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 ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

, 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 15,186 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 broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

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. It was originally presented by Roy Castle with Guinness World Record ...

'', 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 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 The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attend ...

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 Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap ...

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

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

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 {{UK-sport-bio-stub