List of Old Bedford Modernians

The following is a list of some notable Old Bedford Modernians who are former pupils of Bedford Modern School in Bedford, England. At the school, alumni are known as OBMs. The Old Bedford Modernians' Club was founded in 1892.

Academia

Sir William Augustus Tilden FRS, Chemist & Dean, Royal College of Science, London
Professor Joseph Reynolds Green FRS FLS, Professor of Botany to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
Professor William Hillhouse FLS, first Professor of Botany at the University of Birmingham
Edward Mann Langley, founded the Mathematical Gazette, created Langley's Adventitious Angles
William Robert Bousfield FRS, chemist
Professor John Holland Rose FBA, Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge
George Charles Crick FGS FRGS FZS, geologist, authority on Cephalopoda, 1st Assistant at the Natural History Museum
Arthur John Pressland FRSE, educational theorist, linguist, schoolmaster and writer
George James Gibbs FRAS, astronomer, engineer, inventor and public science lecturer
Professor Richard John Durley MBE, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University
Edward Augustine Lowe Laxton MBE, expert on fruit production
Professor Henry Payne FRAeS M.Inst.C.E., Professor of Engineering at the University of Melbourne
Jannion Steele Elliott, ornithologist
Dr Eric Temple Bell, mathematician who specialised in number theory and formulated the Bell series
Sir Charles Oatley OBE FRS FREng, pioneered the development of the scanning electron microscope
Dr. G. C. Dunning D.Lit FSA, pioneering medieval archaeologist, authority on Anglo-Saxon and medieval ceramics
Professor William Francis Grimes CBE, Professor of Archaeology, University of London
Reverend Francis MacCarthy Willis Bund, Chaplain, Dean and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford
Dr D. C. Riddy CBE, Controller-General of the Education Branch, Control Commission for German – British Element
F. G. Emmison MBE FSA FRHistS, archivist, author and historian
Professor John Roach, historian
Professor Ramsay Shearman DSc [Fellow of the British Royal Family|Royal Academy of Engineering|FReng] FIET FRMetS FIEEE, pioneer in shortwave radio and radar
Professor Brian Glüss FRSS, statistician, mathematician, systems engineer, author and expert on survivor guilt
Professor John Richard Anthony Pearson FRS FIMMM MIChemE, pioneer in fluid mechanics
Professor David John Bartholomew FBA, Professor of Statistics at the LSE
Professor Philip Bean, Professor of Criminology at Loughborough University, former President of the British Soc. of Criminology
Professor George Richard Pickett FRS, Professor of Low Temperature Physics at Lancaster University
Professor Sid Gray PhD FASSA FCCA, Professor at the University of Sydney Business School
Professor Richard Hugh Britnell FBA, Professor of History at Durham University
Sir Peter Knight FRS, Professor of quantum optics at Imperial College London
Professor Stephen Wildman, Professor of the History of Art at Lancaster University
Dr. Roger Geoffrey Clarke, ornithologist, world authority on harriers and other birds of prey
Professor Barry H.V. Topping MBCS MICE MIStructE MIMechE FIMA, authority and author on computational mechanics
Professor Stephen Taylor, Professor of Finance at Lancaster University
Professor Richard Charles Murray Janko, Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan
Professor Brian Derby FIMMM, Professor of Materials science at Manchester University
Professor Gavin D'Costa, Professor in Catholic Theology at the University of Bristol
Professor Tom Inns, Director of Glasgow School of Art
Professor Nick Groom FRSA, Professor of English Literature at the University of Macau and author
Professor Tony Claydon, Professor of Early Modern History at Bangor University, Wales
Dr Peter David Wothers MBE FRSC, chemist and Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
Professor Ben McFarlane, Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford

Actors, directors and entertainers

E. E. Blake, pioneering exhibitor of motion pictures and owner of cinemas
Harrish Ingraham, Hollywood film director, writer and actor in the era of silent movies
Gillie Potter, comedian and broadcaster
Reginald Berkeley, playwright and screenwriter in Hollywood
Robert Luff CBE, theatrical agent and producer
Derek Scott, double act and music director
David Tringham, film director
Hugh Armstrong, actor
David Firth, actor, screenwriter, singer
John Sessions, actor, comedian and broadcaster
Julian Hector, head of the BBC Natural History Unit
Saul Nassé, producer for the BBC
Russell Barnes, television producer
David Jubb, theatre director and chief executive of the Battersea Arts Centre
Russell Howard, comedian and presenter
Leon Parris, writer, composer, musician and actor
Jeremy Irvine, UK and Hollywood actor
Sope Dirisu, stage, television and film actor
Suhani Gandhi, model and actress

Adventurers, aviators, exiles and prisoners of war

John Percy Farrar DSO FGS, mountaineer, President of the Alpine Club, Member of the Mount Everest Committee
Sir Reginald Wolseley, 10th Baronet, dubbed the elevator baronet
Captain and Bimbashi Henry Haymes SBStJ MRCS LRCP, surgeon, an original explorer of the Bahr-el-Ghazal
George E.M. Kelly, early aviator in the Aeronautical Division, US Signal Corps
Captain Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh, Antarctic explorer, commander of the Ross Sea party expedition
W.A.B. Goodall, castaway, described as 'the ruler of the world's tiniest kingdom': Pulau Sarimbun, Straits of Johore
Duncan Mackintosh, 31st Chattan, 31st Chief of Clan Chattan
Wilfrid Thomas Reid FRAeS, aircraft designer and pioneer of the Canadian aircraft industry
P.C.B. Newington, author of a cookbook celebrating Malaysian food, conceived while starving as a prisoner of war
Frederick Williamson CIE, explorer, founder member of the Himalayan Club
Captain Richard 'Dick' Howe MBE MC, Escape Officer at Colditz Castle during World War II
Desmond 'Dizzy' de Villiers AFC, chief test pilot at de Havilland and English Electric

Architecture, art and design

Josiah Conder, architect who designed the Rokumeikan and other public buildings in Tokyo
Henry John Sylvester Stannard RBA FRSA, watercolour artist
Sydney Morgan Eveleigh, architect in Vancouver
Major Hugh Patrick Guarin Maule DSO MC FRIBA, architect
George Loraine Stampa, artist, contributor to Punch and other illustrated papers and magazines
Walter Stonebridge FRIBA, Diocesan Architect for Ely, St Albans and Bedford
Algernon Winter Rose MC, architect
Kenneth Alexander, photographer for United Artists, Samuel Goldwyn Productions and 20th Century Studios
Robert Tor Russell CIE DSO, Chief Architect to the Government of India
Thomas Francis Ford FRIBA, Diocesan Architect for Southwark and a translator of the New Testament
Alexander Girard, textile designer and interior architect
Victor Farrar RIBA PPFAS FRSA, architect
Dennis Sharp, architect, professor, curator, historian, author and editor
Peter Forster, wood engraver
Steve Gibbons, graphic designer
Alex Chinneck MRSS, installation artist

Armed forces

Industry and commerce

John Howard, industrialist, inventor of agricultural equipment and four times Mayor of Bedford
James Howard, industrialist and inventor of agricultural equipment. MP for Bedford
Sir Frederick Howard DL JP, industrialist
Captain Charles Wells, founder of Charles Wells Ltd, progenitor of the Wells baronets of Felmersham
Sir George Farrar, 1st Baronet, mining magnate, politician and soldier
Lt. Col. Henry Batten Huddleston OBE VD, Chief Agent and later a Director of the Burma Railways
Hon. Walter Nutt OBE, managing director of The Straits Trading Company
Sir Noel Mobbs KCVO OBE, founder of Slough Estates and High sheriff of Buckinghamshire
E. E. Blake, Chairman of Kodak UK
E. E. Cammack AIA FAIA FCAS, prominent actuary in the USA
William Pickwoad OBE FRSA, prominent in South America's railway industry. Founding director of the Central Bank of Bolivia
W. T. Godber CBE, authority on agriculture and agricultural engineering
Sir Henry Cecil Johnson KBE, chairman of the British Railways Board
Alastair George MacKenzie CBE MC, prominent figure in South East Asian insurance during the 1960s and 1970s
Francis Coulson MBE, chef and hotelier
Edward Roy Kent CBE, estate owner and agriculturalist in the Caribbean
Lt.-Col. Ray Daniels MC, Chief Executive of the William Press Group
Max Wideman, expert in project management
Sir Anthony Hartwell, 6th Baronet, Master mariner and Marine surveyor
John Quenby, Chief Executive of the RAC Motor Sports Association
Andrew Stuart Winckler, Chief Executive of the Financial Services Authority
Adrian Penfold OBE MRTPI FRSA, Head of Planning at British Land, adviser to the UK Government
Graham Clive Watts OBE MCMI FRSA FRIBA, Chief Executive of the Construction Industry Council
Richard Bradbury CBE, Chief Executive of River Island, director of Boden
Angus Knowles-Cutler, senior partner at Deloitte
Steve Melton, Chief Executive of Exemplar Health Care
Nick Blofeld, managing director of Epsom Downs Racecourse, Chief Executive of Bath Rugby
Marcus Weldon, 13th President of Bell Labs

Journalism

William Fairbridge JP, founder of the Rhodesia Herald and the Bulawayo Chronicle, first mayor of Salisbury
Leonard Dudeney, newspaper editor and parliamentary correspondent
Albert Powtrill Ager, editor, manager and publisher of The Straits Times
Gaston Hanet Archambault, correspondent at The New York Times
Lindsay Bashford OBE, Literary Editor of the Daily Mail
Richard Capell OBE MM, music critic for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph
George Matthews, leading communist and editor of the Daily Worker/''Morning Star from 1959 to 1974
Eric Litchfield, sports editor of The Rand Daily Mail, the Cape Times and author
Jon Akass, Fleet Street columnist
Sir Nicholas Lloyd, newspaper editor, News of the World and the Daily Express
Michael Toner, leader writer at the Sunday Express and Daily Mail''. Author and novelist
Christopher Wilson, journalist and Royal biographer
Nicholas Shaxson, author, journalist and associate fellow of Chatham House
Ben Anderson, television reporter, journalist and writer

Law

Alfred Clare, District Registrar of the High Court of Justice
William Robert Bousfield KC FRS, expert on patent law
Sir William Tudball. Puisne judge of the High Court of Allahabad
Sir Sidney Abrahams KC, Chief Justice of Tanganyika and Ceylon
Sir Clement Thornton Hallam, Solicitor to the General Post Office
Dr James Mould QC, Queen's Counsel, Bencher of Gray's Inn and a Fellow of University College London
Rowland Thomas Lovell Lee, Recorder of the Crown Court
Stephen John Wooler CB, HM Chief Inspector to the Crown Prosecution Service
Nicholas Stewart KC, King's Counsel, Bencher of the Inner Temple and Deputy High Court Judge
Hon. Tim Lord KC, King's Counsel and Bencher of the Inner Temple

Literature

William Hale White, author known by his pseudonym Mark Rutherford
Neil Wynn Williams, novelist, writer and contributor of short stories and articles to periodicals and journals
George Moreby Acklom, writer, literary editor of E.P. Dutton, father of the Hollywood actor David Manners
Sir Henry Howarth Bashford, author of Augustus Carp, Esq. and several other satirical novels
Eric Temple Bell,, science fiction author
David Scott Daniell, author, playwright and regimental historian
Christopher Fry, poet and playwright. Awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1962
Gordon Thomas, investigative journalist and author
John Andrews, author and antiques writer
David Morse, author on Motown, Romanticism and the Victorian era
Russell Ash, author
S.I. Martin, author, historian and journalist specialising in Black British history and literature
Stephen May, novelist, playwright and TV writer
Toby Litt FRSL, author