Birkenhead School - Notable Old Birkonians

Notable Old Birkonians

• Charles Harrison Townsend (1851–1928), architect
• Cecil Reddie (1858–1932), Founder and Headmaster of Abbotsholme School, 1889–1927
• Robert Hope-Jones (1859–1914), inventor of the theatre organ
• Frank Hope-Jones (1867–1950), horologist and creator of the Greenwich Time Signal pips
• Leonard Leslie Brooke (1862–1940), children's writer and illustrator
• Wynfrid Duckworth (1870–1956), anatomist, and Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1940–1945
• F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872–1930), barrister, Attorney-General, 1916–1919, Lord Chancellor, 1919–1922, and Secretary of State for India, 1924–1928
• Douglas Laurie (1874–1953), Professor of Zoology, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1922–1940, and Founding Honorary General Secretary, Association of University Teachers, 1919–1953
• Henry Graham White (1880–1965); Liberal politician
• Lieutenant-General Sir Wilfrid Lindsell (1884–1973), Quartermaster-General, British Expeditionary Force, 1939–1940, Lieutenant-General i/c Administration, Middle East, 1942–1943, and Principal Administration Officer, Fourteenth Army, 1943–1945
• Sir Melvill Jones (1887–1975), Francis Mond Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, University of Cambridge, 1919–1952
• Martin Percival Charlesworth (1895–1950), classicist
• Geoffrey Webb (1898–1970), Slade Professor of Fine Art, University of Cambridge, 1938–1949, and Secretary, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1948–1962
• Sir Gordon Willmer (1899–1983), Lord Justice of Appeal
• Andrew Irvine (1902–1924), mountaineer who attempted the summit of Mount Everest with George Mallory
• Nevill Willmer (1902–2001), Professor of Histology, University of Cambridge, 1966–1969
• Brigadier Sir Philip Toosey (1904–1975), merchant banker, Territorial Army officer, and senior Allied officer during the building of the Bridge on the River Kwai
• Peter Shepheard (1913–2002), architect
• Henry Pelling (1920–1997), historian
• Air Chief Marshal Sir John Aiken (1921–2005), Director of Training, Royal Air Force, 1971–1973, and Commander, British Forces in Cyprus, 1973–1976
• Gruffydd Evans, Baron Evans of Claughton (1928–1992), lawyer and politician
• Clifford Embleton (1931–1994), Professor of Geography, King's College London, 1982–1994
• William Wade, Baron Wade of Chorlton (born 1932), businessman, and Joint Treasurer of the Conservative Party, 1982–1990
• Donald Nicholls, Baron Nicholls of Birkenhead (born 1933), Vice-Chancellor, High Court of Justice, 1991–1994, and Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, 1994–2007
• Andreas Whittam Smith (born 1937), journalist and co-founder of The Independent
• Barry Porter (1939–1996), Conservative politician
• Graham Richards (born 1939) Head of Chemistry (1997–2006) at the University of Oxford.
• Timothy Mason (1940–1990), historian
• Michael Gray, (born 1946), author and Bob Dylan critic
• Michael F. Land (born 1942), Professor of Neurobiology, University of Sussex
• Crispin Wright (born 1942), philosopher
• Nick Pollard (born 1950), journalist
• Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead (born 1951), Chief Executive, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Director-General of the BBC (2013-)
• Alan Rouse (1951–1986), mountaineer, and first Briton to reach the summit of K2
• Donald Allister (born 1952), Bishop of Peterborough
• Graham Vick CBE (born 1953), opera director
• Kevin Sampson (born 1961), novelist
• Karl McCartney (born 1968), Conservative politician