List of Oriel College People - Former Students

Former Students

• Richard Ithamar Aaron - D.Phil student, graduated 1928: Welsh philosopher.
• William Allen - Undergraduate 1547, Fellow of the college from 1550 to 1561: Principal of St Mary Hall 1556 to 1561, fellow at University of Douai, Cardinal.
• Sir David Arculus - English businessman.
• Thomas Arundel - Undergraduate 1373: Son of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, with whom he erected the first college chapel. Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury. Opposed Richard II and crowned Henry of Bolingbroke as Henry IV.
• Donald Ferlys Wilson Baden-Powell- Undergraduate 1917: Geologist and palaeolithic archeologist.
• Marius Barbeau - Rhodes Scholar 1907 - 1910: Canadian ethnographer and folklorist.
• Geoffrey Barraclough - scholar in History 1926-29. Chichele Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford, 1970–73.
• Sir Harold Idris Bell - Adam de Brome scholar 1897: CB OBE, British papyrologist (specialising in Roman Egypt) and scholar of Welsh literature.
• Jon Bentley - British journalist and television presenter.
• Sir Geoffrey Bindman, human rights lawyer
• Godwin Birchenough - Dean of Ripon Cathedral.
• Bernard Bosanquet - Undergraduate 1896 to 1899: Triple Blues, English test cricketer, inventor of the googly.
• Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton - Churchman and translator of one of only two English translations of the Septuagint.

• Charles Wreford Brown - Captained the English national football team several times between 1894 and 1895, credited with inventing the word soccer.
• Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh - Scottish politician and statesman
• James Brudenell, 5th Earl of Cardigan - Graduated 1747 with a Bachelor of Arts: Deputy Cofferer to the Household, Master of Robes to the Prince of Wales, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Constable of Windsor Castle and Steward of Windsor.
• Beau Brummell - Undergraduate 1794: Dandy and arbiter of fashion.
• Peter Brunt - Ancient historian.
• Joseph Butler - Undergraduate 1715 to 1718, graduate until 1733: Bishop of Bristol and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral 1740, Bishop of Durham 1750.
• Norman Cameron - poet
• Robert Chalmers, 1st Baron Chalmers - BA 1881. Governor of Ceylon 1913-1915
• Clive Cheesman - Undergraduate: Richmond Herald 2010-current
• David Chillingworth - Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane 2005-
• Graham Chipchase - CEO of Rexam plc
• Baron Clements - Irish nobleman and politician.
• Sir George Coldstream, Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office
• Anthony Collett - author and writer on natural history.
• Nigel Cornwall - Bishop of Borneo 1949-1962.
• Harold De Soyza - Bishop of Colombo 1964-1971.
• Sir Geoffrey Sandford Cox - former editor and chief executive of ITN and a founder of News at Ten.
• Sir Stewart Crawford - diplomat.
• Sir Alexander Croke - British judge, colonial administrator and author influential in Nova Scotia of the early nineteenth century.
• Sir James Ralph Darling OBE - Headmaster of Geelong Grammar School, and Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
• Peter Emery - Member of Parliament continuously for Reading, Honiton, and East Devon from 1959 to 2001, appointed Privy Counsellor in 1993.
• Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron - Undergraduate 1710 to July 1713: friend and patron of George Washington.
• Edmund Fellowes - Undergraduate 1889 to 1892: Music editor and author on 16th and 17th English music.
• William Robert Seymour Vesey Fitzgerald - Governor of Bombay 1867 to 1872, privy counsellor.
• Eric Foner - American historian, Bancroft Prize winner.
• James Anthony Froude - Undergraduate 1836 to 1840: English historian and Regius Professor of Modern History, 1892 to 1894.
• David Giles - British television director.
• Robert Alfred Cloynes Godwin-Austen - Undergraduate 1826-1830: English geologist.
• George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen - British statesman and business man.
• William Grant - Scottish politician and judge.
• Chris Green - British railway manager.
• Frank Tracy Griswold - Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
• Os Guinness - Writer and social critic living in McLean, Virginia.
• Gerald Edgcumbe Hadow - English Christian missionary to East Africa in the mid-twentieth century.
• George Wellesley Hamilton - Ontario political figure, Prescott in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Conservative member from 1871 to 1874.
• William Gerard Hamilton - English Statesman, Chief Secretary for Ireland 1761 to 1764.
• Renn Dickson Hampden - Bampton lecturer in 1832, principal of St Mary Hall 1833, Bishop of Hereford 1847.
• David Hand - Bishop Coadjutor of New Guinea 1950-63, Archbishop of Papua New Guinea 1977-83
• Charles Handy - Management educator. Honorary Fellow.
• James Hannington - Undergraduate 1868 to 1873: Missionary bishop.
• Daniel Hannan - British politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the South East England region for the Conservative Party
• Peter Harness - British dramatist and screenwriter.
• James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury - Foreign Secretary 1852 and 1858 to 1859, Lord Privy Seal 1866 to 1868 and 1874 to 1876.
• Alan Haselhurst - British politician - Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons since 1997
• Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea - English statesman.
• Christopher Hibbert - English writer and popular historian and biographer.
• Michael Hoffman - Undergraduate 1979: Film director
• John Holt - Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1689 to 1710.
• Thomas Hughes - Undergraduate 1841 to 1845: Author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, founder member of the Christian Socialists.
• Richard Hughes - British writer of poems, short stories, novels and plays.
• George Wyndham Kennion - Anglican bishop of Adelaide and Bath and Wells.
• Edward King (English bishop) - Bishop of Lincoln 1885 to 1910.
• Sir Francis Kynaston - Undergraduate 1601: English courtier and poet.
• James Leasor - Undergraduate 1946 to 1948: English writer and popular historian.
• Eugene Lee-Hamilton - Late-Victorian English poet.
• Edward Leigh, 5th Baron Leigh - Undergraduate 1761 to 1764: High Steward of Oxford University and benefactor.
• J. L. Mackie - Undergraduate 1938 to 1940: Australian Philosopher.
• David Manning - KCMG CVO, British Ambassador to the United States.
• Baron Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon - Conservative Party politician and British cabinet member from 1979 until 1981.
• James Meade - Undergraduate 1926 to 1930: Economist, Nobel Prize award winner.
• Jim Mellon - Undergraduate and Honorary Fellow: Economist, writer and founder of several companies.
• Herman Merivale - English civil servant and author.
• Philip Napier Miles - 1865-1935 - composer and philanthropist.
• Martin Mills - British Music Industry Executive.
• Edward Thomas Monro - Principle Physician of Bethlem Hospital from 1816.
• Henry Monro - President of the Medical Psychological Association in 1864-65.
• Thomas Monro - Principal Physician of Bedlam Hospital from 1816.
• Thomas Mozley - English clergyman and writer.
• Paul Murphy - Secretary of State for Wales and former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
• Peter Neyroud - Chief Executive Officer (Designate) for the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), and former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police.
• Baron Normand of Aberdour - Scottish politician and judge.
• John Nunn - English chess player and mathematician
• Lord Onslow of Woking - MI6 field agent and privy counsellor.
• Phillip Oppenheim - Undergraduate 1974 to 1977. Politician and business guru.
• Mark Pattison - Undergraduate 1832: English author and rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.
• Reginald Pecock - Bishop of Chichester
• Robert Pierrepont - Undergraduate 1596 to 1599: Member of parliament, became Baron Pierrepont and Viscount Newark in 1627, and Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull in 1628.
• Paul Preston - Professor in International History at the London School of Economics; historian of modern Spain.
• William Prynne - Graduated BA 1621; lawyer, author, polemicist.
• Sir Walter Raleigh - Undergraduate 1572 to 1574: Courtier, statesman, scientist, writer, poet, spy, and explorer.
• Adam Raphael, journalist
• A N Ray - Chief Justice of India (1973-7). Studied modern history
• Oswald Rayner - British intelligence officer
• Peter Reed - British rower, Olympic champion 2008, and world champion 2005/6.

• Cecil Rhodes - Undergraduate 1873, 1876 to 1878, 1881: Politician, businessman and the effective founder of the state of Rhodesia.
• Rachel Riley - television presenter.
• Andrew Robathan - British Conservative politician, and Member of Parliament for Blaby.
• John Martin Robinson - Historian and author.
• Frederic Rogers, 1st Baron Blachford - British civil servant.
• Philip St. John Russell, FRS - Director of the third division of the Max Planck Research Group at the Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
• Eric Schlosser - American journalist and author.
• Sir William Scroggs - Undergraduate 1639 to c.1640: Lord Chief Justice over the Popish Plot
• W. C. Sellar & R. J. Yeatman - Undergraduates 1919 to 1922: Humorists, authors of 1066 and All That.
• William Seward, matriculated 1764, anecdotist and conversationalist
• Richard Simpson - British Roman Catholic writer and literary scholar.
• Thomas Sotheron-Estcourt - British politician, Home Secretary 1859.
• John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough - Undergraduate 1840: Lord President of the Council 1867; grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill.
• J. I. M. Stewart - Scottish author whose pen name was Michael Innes.
• Hugh Edwin Strickland - Undergraduate 1829: English geologist, ornithologist and systemist.
• Ronald Syme - New Zealand-born historian, was the pre-eminent classicist of the 20th century.
• Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol - Lord Chancellor 1733 to 1737.
• Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot - Industrialist, Liberal Member of Parliament for Glamorgan for sixty years.
• A.J.P. Taylor - Undergraduate 1924 to 1927: Renowned British historian of the 20th century.
• Alexander Todd - Undergraduate 1931 to 1934: Chemist, Nobel Prize award winner.
• Iain Torrance - President of Princeton Theological Seminary and a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
• Henry Unton - English diplomat, ambassador to Henry IV of France.
• Sir William Robert Seymour Vesey-FitzGerald - British politician and Member of Parliament for Horsham.
• Plum Warner - Played first-class cricket for Oxford University, Middlesex and England.
• Joseph Warton - English academic and literary critic.
• Donald Cameron Watt - Professor in International History at the London School of Economics.
• Donald Elmslie Robertson Watt FRSE - Scottish historian and Professor Emeritus at St Andrews University.
• Ronald Lampman Watts - Canadian academic and the 15th Principal and Vice-chancellor of Queen's University from 1974 until 1984.
• Gilbert White - Undergraduate 1739 to 1743, Fellow of the college 1744 to 1793. Pioneering naturalist and ornithologist.
• Vernon White - MLitt in Theology 1980, now principal of STETS and Canon of Winchester
• Samuel Wilberforce - Undergraduate 1823 to 1826: Bishop of Oxford and Winchester. Opposed Darwin's theory of evolution in a famous debate with biologist Thomas Huxley.
• Nigel Williams - novelist, playwright and screenwriter.
• Sandy Wilson - British lyricist and composer of The Boy Friend (1954).
• Michael Wood - Popular British historian, broadcaster and television presenter.
• David Wright - Author and poet.

See also Former students of Oriel College.