Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College (pronounced {{IPA|}}) was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The refoundation was largely the work of Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII. Audley also gave the College its motto — 'garde ta foy' — keep your faith. Audley's successors in the Mastership and as benefactors of the College were however prone to dire ends; several benefactors were arraigned at various stages on charges of high treason and executed.

Notable old members

• Samuel Pepys (diarist)
• Sir Samuel Morland (diplomat, spy, inventor, mathematician)
• Sir Michael Redgrave (actor)
• George Mallory(mountaineer)
• Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air vice marshal, Battle of Britain)
• Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder (Marshal of the Royal Air Force, World War II)
• John Simpson (journalist)
• Bamber Gascoigne (TV presenter, University Challenge)
• Alan Rusbridger (editor, The Guardian)
• Gavin Hastings OBE (rugby international)
• Charles Stewart Parnell (Irish nationalist)
• Sir Anthony Jay (author, Yes, Minister)
• C. S. Lewis (author and theologian)
• Henry Dunster (first President of Harvard University)
• A C Benson (librettist of Land of Hope and Glory)
• Patrick Blackett (Nobel Prize winning physicist)
• Charles Kingsley (author of The Water Babies and Regius Professor of Modern History)
• Thomas Cranmer (Archbishop of Canterbury and graduate of Jesus College; Fellow of Magdalene)
• Sir F.G.H. Salusbury (Editor of the London Herald, later the last Governor General of the Suez Canal)
• William Donaldson (creator of Henry Root)

Honorary Fellows have included

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• Benjamin Britten
• T.S. Eliot
• Thomas Hardy
• Seamus Heaney
• Rudyard Kipling
• Nelson Mandela