A recent survey done on 3,000 Britons under the thought that World War II prime minister Winston Churchill was merely made up.

The poll, which was conducted by UKTV Gold, concluded that the responses gathered reflected significant differences between the younger generation's view of history, and that of the older generation.

Other results that supported that conclusion stated that 47 percent of British teenagers considered the English king during the 12th century Crusades, King Richard the Lionheart, was fictional, as well. The same went with Florence Nightingale, the Crimean War nurse, whom 27 percent considered to be made up.

Asked about which characters they thought were in fact real, 58 percent of respondents claimed that Sherlock Holmes, the detective made famous by mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was a real person.

Other characters thought to gave existed were King Arthur, and his leading of the Knights of the Round Table (65 percent), and Eleanor Rigby (47 percent).

Three percent thought that Charles Dickens was a fictional character.