Merton College, Oxford

Notable former Mertonians

This list of Merton Fellows and alumni is grouped into centuries; where the person's life spans more than one century, the (approximate) date of matriculation is used, and given in brackets when known). The names are alphabetical by surname within each group.

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Medieval

• Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor, Bishop of Rochester (Founder)
• Archbishop Thomas Bradwardine, theologian and astronomer (1321)
• John Wycliffe, theologian (1356)
• John Duns Scotus, theologian and philosopher
• William of Ockham, philosopher

16th century

• Sir Thomas Bodley, diplomat, scholar, and librarian (1563)
• Sir Henry Savile, scholar and statesman (1565)

17th century

• John Bainbridge, astronomer (c1610)
• Admiral Robert Blake, military comander and MP for Bridgewater (1615)
• William Harvey, physician (1645)
• Richard Steele, politican and writer (1691)
• Anthony Wood, antiquary

19th century

• Sir Max Beerbohm, author and caricaturist (1890)
• F. H. Bradley, philosopher
• Mandell Creighton, historian and Bishop of London (1862)
• Lord Randolph Churchill, British statesman (1867)
• F. E. Smith, British statesman (1896, at Merton as a graduate)
• Frederick Soddy, radiochemist and Nobel Laureate for chemistry (1895)
• Lord Halsbury, Lord Chancellor, compiler of the Laws of England (1842)

20th century (matriculated before 1960)

• Theodor Adorno, philosopher, sociologist, musicologist, and art critic (1934)
• Sir Lennox Berkeley, composer (1922)
• Sir Roger Bannister, middle-distance runner and neurologist (1950)
• Sir Basil Blackwell, bookseller and publisher (1907)
• Edmund Blunden, Professor of Poetry (1931)
• Frank Bough, broadcaster
• John Carey, Merton Professor of English
• Leonard Cheshire, RAF pilot and philanthropist (1936)
• T. S. Eliot, poet and Nobel Laureate for literature (1914)
• Andrew Irvine, mountaineer (1921)
• Sir Jeremy Isaacs, broadcaster and impressario
• Philip Jones, musician
• Kris Kristofferson, actor and musician
• Professor Anthony Leggett, physicist, Nobel Laureate in physics (1959)
• John Lucas, philosopher (JRF 1953, Fellow 1960)
• Louis MacNeice, poet (1926)
• Reginald Maudling, politician
• Airey Neave, politician
• Reynolds Price, poet
• Sir George Radda, scientist
• Siegfried Sassoon, war poet (at Merton as a graduate)
• Howard K. Smith, journalist and broadcaster
• Professor Niko Tinbergen, ethologist (1949)
• J. R. R. Tolkien, author and Merton Professor of English (1945)
• Angus Wilson, author

Contemporary (matriculated since 1960)

• James Clark, open source software developer
• Mark Haddon, author (1981)
• Sir Tony Hoare, computer scientist
• Tim Jackson, auctioneer
• Alec Jeffreys, geneticist
• HIH Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan
• David Parkinson, broadcaster (Former college barman)
• Michael Ridpath, author
• Dana Scott, logician
• Sir Howard Stringer, businessman, next chief of Sony
• Mark Thompson, broadcaster, director general of the BBC
• Professor Sir Andrew Wiles, mathematician (1971)