricity, its big heartedness, its strength of character - has to be summed up in one person, it has to be Winston Churchill."

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was not among the candidates nominated at the beginning of the contest, while Princess Diana was one of the favourites throughout.AFP