List of alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford

A list of alumni of Magdalen College (ⁱ/ˈmɔːdlɪn/ MAWD-lin),^[1] one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Notable former students include politicians (four are current Cabinet members), lawyers, bishops, poets, and academics.

• 

  Sir John Betjeman

• 

  Oscar Wilde

• 

  King Edward VIII

• 

  J. H. C. Whitehead

Politicians, civil servants and Parliamentarians

Four Magdalen alumni were members of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition Cabinet 2010-15:^[2]

Dominic Grieve, Attorney General for England and Wales

• William Hague is the First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary
• George Osborne is the Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Jeremy Hunt is the Secretary of State for Health; and
• Dominic Grieve is the Attorney General.

Other alumni who were in public service are:

• Geoffrey Adams, British Diplomatic Service
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Indian economist and Civil Servant
• Francis Ashley, lawyer and MP between 1614 and 1625
• Sir Walter Bagot, 5th Baronet, 18th-century MP
• Lord Baker, politician, former MP
• Thomas Berkeley, MP
• Sir John Biggs-Davison, former Conservative MP
• Sir Trevor Bigham, barrister and Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police from 1914 to 1931
• Nicholas Boles, Conservative MP for Grantham and Stamford
• Sir Ian Bowater, Lord Mayor of London (1967–70)
• Sir Ashley Bramall, Labour Party politician, MP for Bexley from 1946 to 1950
• The Honourable George Brandis QC, Australian Attorney-General, 2013 to present
• Jock, Lord Bruce-Gardyne, Conservative politician
• Sir Julian Bullard, diplomat, Foreign Office Minister and Pro-chancellor of Birmingham University
• Tankerville Chamberlayne, landowner in Hampshire and a Member of Parliament for Southampton
• Senator Wesley Clark, American Army general and politician
• Sir Cecil Clementi, British colonial administrator who served as Governor of Hong Kong from 1925–30, and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements from 1930–34
• Robert Douglas Coe, diplomat and U.S. Ambassador to Denmark from 1953 to 1957
• Sir Douglas Dodds-Parker, member of the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War, and later a UK Conservative MP
• Francis Patrick Donovan, Australian diplomat and jurist.
• Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament for Banbury (1624)
• Gareth Evans, Australian international policymaker, former politician and current Chancellor of the Australian National University
• Jim Forbes, Australian politician
• Malcolm Fraser, former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia
• Sir Marrack Goulding, diplomat, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Warden of St Antony's College (1997—2006)
• John Hemming
• Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat politician
• Lord Hutton, formerly John Hutton MP
• Harford Montgomery Hyde, barrister, politician (Ulster Unionist MP for Belfast North), author and biographer
• Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme, former diplomat and Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission
• Gladwyn Jebb, Civil Servant, diplomat and politician
• Keith Joseph, barrister and politician
• Francis Oswald Lindley, British diplomat
• Stephen Milligan, Conservative politician and journalist
• Randy Minchew, American politician and lawyer
• John Redwood Conservative MP for Wokingham
• William Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank, one of the "Gang of Four" of senior British Labour Party politicians who defected to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP)
• Henry Sacheverell, clergyman and politician
• Duncan Sandys, politician
• Sir John Scarlett, Director General of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 2004 to 2009.
• Siôn Simon, Labour politician and MP (2001—2010)
• Zev Sufott, British-born Israeli diplomat, Ambassador to the Netherlands, first Israeli Ambassador to China^[3]
• John Turner, lawyer and former politician, who served as the 17th Prime Minister of Canada.

King Edward VIII

Peers and Royals

A number of Magdalen alumni have been associated with Royal Families around the World, or hereditary peerage titles:

• King Edward VIII (attended when Prince of Wales; did not graduate)
• Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford
• Wilfrid Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple, soldier and Conservative politician
• King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan
• Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby, Conservative politician
• Al-Muhtadee Billah, Crown Prince of Brunei Darussalam
• Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne, Liberal politician in William Gladstone's government
• Edward Bridges, 1st Baron Bridges, civil servant and Chancellor of Reading University (1959-1969)
• George Cambridge, 2nd Marquess of Cambridge, great-great-grandson of King George III
• Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, Governor of Queensland (1905–1909), Governor of New South Wales (1909 to 1913), and Viceroy of India (1916 to 1921)
• John Hely-Hutchinson, 2nd Earl of Donoughmore, politician, peer and soldier
• Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire, Peer and MP
• Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, 17th century politician
• Patrick Neill, Baron Neill of Bladen, member of the House of Lords, Warden of All Souls College (1977 until 1995), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1985 till 1989)
• Henry Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 9th Duke of Newcastle, peer and aviator
• Prince Tomohito of Mikasa
• Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein, a member of the British Royal Family
• Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson, Baron Browne-Wilkinson, former Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in the United Kingdom and former Head of the Privy Council and Vice-Chancellor of the High Court.
• Lord Frederick Windsor, great-grandson of King George V.

Justice

Russ Feingold

• James Richard Atkin, lawyer and judge
• Charles Arnold-Baker, barrister, author and historian
• Michael Beloff, barrister and former President of Trinity College
• Jocelyn Benson, lawyer, Dean and author
• Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton, Irish lawyer and politician
• Sir Charles Caesar, Judge and Master of the Rolls
• Guido Calabresi, legal scholar and senior Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit.
• Simon Chesterman, legal scholar
• Alfred Denning, Baron Denning, lawyer and senior Law Lord
• Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne, lawyer, politician, Lord Chancellor (1962—1964)
• John Doyle, jurist, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia (1995—2012)
• Ronald Dworkin, philosopher of Law
• James Edelman, youngest person to be appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia
• Russ Feingold, US lawyer and politician
• Michael Fox, barrister and High Court judge
• Sir James Gobbo, jurist and 25th Governor of Victoria
• Patrick Keane, Justice of the High Court of Australia
• Harold Hongju Koh, Korean-American lawyer and legal scholar
• Neal Macrossan, lawyer, judge and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland
• Dinah Rose, human rights barrister
• David Souter, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Jonathan Sumption, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
• Gerald Thesiger, High Court Judge.

Clergy

• 

  William Tyndale
  Edward Barber, (Archdeacon of Chester) (1886-1914)
• Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh in the Church of Ireland
• John Colet, churchman and educational pioneer
• Thomas Cooper, English bishop, lexicographer, theologian, and writer
• John Davenport, puritan clergyman and co-founder of the American colony of New Haven
• Alan Don, Archbishop of Canterbury (1931-1941), Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons from 1936 to 1946 and Dean of Westminster from 1946 to 1959.
• David Edwards, Dean of Norwich, Provost of Southwark and a prolific author
• Accepted Frewen, priest and Archbishop of York from 1660 to 1664
• Bede Griffiths, monk and theologian
• Henry Hammond, 17th-century churchman
• Robert Hawker, Anglican vicar and scholar
• Charles Bousfield Huleatt, Anglican priest
• Basil Jellicoe, missioner to Canning Town
• Owen Oglethorpe, academic and Catholic Bishop, President of Magdalen College, Oxford (1536–1552 and 1553–1555), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1551–1552)
• Robert Parker, clergyman and scholar
• Henry Phillpotts, Anglican Bishop of Exeter from 1830 to 1869
• William Tyndale, English Reformer, Linguistic Genius, Theologian
• Timothy Ware, monk and Bishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church (alias (Kallistos Ware)
• Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal in the Church of Rome.

Academics

Philosophers

A. C. Grayling in 2011

• Ronald Dworkin, legal philosopher
• Gareth Evans
• James Frederick Ferrier, metaphysical writer
• Edward Goldsmith, writer, environmentalist and philosopher
• A. C. Grayling, philosopher
• Peter Heylin, ecclesiastic and author of theological works
• Benedikt Isserlin, former Reader and Head of the Department of Semitic Studies at the University of Leeds
• Larry Siedentop, political philosopher.

Historians and Linguists

• Donald Adamson, author and historian
• Richard J. C. Atkinson, historian and archaeologist
• Robert Blake, Baron Blake, historian and life peer
• John Rouse Bloxam, historian and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford
• Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase, art historian, President of Magdalen College (1947–68) and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1958–60)
• Derek Brewer, author and scholar, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1977–1990)
• Lionel Harry Butler, academic and Principal of Royal Holloway College, University of London (1973-1981)
• William Camden, antiquarian and historian
• Sir Neil Chalmers, former Director of the Natural History Museum London and Warden of Wadham College, Oxford
• Richard Chandler, antiquary
• Simon Chesterman, Dean and Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore
• William Cleaver, churchman and academic, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford (1785–1809)
• Prof Edward Byles Cowell, translator of Persian poetry and the first Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge University
• Norman Davies, historian
• Arthur Geoffrey Dickens, academic and author, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull (1959-1962)
• George Edmundson, clergyman and academic historian
• James Fenton, poet, journalist and literary critic
• Niall Ferguson, historian
• Felipe Fernández-Armesto, historian and author
• Theophilus Gale, educationalist, nonconformist and theologian of dissent
• Bernard Gardiner, Warden of All Souls College, Oxford and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1712–1715)
• N. H. Gibbs, Chichele Professor of the History of War of Oxford University (1953 to 1977)
• Edward Gibbon, historian and Member of Parliament
• Martin Gilbert, historian
• Richard Gombrich, scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, and Buddhist Studies, currently Founder-President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies
• Giles Henderson, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford
• R. L. Holdsworth, educationalist, cricketer and Himalayan mountaineer
• Albert Hourani, historian
• Reginald Johnston, academic, diplomat and tutor to Puyi
• Professor Anthony King, psephologist and political commentator
• Francis Leighton, academic and Warden of All Souls College, Oxford (1858-1881)
• David Marquand, academic and former Labour Party MP
• Hormuzd Rassam, native Assyriologist, British diplomat and traveller
• Adam Roberts (scholar), professor of international relations

Mathematicians and scientists

Nobel Laureates are bolded

Ben Goldacre in 2009

• John D. Barrow, cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician
• James Bateman, horticulturist
• H. A. Berlin, neuroscientist
• Humphry Bowen, chemist and botanist
• Henry Clerke, academic and physician, President of Magdalen College, Oxford from 1672-1687
• Frank Close, particle physicist, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford
• William Henry Corfield
• Charles Daubeny, chemist, botanist and geologist
• Sir Gavin de Beer, evolutionary embryologist, Director of the British Museum of Natural History and President of the Linnean Society of London
• Robin Dunbar, anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist, currently Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford
• John Eccles (neurophysiologist), Nobel Laureate (1963, Medicine)
• Sir John Bretland Farmer, botanist, was Professor of Botany at Imperial College London
• James Fisher, author, editor, broadcaster, naturalist
• Howard Walter Florey, Nobel Laureate (1945, Medicine)
• Ben Goldacre, physician, academic and science writer
• Jeffrey Alan Gray, psychologist
• John M Goldman, haematologist, oncologist and medical researcher. Pioneer in bone-marrow transplantation for chronic myeloid leukaemia. Founding Chairman of the charity Leuka
• Brian Greene, theoretical physicist and string theorist
• Frank Robinson Hartley, chemist, Vice Chancellor Cranfield University
• Francis Charles Robert Jourdain, amateur ornithologist and oologist
• Alfred Lodge, mathematician and President of the Mathematical Association
• Amory Lovins, American physicist, environmental scientist and writer
• Peter Medawar, Nobel Laureate (1960, Medicine)
• Desmond Morris, zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter
• Sheffield Airey Neave, naturalist and entomologist
• Matt Ridley, scientist, journalist, and popular author and a member of the House of Lords.
• Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders, biologist and sociologist and later Director of the London School of Economics (1937–1957)
• A. Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate (2001, Economics)
• Jon Stallworthy, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford
• Thomas William Webb, astronomer

Sports people

• Harold Arkwright, cricketer
• Francis Barmby, cricketer
• Edgar Burgess, rower
• Charles Burnell, rower in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Sir Christopher Chataway, former middle and long-distance runner, television news broadcaster, and Conservative politician
• Sir Collier Cudmore, lawyer, politician and Olympic rower who won the Gold medal in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Michael England, cricketer
• Philip Fleming, banker and rower who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Stanley Garton, rower who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Sir James Angus Gillan, Scottish rower and colonial service official. He competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
• Ewart Horsfall, rower (1912 Summer Olympics and 1920 Summer Olympics)
• Alister Kirby, rower at the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Sir Clement Courtenay Knollys, rower and Colonial Administrator and Governor
• David Laitt, cricketer
• Sir Henry Leveson Gower, England cricketer and Test Captain
• Alister Kirby, rower who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Duncan Mackinnon, rower in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Gilchrist Maclagan, rower in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Evelyn Aubrey Montague, athlete and journalist. He ran in the 1924 Paris Olympics, and is immortalized in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire
• Guy Nickalls, rower who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Guy Oliver Nickalls, son of Guy Nickalls, rower who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics and in the 1928 Summer Olympics
• Malcolm Nokes, schoolteacher, soldier, research scientist and Olympic athlete (hammer throw and discus throw)
• Tuppy Owen-Smith, sportsman who played Test cricket for South Africa and captained England at Rugby Union
• Henry Wells, judge and coxswain at the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Leslie Wormald, rower in the Leander-eight in the 1912 Summer Olympics.

Artists and writers

Ian Hislop in 2009

• Donald Adamson, author and historian
• Julian Barnes, writer
• Sir John Betjeman, poet, writer and broadcaster
• Christopher Derrick, author, reviewer, publisher's reader and lecturer
• Lord Alfred Douglas, author, poet and translator
• Fernanda Eberstadt, writer
• John Florio, linguist and lexicographer
• Alan Garner, novelist
• John Gerrard, Legacy Fellow at Magdalen and artist
• Alan Hollinghurst, novelist and poet
• Pico Iyer, essayist and writer
• Gavin Lambert, screenwriter, novelist and biographer
• Andrew Lloyd Webber, Peer of the realm and music composer
• John Lyly, writer, poet, dramatist, playwright and politician
• Robert Macfarlane, travel writer
• Compton Mackenzie, writer of fiction, biography, histories, and memoir
• Andrew McNeillie, currently Literature Editor at Oxford University Press
• Dave Morris, author of gamebooks, novels and comics
• Douglas Murray, author, writer and commentator
• Stephen Potts, author
• Benjamin Schwarz, writer
• Andrew Sullivan, author, editor, political commentator and blogger
• Wilfred Thesiger, explorer and travel writer
• Oscar Wilde, Irish writer and poet
• George Wither, poet, pamphleteer and satirist

Journalists

• Aravind Adiga, writer and journalist
• Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar, journalist and columnist
• Clive Crook, columnist for the Financial Times
• Matthew D'Ancona, journalist
• Geoffrey Dawson, editor of The Times (1912 to 1919 and 1923 until 1941)
• Bill Emmott, Editor of The Economist (1993-2006)
• Sagarika Ghose, journalist, news anchor and author
• Bevis Hillier, art historian, author and journalist
• Ian Hislop, journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the magazine Private Eye
• Paul Johnson, journalist, historian, speechwriter and author
• Robert Kee, broadcaster, journalist and writer
• Nicholas D. Kristof, journalist, author, op-ed columnist
• Donald McLachlan, Scottish journalist and author, founding editor of The Sunday Telegraph
• John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of The Economist
• Peter Millar, journalist
• John Sergeant, journalist and TV personality
• Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, UK Peer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, journalist and broadcaster
• George Will, columnist, journalist and author

Musicians

• Paul Agnew, operatic tenor
• John Mark Ainsley, lyric tenor
• Robin Blaze, countertenor
• Paul Brough, conductor and teacher
• Harry Christophers, conductor
• Vinicius de Moraes, poet, essayist, playwright and lyricist
• David Lloyd-Jones, conductor
• Dudley Moore, actor, comedian, composer and musician
• Nicholas O'Neill, composer, arranger, organist and choral director
• James Whitbourn, composer and conductor

Broadcasters and entertainers

Louis Theroux in 2009

• Peter Brook, film and stage director
• Michael Denison, actor
• Freddie Grisewood, radio broadcaster
• Robert Hardy, actor
• Brian Inglis, journalist, historian and television presenter
• Terrence Malick, film director, screenwriter and producer
• Katie Mitchell, theatre director
• Louis Theroux, broadcaster
• Simon Woods, actor

Business

• David Abraham, Channel Four CEO
• Sir Eric Berthoud, oil man and diplomat
• Raymond Bonham Carter, banker and father of Helena Bonham Carter
• Sir Rupert Clarke, 3rd Baronet, soldier, businessman and horse rider
• Sir Vernon Ellis, Chair of the British Council
• Darius Guppy, British-Iranian businessman
• Luke Johnson, businessman and Financial Times columnist
• J. Paul Getty, Anglo-American industrialist
• Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, co-founder of Lastminute.com and Peeress
• Prince Rupert Loewenstein, manager of the Rolling Stones^[4]
• Sir Humphrey Mackworth, industrialist and politician
• Michael Montague, Baron Montague of Oxford, businessman and politician
• Pete Flint Founder of Trulia, Internet entrepreneur

Other people

• T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935) 'Lawrence of Arabia'
• Thomas Tudor Loveday (1875-1966) Principal of Southampton University College (1920-22) and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol (1922-1944)
• Simon Forman, Elizabethan astrologer, occultist and herbalist
• Robert Peverell Hichens, officer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve
• Marc S. Ellenbogen, diplomat, philanthropist and President of the Prague Society for International Cooperation

Fictional Characters

• P. G. Wodehouse attributes a Magdalen undergraduateship to his fictional literary character Bertie Wooster
• Tibby, in E. M. Forster's Howards End, is also a Magdalen undergraduate
• Bridey in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited

References

1. "Magdalen (Name)". First Names Dictionary on AskOxford.com.
2. http://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/nested_content/listings/home_-_news/news/five-members-of-the-new-cabinet-graduated-from-magdalen
3. Twersky, Mordechai I. (2014-04-21). "Zev Sufott, Israel's first ambassador to China, dies aged 86". Haaretz. Retrieved 2014-05-16.
4. Sweeting, Adam (22 May 2014). "Prince Rupert Loewenstein obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2014.