List of Old Wykehamists
Former pupils of Winchester College are known as Old Wykehamists, in memory of the school's founder, William of Wykeham, and as such are able to include 'OW' in any list of post-nominal letters. Their ranks include the following individuals, classified by date of birth. A list of Old Wykehamists in fiction is included at the foot of the page. See also Category:Old Wykehamists.
Fourteenth century
Fifteenth century
Sixteenth century
- Henry Cole, Roman Catholic priest
- Nicholas Udall, Headmaster
- Richard Reade , Lord Chancellor of Ireland
- Nicholas Sander, Roman Catholic priest, missionary and historian
- Thomas Bilson, Bishop
- John Harmar, Warden of Winchester College, one of the translators of the Authorised Version
- Henry Wotton, author and diplomat
- Arthur Lake, Bishop
- John Davies, poet
- Thomas James, librarian
- Thomas Coryat, writer and court jester to James I
- Sir Thomas Ryves, lawyer
- Edward Nicholas, statesman
Seventeenth century
- Nathaniel Fiennes, Roundhead politician
- Thomas Ken, bishop and non-juror
- Francis Turner, bishop and non-juror
- Thomas Otway, dramatist
- Sir Thomas Browne, polymath, scholar, prose stylist
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, politician and author
- William Somervile, poet
- Edward Young, poet
Eighteenth century
- Robert Lowth, Bishop of London, Hebraist and English grammarian
- Edward Wortley Montagu, author
- William Whitehead, Poet Laureate
- William Collins, poet
- Joseph Warton, literary critic and Headmaster of Winchester
- William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry, famed rake and gambler
- Thomas Warton, Poet Laureate
- James Woodforde, clergyman and diarist
- George Isaac Huntingford, Bishop of Hereford and Gloucester
- Thomas Burgess, author
- Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister
- John Hawkins, geologist, traveller, and Fellow of the Royal Society
- William Lisle Bowles, poet
- Sydney Smith, essayist and satirist
- Richard Mant, Church of Ireland bishop and writer
- William Buckland, geologist
- William Ward, cricketer
- John Bettesworth-Trevanion, MP
- Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby
- Walter Farquhar Hook, Tractarian vicar of Leeds
Nineteenth century
- William Page Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley, Lord Chancellor
- George Moberly, Headmaster of Winchester, later Bishop of Salisbury
- Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln
- Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke, statesman
- W. G. Ward, prominent in the Oxford Movement
- William Monsell, 1st Baron Emly, Liberal politician
- Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne
- Anthony Trollope, author
- George Bruce Malleson, author
- George Ridding, Headmaster of Winchester, later Bishop of Southwell
- Samuel Rawson Gardiner, historian
- Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, 2nd Baron Lyons, 1st Viscount and Earl Lyons, diplomat
- Ashley Eden, Colonial Administrator
- Robert Campbell Moberly, theologian
- Samuel Rolles Driver, Biblical scholar
- Leonard Howell (footballer) (1848–1895), Wanderers and England footballer
- Francis Birley (1850–1910), footballer who won the FA Cup three times in the 1870s
- Arthur Cayley Headlam, Principal of King's College London (1903–16) Bishop of Gloucester (1923–45)
- Thomas Hughes (footballer), footballer who won the FA Cup twice in the 1870s
- William Lindsay (1847–1923), England footballer and three times FA Cup winner
- Philip Reginald Egerton, founder of Bloxham School
- Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor, politician
- John Bain (1854–1929), England footballer and 1877 FA Cup Finalist
- David Samuel Margoliouth, orientalist
- William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne, Lord Chancellor
- Theodore Dyke Acland, surgeon and physician
- Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Foreign Secretary 1905-16
- Robert Laurie Morant, administrator and educator
- H. A. L. Fisher, historian
- Sir Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet, newspaper magnate, founder of the Daily Express
- Lionel Johnson, poet
- William Sealey Gosset, statistician with Guinness (inventor of Student's t-test)
- Claud Schuster, 1st Baron Schuster, Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor 1915-1944.
- General Sir Reginald Byng Stephens, soldier
- Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas, poet and companion of Oscar Wilde
- Montague John Druitt, suspected of being Jack the Ripper
- Udny Yule, statistician
- Sir Edmund Backhouse, "The Hermit of Peking"
- Sir Vyner Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak
- Ewart Grogan, explorer and colonist
- Rupert D'Oyly Carte, Savoy Opera producer, hotelier and possible model for P. G. Wodehouse's Psmith
- G. H. Hardy FRS, mathematician and mentor of Ramanujan
- Robert Lock Graham Irving, schoolmaster, writer and mountaineer
- George Edward MacKenzie Skues, inventor of fly fishing with nymphs
- Maurice Bonham Carter, politician and cricketer
- Robert Campbell Moberly, academic
- Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, Battle of Britain commander
- Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, Field-Marshal and Viceroy of India
- Adam Fox, theologian
- Frederic John Napier Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, Colonial Governor and Viceroy of India
- George Mallory, climber of Mount Everest
- Sir William Reginald Halliday, Principal of King's College London (1928–1952)
- Apsley Cherry-Garrard Member of Captain Scott's expedition of 1912
- Basil Brooke, 1st Viscount Brookeborough, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
- Charles Bewley, Irish Diplomat
- Christopher Dawson, Roman Catholic historian
- Arnold J. Toynbee, historian
- Stafford Cripps, Labour politician
- Geoffrey Toye, composer and conductor
- A. P. Herbert, humorist and law reformer
- Godfrey Rolles Driver, Biblical scholar
- Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, Marshal of the Royal Air Force
- George MacLeod, Very Rev Lord MacLeod of Fuinary, Moderator (1957), Church of Scotland
- Sir Oswald Mosley, British fascist leader
- Maxwell Woosnam, Olympic and Wimbledon lawn tennis champion and England national football team captain.
- Robert Nichols, poet
- Malcolm Trustram Eve, 1st Baron Silsoe, barrister
- A. G. Macdonell, author, journalist and playwright
- Gilbert Ashton, cricketer and schoolmaster
- Percy Bates, shipbuilder
- Edward Wyndham Tennant, poet
- Gerard Wallop, 9th Earl of Portsmouth, landowner, writer and politician
- Hubert Ashton, footballer, cricketer and politician
- Ralph Williams, cricketer and barrister
Twentieth century
- Douglas Jardine, cricketer
- John Firth, cricketer, clergyman and schoolmaster
- David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles, politician
- Cecil Harmsworth King, newspaper publisher
- Lancelot Joynson-Hicks, 3rd Viscount Brentford, Conservative politician
- Claude Ashton, Essex cricketer and England footballer
- Anthony Asquith, film director
- Francis Festing, Field Marshal
- George D'Oyly Snow, headmaster of Ardingly College and Bishop of Whitby
- John Snagge, World War II BBC announcer
- William Goodenough Hayter, diplomat, ambassador and Warden of New College, Oxford
- Roger Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield, ambassador
- Denis Nowell Pritt, barrister and politician
- Charles Francis Christopher Hawkes, archaeologist
- Charles Awdry, cricketer, British Army officer, High Sheriff of Wiltshire
- John Sparrow, literary critic and Warden of All Souls
- William Empson, literary critic
- Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the Labour Party
- Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce, Law Lord
- Richard Crossman, Labour politician and diarist
- Douglas Jay, Baron Jay, Labour politician
- Kenneth Younger, Labour MP
- Edward Williams, British Army officer, cricketer
- Sir Basil Goulding, 3rd Baronet, Irish sportsman and art collector
- Nicholas Monsarrat, naval officer, diplomat and author of The Cruel Sea
- Ralph George Scott Bankes, barrister and Diocesan Chancellor
- Charles Madge, poet and Communist
- Roger Winlaw, Cambridge University and Surrey cricketer
- Christopher Dilke, Writer
- Arthur Lionel Pugh Norrington, President of Trinity College, Oxford and originator of the Norrington Table
- Shaun Wylie, mathematician and World War II codebreaker
- Robert Irving, conductor
- Lord Aldington, politician and businessman
- Stormont Mancroft, 2nd Baron Mancroft, Conservative minister
- Kenneth Clark, art historian and broadcaster
- Archibald Wavell, 2nd Earl Wavell, soldier
- Robert Conquest, historian specialising in Stalin's purges
- Monty Woodhouse, Philhellene and Tory politician
- James Joll, historian
- William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, politician
- George Jellicoe, aka Viscount Brocas, soldier-statesman, businessman-diplomat.
- M. R. D. Foot, historian
- Mark Bonham Carter, publisher and politician
- John Latham, artist
- Paul Britten Austin, translator of Swedish literature
- Alfonso of Orleans-Borbón, Duke of Galliera
- Freeman Dyson, physicist and mathematician
- H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins, theoretical chemist and cognitive scientist
- Hubert Doggart OBE, cricketer and schoolmaster
- Michael Dummett, Philosopher
- Geoffrey Howe, Lord Howe of Aberavon, politician
- Martin Beale FRS, applied mathematician and statistician
- John Lucas (philosopher)
- Raymond Bonham Carter, banker
- Robert Shirley, 13th Earl Ferrers, Conservative politician
- Alasdair Milne, former BBC Director General (1982–87)
- George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, Tory MP
- John Eccles, 2nd Viscount Eccles, peer and businessman
- Edward Lucas, philosopher
- Reginald Bosanquet, ITN newscaster of News at Ten
- Julian Mitchell, writer
- David Hannay, Baron Hannay of Chiswick, British Ambassador to the United Nations
- Giles Radice, Baron Radice of Chester-le-Street, Labour politician
- Jonathan D. Spence, historian and sinologist
- Paul Bergne, intelligence officer, linguist and diplomat
- Peter Jay, economist, journalist and ambassador
- Iain Sproat, politician
- Richard Williamson, controversial bishop
- Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, cricketer
- Ambrose Greenway, 4th Baron Greenway, marine photographer
- Shane Gough, 5th Viscount Gough, stockbroker
- Tim Brooke-Taylor, comedian
- Andrew Large, banker and businessman
- Christopher Makins, 2nd Baron Sherfield, diplomat and author
- Patrick Minford, economist
- Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe
- Andrew Longmore, Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal
- Andro Linklater, writer
- George Magan, Baron Magan of Castletown, businessman
- Lord Jay of Ewelme, head of the Foreign Office
- Jonathan Dancy, philosopher
- Christopher Woodhouse, 6th Baron Terrington, urologist and peer
- Antony Beevor, historian
- Richard Noble, designer of the ThrustSSC
- David Clementi, financier
- Christopher Suenson-Taylor, 3rd Baron Grantchester, Labour peer
- Robyn Hitchcock, singer, songwriter
- John Stevens, politician
- Nicholas Shepherd-Barron, mathematician
- Peter Bennett-Jones, TV producer and talent agent
- William Donaldson, writer and satirist; creator of Henry Root
- Nicholas Shakespeare, novelist and journalist
- Wesley Kerr, BBC Newsnight correspondent
- Michael Hofmann, poet
- William Gaminara, actor
- J.G. Sandom, author and interactive advertising pioneer
- John Whittingdale, Conservative MP
- Seumas Milne, aka Seamus Milne, journalist
- Peter Neyroud, police chief
- Patrick Gale, novelist
- Edward Lucas, journalist
- Adrian Adlam, violinist and conductor
- Korn Chatikavanij, banker and politician, Finance Minister of Thailand
- David McCue, founder of McCue Corp
- Joss Whedon, screenwriter and film director
- Lieutenant General James Bucknall, British Army officer
- Saif Ali Khan, actor and son of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (above)
- Alistair Potts, a World Champion cox
- Jon Wright, co-founder of Innocent Smoothies
- Paul Churchill, co-founder of Leslie and Godwin AXL
- Hugh Dancy, actor
- Peter Momtchiloff, pop musician
- Robin Saikia, author and actor
- Braund Reynolds, AKA Ben Braund, pop musician
- Johnny Acton, writer and farmer
- Tom Sturridge, actor
- Johnny Flynn, musician
- Jon Leyne, BBC foreign correspondent
Victoria Cross and George Cross holders
Six Old Wykehamists have won the Victoria Cross, four in the First World War, 1914–18 (of whom three were killed in action) and two prior to 1914. Also in the Second World War one Old Wykehamist won the George Cross in military circumstances and another Old Wykehamist won the George Medal in military circumstances.
Civilian gallantry
Note that the award made to Peter Victor Danckwerts (detailed above under 'Military') was made in a military capacity for gallantry that was not in the face of the enemy, hence it is not repeated here.
Note that the award made to Geoffrey Ambrose Hodges (detailed above under 'Military') was made in a military capacity for gallantry that was not in the face of the enemy, hence it is not repeated here.
Old Wykehamists in fiction
- Peregrine Pickle, in Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
- Francis Arabin, in Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers
- George Bertram, in Anthony Trollope's The Bertrams
- Arthur Wilkinson, also in Anthony Trollope's The Bertrams
- Richard Carstone, in Dickens's Bleak House
- Christopher Dysart, in Somerville and Ross's The Real Charlotte
- A. V. Laider, in Max Beerbohm's Seven Men (and two others). (Possibly: he says "I was at Winchester with Sir Basil", but the point of the story is that he was a pathological liar)
- Alroy Keir, in W. Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale
- Sir Derek Underwood, in P. G. Wodehouse's Jill the Reckless
- Freddie Rooke, also in P. G. Wodehouse's Jill the Reckless
- Sinclair Hammond, in P. G. Wodehouse's Bill the Conqueror
- Collins, in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, "an embryo don ... a man of solid reading and childlike humour." In the television series Charles Ryder is shown wearing an Old Wykehamist tie.
- Antrobus, in Lawrence Durrell's diplomatic trilogy
- Odoreida, in Stephen Potter's Lifemanship books
- James Arrowby, in Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea
- Lieutenant Comber, in George MacDonald Fraser's Flash for Freedom
- Rupert Willem von Starnberg ("Bill") in George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman and the Tiger ("The Road to Charing Cross")
- Captain Edward Bentinct-Boyle in Colditz (TV series) (1972–74), played by Neil Stacy. He catches out a German planted among the prisoners who claimed to be a Old Wykehamist but didn't know his "Notions".
- Edgar Naylor, in Cyril Connolly's The Rock Pool
- Peter Hithersay, in Nicholas Shakespeare's "Snowleg"
- Claude Erskine-Browne (and several minor characters), in John Mortimer's Rumpole series
- Merlyn, in T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone
- Captain Sender in Ian Fleming's The Living Daylights
- Dr Spacely-Trellis, go-ahead bishop of Bevindon in the world of Peter Simple
- Sir Humphrey Appleby, in the TV series Yes Minister
- Mycroft Holmes, in Brian Freemantle's The Holmes Inheritance – brother of Sherlock Holmes
- Sebastian Holmes, in The Holmes Inheritance – son of Sherlock Holmes
- Charles Nantwich and William Beckwith, in Alan Hollinghurst's The Swimming Pool Library
- Larry Pettifer and his controller Tim Cranmer, in John le Carré's Our Game
- Dexter Mayhew, in One Day, a 2009 novel by David Nicholls, and the 2011 film adaptation
References
- Dilke, Christopher, Dr Moberly's Mint-Mark: A Study of Winchester College: London, 1965
- Firth, J. D'E., Winchester College: Winchester, 1961
- Leach, Arthur F., A History of Winchester College: London, 1899
- Sabben-Clare, James, Winchester College: Paul Cave Publications, 1981 ISBN 0861460235