Oriel College, Oxford

Notable Former Students

• Cardinal William Allen - Undergraduate 1547: Principal (St Mary Hall) 1556 - ~1558, Cardinal.
• Thomas Arundel - Undergraduate 1373: Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury. Opposed Richard II and crowned Henry of Bolingbroke as Henry IV.
• Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh - Scottish politician and statesman
• Beau Brummell - Undergraduate 1794: Dandy and arbiter of fashion.
• Joseph Butler - Undergraduate 1715 to 1721: Bishop of Bristol and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral 1740, Bishop of Durham 1750.
• Baron Clements - Irish nobleman and politician.
• Peter Emery - Politician, privy councillor.
• Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron - Undergaudate 1710 to July 1713: friend and patron of George Washington.
• Edmund Fellowes - Undergraduate 1889 to 1892: Music editor/author on 16th and 17th English music.
• James Anthony Froude - English Historian and Regius Professor of Modern History, 1892 to 1894
• George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen - British statesman and businessman.
• William Grant - Scottish politician and judge.
• William Gerard Hamilton - English Statesman, Chief Secretary for Ireland 1761 to 1764.
• Renn Dickson Hampden - Bishop of Hereford 1847.
• James Hannington - Undergraduate 1868 to 1873: Missionary bishop.
• James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury - Foreign Secretary 1852 and 1858 to 1859, Lord Privy Seal 1866 to 1868 and 1874 to 1876.
• Thomas Hughes - Undergraduate 1841 to 1845: Author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, founder member of the Christian Socialists.
• Richard Hughes - British writer of poems, short stories, novels and plays.
• Sir Francis Kynaston - Undergraduate 1601: English courtier and poet.
• Eugene Lee-Hamilton - Late-Victorian English poet.
• J. L. Mackie - Undergraduate 1938 to 1940: Australian Philosopher.
• James Meade - Economist, Nobel Prize award winner.
• Herman Merivale - English civil servant and author.
• Thomas Mozley - English clergyman and writer.
• Baron Normand of Aberdour - Scottish politician and judge.
• Mark Pattison - Undegraduate 1832: English author and rector of Lincoln College, Oxford.
• Reginald Pecock - Bishop of Chichester
• Sir Walter Raleigh - Undergraduate c.1568: Courtier, statesman, scientist, writer, poet, spy, and explorer.
• Cecil Rhodes - Undergraduate 1873, 1876 to 1878, 1881: Politician, businessman and the effective founder of the state of Rhodesia.
• A. L. Rowse - Historian and poet
• Eric Schlosser - American journalist and author.
• Sir William Scroggs - Undergraduate 1639 to c.1640: Lord Chief Justice over the Popish Plot
• W. C. Sellar & R. J. Yeatman - Undergraduates 1919 to 1922: Humourists, authors of 1066 and All That.
• Thomas Sotheron-Estcourt - British politician, Home Secretary 1859.
• J. I. M. Stewart - Scottish author whose pen name is Michael Innes.
• Hugh Edwin Strickland - Undergraduate 1829: English geologist, ornithologist and systemist.
• Ronald Syme - New Zealand-born historian, was the preeminent classicist of the 20th century.
• Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol - Lord Chancellor 1733 to 1737.
• Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot - Industrialist, Liberal Member of Parliament for Glamorgan for seventy years.
• A.J.P. Taylor - Undergraduate 1924 to 1927: Renowned British historian of the 20th century.
• Alexander Todd - Chemist, Nobel Prize award winner.
• Henry Unton - English diplomat, ambassador to Henry IV of France.
• Marcus Walker - Researcher, President of both OUCA and the Oxford Union.
• Joseph Warton - English academic and literary critic.
• Gilbert White - Undergraduate 1739 to 1743, Fellow of the college 1744 to 1793. Pioneering naturalist and ornithologist.
• Samuel Wilberforce - Undergraduate 1823 to 1826: Bishop of Oxford and Winchester. Opposed Darwin's theory of evolution in a famous debate with biologist Thomas Huxley.
• Sandy Wilson - British lyricist and composer of The Boyfriend (1954).
• Michael Wood - Popular British historian, broadcaster and television presenter.