Bedford School

:Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Modern School

Notable Old Bedfordians

• James Dennis (1815–1861), palaeontologist and natural historian
• Henry Hawkins, Baron Brampton (1817–1907), barrister and Judge of the High Court of Justice, 1876–1898
• Henry Corbet (1820–1878), agricultural writer and editor
• James Howard (1821–1889), agriculturalist and agricultural implement manufacturer
• Sir Wyndham Dunstan (1861–1949), chemist and Director, Imperial Institute, 1903–1924
• John Platts (1830–1904), Indian and Persian language expert
• Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854–1918), occultist
• Hubert Burge (1862–1925), Headmaster of Winchester College, 1901–1910, Bishop of Southwark, 1910–1919, and Bishop of Oxford, 1919–1925
• General Sir Walter Braithwaite (1865–1945), Adjutant-General to the Forces, 1927–1931
• Sir Walter Langdon-Brown (1870–1946), Regius Professor of Physic, University of Cambridge, 1932–1935
• H. H. Munro (Saki) (1870–1916), short story writer
• Field Marshal Sir Cyril Deverell (1874–1947), Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1936–1937
• Sir Lynden Macassey (1876–1963), engineer and barrister
• Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker (1877–1930), Director-General of Civil Aviation, 1922–1930, and victim of R101 disaster
• Major-General Sir Hubert Huddleston (1880–1950), Commandant, Sudan Defence Force and General Officer Commanding Sudan, 1925–1930, and Governor-General of the Sudan, 1940–1947
• Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett (1882–1945), Air Officer Commanding British Forces in Iraq, 1932–1935, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Royal Air Force Training Command, 1936–1939, and Chief of the Air Staff, Royal Australian Air Force, 1939–1942
• Gilbert Campion, Baron Campion (1882–1958), Clerk of the House of Commons, 1937–1948
• Sir Bernard Reilly (1882–1966), Resident/Chief Commissioner/Governor of Aden, 1931–1940
• Charles Meek (1885–1965), anthropologist
• Marshal of the RAF Cyril Newall, 1st Baron Newall (1886–1963), Air Member for Supply and Organisation, 1935–1937, Chief of the Air Staff, 1937–1940, and Governor-General of New Zealand, 1940–1946
• Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart Blacker (1887–1964), soldier and weapons designer
• Admiral Sir Robert Burnett (1887–1959), Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic, 1944–1946, and Flag Officer Plymouth, 1946–1950
• William Rowan (1891–1957), ornithologist
• Air Vice-Marshal Sir Paul Maltby (1892–1971), Air Officer Commanding Java, 1942, and Black Rod, 1946–1962
• John Dudley North (1893–1968), aircraft designer
• General Sir Sidney Kirkman (1895–1982), General Officer Commanding, 50th Northumbrian Division, 1942–1944, and XIII Corps, 1944–1945, Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1945–1947, and Quartermaster-General to the Forces, 1947–1950
• Sir Percivale Liesching (1895–1973), Permanent Under-Secretary, Ministry of Food, 1946–1948, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, 1949–1955, and High Commissioner in South Africa, 1955–1958
• Sir Karl Parker (1895–1992), art historian and Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, 1945–1962
• Harold Abrahams (1899–1978), sprinter, long jumper, barrister and civil servant
• Jack Beresford (1899–1977), oarsman and coach
• J. D. Bernal (1901–1971), physicist
• Vice-Admiral John Hughes-Hallett (1901–1972), naval officer, amphibious warfare expert and politician
• Sir Bob Dixon (1904–1965), Principal Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary, 1943–1948, UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations, 1954–1960, and Ambassador to France, 1960–1965
• Torin Thatcher (1905–1981), actor
• Marshal of the RAF Sir Thomas Pike (1906–1983), Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, 1953–1956, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Fighter Command, 1956–1959, Chief of the Air Staff, 1960–1964, and Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, 1964–1967
• Charles Dent (1911–1976), physician and biochemist
• Admiral of the Fleet Sir Michael Le Fanu (1913–1970), Director-General, Naval Weapons, 1958–1960, Controller of the Navy, 1961–1965, Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, 1965–1968, and First Sea Lord, 1968–1970
• Joseph Godber, Baron Godber of Willington (1914–1980), Minister of Labour, 1963–1964, and Secretary of State for Agriculture, 1972–1974
• Joe Chamberlin (1919–1978), architect and town planner
• John Fowles (born 1926), author
• Frank Adams (1930–1989), Fielden Professor of Mathematics, University of Manchester, 1964–1970, and Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry, University of Cambridge, 1970–1989
• Michael De-la-Noy (1934–2002), author, journalist and gay rights activist
• Paddy Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon (born 1941), leader of the Liberal Democrats, 1988–1999
• Alastair Cook (born 1984), cricketer