Famous Oxonians

Throughout its history, Oxford has produced gifted men and women in every sphere of human endeavour who have studied or taught at the University.

20th & 21st Centuries
19th Century
17th & 18th Centuries
15th & 16th Centuries
13th & 14th Centuries

Among these are 26 British Prime Ministers, including the current one, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP; at least 30 international leaders; 50 Nobel Prize winners; 7 current holders of the Order of Merit; at least 12 saints and 20 Archbishops of Canterbury; and some 120 Olympic medal winners.

At least 117 Oxonians were elected to Parliament in the UK's General Election in 2010, and more than 140 sit in the House of Lords. The offices of Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer are all currently held by Oxford graduates, as are those of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Secretary of State for Education, Secretary of State for Defence, Secretary of State for Health, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In addition, at least five members of the US House of Representatives, one members of the US Senate and one US State Governor were educated at Oxford.

20th & 21st Centuries

HM King Abdullah II of Jordan
Sir Grantley Adams, Premier of Barbados, 1954-1958; Prime Minister of the West Indies, 1958-1962
J M G (Tom) Adams, Prime Minister of Barbados 1976-85
Diran Adebayo, author
Samira Ahmed, journalist and presenter
Monica Ali, author
Tariq Ali, writer
Rowan Atkinson, comedian
Sir Kingsley Amis, author
Lindsay Anderson, film-maker
W H Auden, poet
Clement Attlee, UK Prime Minister, 1945-1951
Zeinab Badawi, journalist and broadcaster
Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, 1956-1959
Sir Roger Bannister, neurologist and athlete
Dame Josephine Barnes, first female President of the British Medical Association
Marian Bell, economist
Tony Benn, politician
Alan Bennett, playwright
Sir Lennox Berkeley, composer
Sir Isaiah Berlin, philosopher
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web
Sir John Betjeman, poet
Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988-90 & 1993-96)
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, former President (1970-73) and Prime Minister (1972-77) of Pakistan
Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister (1997-2007)
Baruch S Blumberg, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
Henry Bonsu, journalist and broadcaster
Dr Ian Bostridge, opera singer
Sir Adrian Boult, conductor
William Boyd, author
Lord (Melvyn) Bragg, broadcaster
Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, 1994-
Vera Brittain, writer
Peter Brook, theatre director
Fiona Bruce, broadcaster
Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, Prime Minister of Ghana 1969-72
Robert Byron, travel writer
Rt Hon David Cameron MP, UK Prime Minister 2010-
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada; Governor-Elect of the Bank of England
Baroness (Barbara) Castle, politician
General Wesley Clark, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, 1997-2000
Bill Clinton, President of the United States, 1993-2001
Wendy Cope, poet
Richard Curtis, screenwriter
Cecil Day Lewis, poet
Edward de Bono, philosopher
David Dimbleby, journalist and broadcaster
Sir John Eccles, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology 1963
John Edmonds, trade unionist
T S Eliot, poet
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, chef and broadcaster
Helen Fielding, author
Dr Amelia Fletcher, Chief Economist, Office of Fair Trading
Lord Florey, Nobel Prize-winning pathologist
Michèle Flournoy, former US Under Secretary of Defense
Emilia Fox, actor
Lady Antonia Fraser, novelist and historian
Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia, 1975-83
William Fulbright, politician, founder of the Fulbright Scholarships
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-77 & 1980-84
Dr Frene Ginwala, former Speaker of the South African National Assembly
William Golding, Nobel Prize-winning novelist
Hugh Grant, actor
Robert Graves, poet
Graham Greene, author
Sir John Grey Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia, 1968-1971
Sir John Gurdon, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
Mark Haddon, author
J B S Haldane, geneticist
Professor Stuart Hall, sociologist
Tony Hall (Lord Hall of Birkenhead), Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House; Director General of the BBC from March 2013
Harald V, King of Norway since 1991
Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia, 1983-91
Professor Stephen Hawking, physicist
Sir Edward Heath, UK Prime Minister, 1970-74
Joseph Heller, author
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Oscar-winning film-maker
Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
Sir Tony Hoare, computer scientist
Dorothy Hodgkin, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
Edwin Hubble, astronomer
Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, 1976-99
Aldous Huxley, author
Armando Iannucci, writer and comedian
Lord (Roy) Jenkins, former Home Secretary and Chancellor of the University
Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, former US Congressman
Luke Johnson, businessman
Lakshman Kadirgamar, former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister
Imran Khan, Pakistani politician and former international cricketer
Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan
Soweto Kinch, jazz musician, saxophonist
Dame Emma Kirkby, soprano
John Kufuor, President of Ghana 2001-2009
Hari Kunzru, author
Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian Development Bank
Martha Lane Fox, businesswoman
Philip Larkin, poet
T E Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia
Nigella Lawson, chef and broadcaster
John Le Carre, author
C S Lewis, writer and scholar
Ken Loach, film-maker
Alain Locke, philosopher and architect of the Harlem Renaissance
Val McDermid, crime writer
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum
Harold Macmillan, UK Prime Minister, 1957-63
Norman Manley, Leader of Jamaica, 1955-62
Chief Justice Mrs Sujata Vasant Manohar, Judge of the Supreme Court of India 1994-99
Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister (and later President) of Fiji
Sir Peter Medawar, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology 1960
Ved Mehta, author
Roland Michener, Governor-General of Canada 1967-74
Dame Barbara Mills, first female Director of Public Prosecutions
Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister of Malta, 1955-1958 & 1971-1984
Dudley Moore, actor, comedian, musician
Dom Moraes, poet
Kate Mosse, novelist
Dame Iris Murdoch, philosopher and author
Rupert Murdoch, Director, News International plc
Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, 2009-
V S Naipaul, Nobel Prize-winning author
Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan
Rageh Omaar, journalist
Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary (2010- and 1998-2002) and leader of the Fidesz political party
Michael Palin, actor and writer
Lester B Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada, 1963-1968, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
Robert Penn Warren, American poet laureate
Robert Peston, journalist
Sally Phillips, actor and comedian
Rosamund Pike, actor
Sir Matthew Pinsent, four times Olympic Gold Medal-winning rower
Dennis Potter, playwright
Philip Pullman, author
Barbara Pym, author
Hugh Quarshie, actor
Dr Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner
Dr Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations
Rachel Riley, co-host on Channel 4's Countdown
Nick Robinson, journalist
Hon Raymond Robinson, President of Trinidad and Tobago, 1997-2003
General Sir Michael Rose, former UN Commander in Bosnia
Michael Rosen, children's novelist and poet
Sir Martin Ryle, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, Chief Rabbi
Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement
Roz Savage, rower and adventurer
Dorothy L Sayers, author
Ernst Schumacher, economist
Pixley Seme, founder of the African National Congress
Vikram Seth, author
Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, 2004-
Professor Oliver Smithies, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine
Laura Solon, comedian
Cornelia Sorabji, India’s first female lawyer
Rick Stein, chef and broadcaster
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader, Burmese National League for Democracy and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
A J P Taylor, historian
Baroness (Margaret) Thatcher, UK Prime Minister, 1979-90
Sir Wilfred Thesiger, explorer and anthropologist
Mark Thompson, CEO of the New York Times Company and former Director-General of the BBC
Lester Thurow, economist
J R R Tolkien, author and academic
Margaret Turner-Warwick, first woman President of the Royal College of Physicians
Dame Janet Vaughan, haematologist and radiobiologist
Revd Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans
David Vitter, United States Congressman
Baroness (Mary) Warnock, philosopher
Evelyn Waugh, author
Sir Andrew Wiles, mathematician
Dr Eric Williams, historian and politician, Chief Minister of Trinidad and Tobago 1956-1959, Premier 1959-1962, Prime Minister 1962-1981
Ivy Williams, first female barrister in the UK
Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury 2002-2013
Baroness Shirley Williams, politician
Michael Winterbottom, film-maker
Jeanette Winterson, author
Qian Zhongshu, Chinese academic and writer

19th Century

Matthew Arnold, poet
H H Asquith, British Prime Minister
Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor and composer
Sir Max Beerbohm, author and cartoonist
Gertrude Bell, explorer and archaeologist
Hilaire Belloc, author
William Beveridge, social reformer and economist
John Buchan, author
Sir Richard Burton, explorer
Edward Burne-Jones, artist
Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), author and academic
Thomas de Quincey, author
C B Fry, cricketer
William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister
Eglantyne Jebb, founder of the Save the Children Fund
John Keble, theologian
Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet
William Morris, artist
Cardinal John Henry Newman, theologian
Sir Robert Peel, British Prime Minister
Edward Pusey, theologian
Eleanor Rathbone, politician and social reformer
Cecil Rhodes, colonial pioneer, founder of the Rhodes Scholarships
John Ruskin, author, artist and social reformer
Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet
Frederick Soddy, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
Arnold Toynbee, social philosopher and economist
Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet and author
Emily Wilding Davison, suffragist

17th & 18th Centuries

William Henry Drayton, American revolutionary
John Ford, playwright
Edward Gibbon, historian
Edmund Halley, astronomer
William Harvey, scientist who discovered the circulation of the blood
Thomas Hobbes, philosopher
Robert Hooke, scientist
Dr Samuel Johnson, lexicographer
John Locke, philosopher
Sir Richard Lovelace, poet
James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania
Adam Smith, political economist
James Smithson, scientist, founder of the Smithsonian Institution
Robert Southey, poet
Jonathan Swift, author and satirist
Jethro Tull, agriculturalist and inventor
John Wesley, founder of Methodism
John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, poet and courtier
Sir Christopher Wren, architect

15th & 16th Centuries

Cardinal William Allen
John Donne, poet
Erasmus, scholar
Jerome of Prague, Czech religious reformer
Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor and martyr
Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer
Sir Philip Sidney, poet
William Tyndale, translator of the Bible
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor and churchman, founder of Christ Church

13th & 14th Centuries

Roger Bacon, scholar
Thomas Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury
Simon Bredon, mathematician
William of Ockham, philosopher and theologian
Duns Scotus, philosopher and theologian
John Wyclif (Wycliffe), religious reformer

Lester B Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada, 1963-1968, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane, Alentejo Blue and In the Kitchen

Stephen Hawking, physicist and author of the bestseller, A Brief History of Time