Duke of York's Royal Military School - Notable Alumni

Notable Alumni

• Lieutenant-General Gary Coward, CB, OBE, beginning his career in the Royal Artillery before transferring to the Army Air Corps, Coward is the current Quarter-Master General of the British Armed Forces, formerly Chief of Staff of the Permanent Joint Headquarters and before that General Officer Commanding United Kingdom Joint Helicopter Command. Coward is decorated with the Order of the Bath and the Order of the British Empire.
• Professor Timothy Foster, Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning in Microbiology at Trinity College, Dublin.
• Ramon Tikaram, stage and screen actor who shot to fame in BBC2 drama This Life, where he played a bi-sexual, Mexican bike courier called Ferdie.
• Maurice Colclough, rugby player for the England national rugby union team and British and Irish Lions
• Lieutenant-Colonel Nigel Wylde, QGM, Royal Engineers, Intelligence Corps, former-bomb disposal expert and intelligence operative decorated for gallantry who has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the state's moral conduct in anti-terrorist campaigns from the 1970s to the present day . Wylde has appeared as an expert witness to the Barron Inquiry on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974.
• James Stuart Jones, British Anglican clergyman and Bishop of Liverpool
• Bill Ind, British Anglican clergyman and formerly Bishop of Truro
• Professor Arthur Buller, ERD, FRCP, Professor of Physiology, University of Bristol, 1965–1982, Emeritus Professor, since 1982; Chief Scientist, Department of Health and Social Security, 1978–81, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
• Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye, GCSI, GCIE, KCB, KBE, MC, Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff as well as being involved in Operation Mincemeat, Governor of Madras in 1946, UK High Commissioner in Delhi from 1948 to 1952, High Commissioner to Canada from 1952 to 1956, chairman of the Nye Committee.
• Detective Inspector D.H.C. Nixon, Metropolitan Police, subject of the novel Nick of the River by Anthony Richardson and the accompanying television series.
• Lieutenant Peter Cartwright, Royal Scots Fusiliers, Special Air Service, died trying to save three comrades from drowning on training exercise during the Malayan Emergency. Despite pressure he was never awarded a posthumous gallantry medal.
• Colonel W.A.T. Bowly, CVO, CBE, MC, President of the DYRMS Old Boy's Association 1937-1945, as well as being Headmaster of the DYRMS during World War II, recipient of the Royal Victorian Order, the Order of the British Empire and decorated for gallantry in combat during World War I.
• William Henry Debroy Somers, inter-war composer, lyricist, blues and jazz musician who formed the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, performed on Radio Luxembourg and Radio Normandy, and performed in the Horlicks Show to rival the Ovaltineys, as well as performing in the Royal Variety Performance.
• Group Captain George Gardiner, DSO, DFC, Légion d'honneur, Croix de guerre, Croix de Chevalier, Royal Irish Regiment, Queen's Lancers, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force, fighter ace in World War I.
• Lieutenant George William Hanna, MM, Duke of Wellington's Regiment, infantryman in the Boer War and World War I.
• Henry Lazarus, the premier British clarinet virtuoso of the nineteenth century and professor of the Royal Academy of Music
• Thomas Sullivan, professor of the Royal Army College of Music and father of the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame
• Alfred James Phasey, a star musician during the Victorian age, including playing with the Philharmonic Society of London (progenitor of the Royal Philharmonic Society, professor of the Royal Army College of Music.
• Ann Vanpine, mill worker turned teacher to the benefit of her community and testament to the spirit of service encouraged at the Duke of York's; moreover Vanpine was a pupil in the earliest years of the school (1821–1825) and in a time of extremely limited opportunities for orphans but especially women, making her accomplishments the more remarkable.
• John David Francis Shaul, recipient of the Victoria Cross as a Corporal of the Highland Light Infantry at the Battle of Magersfontein, December 11, 1899. Corporal Shaul's bravery and humane conduct were so conspicuous that, not only was he noticed by his own officer, but even those of other regiments remarked upon it. Corporal Shaul was in charge of stretcher bearers and was most conspicuous in dressing the wounds of the injured. He was born in King's Lynn on September 11, 1873. He received his VC from HRH The Duke of York at Pietermaritzburg on August 14, 1901.