List of Old Tonbridgians

This is a list of notable alumni of the Tonbridge School.

• William Adams (lawyer), lawyer
• William Albertini (1913-1994), English cricketer^[1]
• Mark Allbrook, cricketer and Head at Bloxham School
• William Alexander (bishop) (1824–1911) poet, theologian and Anglican Primate of All Ireland
• George Austen, father of Jane Austen
• Robert Ashfield Organist of Southwell Minster and Rochester Cathedral
• Sir Herbert Baker, architect
• Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton FRS, Chemist and Nobel Laureate
• William Thomas Clifford Beckett, CBE, DSO (1862–1956) Brigadier-General in British Army and notable Civil Engineer
• Clifford Thomason Beckett, CBE, MC, Major-General in British Army
• Sir Rupert de la Bère, 1st Baronet
• Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St Albans
• Herbert Edward Douglas Blakiston, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford (1917–1920)^[2]
• James Body, rugby union international who represented England
• Sir John Bond, former chairman of HSBC and current chairman of Vodafone
• Roland Bond, Locomotive engineer
• John Bowis, former MP and MEP
• Ian Bradley, writer, academic and theologian
• Bill Bruford, Drummer for Yes, King Crimson and others (musician)
• Decimus Burton - noted and prolific architect and garden designer
• Hugh Cecil - 1920s society photographer
• Owen Chadwick - Order of Merit, Vice Chancellor of University of Cambridge, Master of Selwyn Cambridge, Regius Professor of Modern History, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Chancellor of University of Anglia, President of British Academy, and a Rugby Union International.
• Justin Chancellor, bassist, Tool
• Tom Chaplin, Keane musician
• Mark Church, sports commentator
• Iain Coleman, politician
• Sir Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge (1932–2000), Kent CCC and England cricketer and cricket administrator
• C. S. Cowdrey (born 1957), Kent Glamorgan and England cricketer and broadcaster
• G. R. Cowdrey (born 1964), Kent cricketer
• Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, diplomat
• Andrew Craissati, former Chairman The Virgin Group (Asia Pacific)
• Rupert Croft-Cooke, author
• Aleister Crowley, occultist, mystic, sexual revolutionary
• Maurice Denham (1909–2002), actor
• William Sholto Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas of Kirtleside GCB, MC, DFC, Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain
• Eric Stuart Dougall, Victoria Cross, First World War
• R. M. Ellison (born 1959), Kent CCC and England cricketer
• Rt Rev Edward Lewis Evans, Bishop of Barbados
• Peter Fisher (physician), personal physician to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
• Peter Fincham, Director of TV at ITV, former Controller of BBC One
• Ollie Freeman, athlete, tri-athlete
• Albany Fonblanque, journalist
• E. M. Forster, novelist
• Frederick Forsyth, novelist
• Tristan Gemmill, actor famed for playing Adam Trueman in BBC long-running medical drama Casualty since 2007
• Revd Sidney Faithorn Green Ritualist clergyman
• Ben Gummer, Conservative politician also Member of Parliament for Ipswich
• W. D. Hamilton, devisor of "Red Queen Theory"
• Sir Reginald Hanson, 1st Baronet, Bt, Kt, JP, DL, FSA, was Lord Mayor of London and a British Conservative Party politician.
• The Rt Rev Joseph Charles Hoare, DD was an eminent Anglican priest in the late 19th century and the very early 20th.
• Norman Heatley, the man who, having been on the team of Oxford scientists which discovered penicillin, turned it into a usable medicine
• Chris Hollins - BBC Breakfast sports presenter, son of footballer John Hollins
• C. W. H. Howard (born 1904), Middlesex CCC cricketer
• Ronald Howard (1918–1996) actor, son of Leslie Howard
• Richard Hughes, Keane musician
• William Hughes-Hughes
• Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside, Chief of the Imperial General Staff
• Edmund Ironside, 2nd Baron Ironside
• Sidney Keyes, poet
• Nawab Mohammad Ismail Khan, (politician), signatory to the Indian Constitution
• Harold Stephen Langhorne (1877–1878), Brigadier-General in the British Army in the First World War
• James Archibald Dunboyne Langhorne (1893–1896), Brigadier in the British Army
• Sir John Leahy, KCMG, former Ambassador to South Africa
• Francis Luscombe (1849–1926), rugby union international who represented England and was on the first Rugby Football Union committee
• David Marques rugby union international who represented England and the British and Irish Lions
• Michael Marriott head of the British stock exchange
• Sir Arthur Marshall, aviation engineer
• James Mason (1876-1938), cricketer^[3]
• Tom May, rugby union player, Newcastle Falcons and England
• Joseph McManners left in 2011, Singer and actor
• Lord Mayhew, QC, barrister and politician
• Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough, a brilliant soldier and notorious eccentric who captured Barcelona in the war of Spanish Succession
• Wing Commander Eric James Brindley Nicolson VC DFC, Battle of Britain fighter pilot and recipient of the Victoria Cross
• Sir John Nott-Bower, Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
• Sir Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier (1859–1943), KCMG, statesman
• Carl Pantin, zoologist
• Colin Patterson, palaeontologist and reformer of the fossil record
• Sir David Randall Pye FRS, Mechanical engineer and Provost of University College London
• Ben Ransom, Rugby union player for Saracens
• Adrian Rawlins (born 1958), film and television actor
• Christopher Reid, poet
• Bishop Frederick Edward Ridgeway
• Tim Rice-Oxley, Keane musician
• W.H.R Rivers, Cambridge neurologist, psychologist, anthropologist and World War One psychiatrist
• Dr Anthony Seldon, historian, political commentator and educationalist (current Master of Wellington College)
• Vikram Seth, novelist
• Tim Severin, explorer
• Walter Slade, (1854 - 1919), former world amateur record holder for the mile
• Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, KCB, GCTE, the British admiral of whom Napoleon Bonaparte said, "That man made me miss my destiny".
• George Smythe, 7th Viscount Strangford
• Dan Stevens, actor
• David Sherwin, screenwriter, most famous for his work on the film If....
• James Short (rugby union), Rugby union player for Saracens.
• E. T. Smith (born 1977), Middlesex CCC, Kent and England cricketer
• George Smythe, 7th Viscount Strangford, politician
• Richard Southgate (actor)
• Paul Tanqueray - society photographer
• Sir Peter Tapsell MP, politician, current Father of the House of Commons
• Francis Thynne, herald (his father was Chaucer's editor, and Master of the Household for Henry VIII)
• David Tomlinson (1917–2000), actor,
• Arthur Tooth SSC, Anglo-Catholic clergyman prosecuted for using ritualist liturgical practices
• Sir David Trench, Governor of Hong Kong (1964–1971)
• Ernest Basil Verney, Fellow of the Royal Society
• The Rt Rev Hugo Ferdinand de Waal, Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge and Bishop of Thetford
• Tim Waterstone (born 1939), founder of Waterstones bookshops
• Henry Russell Wakefield was an Anglican Bishop and author
• Maurice Frank Wiles - Regius Professor Emeritus of Divinity at Oxford and one of the leading theologians of the Church of England
• David Williamson, Baron Williamson of Horton GCMG, CB, PC, Secretary General of the European Commission
• Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew 'Sandy' Wilson, Former Air Member for Personnel and last C-in-C RAF Germany
• Cecil Wilson, Bishop of Melanesia
• Benjamin Whitrow (born 1937), actor
• Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth, British Ambassador to Paris during the treaty of Amiens
• Ken Wiwa, journalist and author. Son of Nigerian campaigner, Ken Saro-Wiwa.
• William Woodfall, (at the school in 1760), pioneer of the (then illegal) practice of reporting Parliamentary debates
• Andy Zaltzman, stand-up comedian

References