Old Reds

Rhodes scholars

Academia and education

• Herbert Basedow, Anthropologist, geologist, explorer, politician
• C. J. Coventry, social historian
• , professor of physiology
• , educationist
• Sir Brian Hone OBE FACE, Headmaster – Cranbrook School NSW and Melbourne Grammar School Vic
• David Horner, military and official historian
• , Harvard Business School economist, Marxist and life-long friend of King O'Malley
• , librarian, archivist and historian,
• , headmaster and freemason grand master
• Russel Ward, Marxist historian
• , headmaster of Adelaide High School
• , science and mathematics teacher

Business and agriculture

• Sir, insurance broker and commission merchant, chaired the 1932 advisory committee on unemployment
• , winemaker and councillor
• , businessman and arbitrator
• , pastoralist and sheep breeder
• Tim Cooper, CEO of Coopers Brewery
• Glenn Cooper, Executive Chairman of Coopers Brewery
• , CEO of John Darling and Son, chairman of the board of B.H.P, founding member of the Institute of Public Affairs.
• Sir Hugh Robert Denison, tobacco manufacturer, newspaper proprietor and member of the House of Assembly SA and NSW.
• Sir, mining metallurgist and manager, public servant, industrialist and publicist,
• , businessman, electrician and philanthropist
• Robert Gerard, businessman, previously Chairman of Gerard Industries
• , prolific businessman and key figure in Santos Ltd
• Howard Frederick Hobbs, inventor of automatic transmission
• Sidney Edwin Hocking, newspaper proprietor
• Sir Edward Holden, Founder of Holden, vehicle manufacturer
• Sir, banker and anti-communist campaigner
• Norman William Jolly, forester
• , agricultural industry representative
• Sir, pastoralist
• , woolbroker
• Sir, woolbroker
• , bookseller and publisher
• , winemaker and viticulturist, CEO of Seppeltsfield, president of the South Australian Chamber of Manufactures and of the Associated Chambers of Manufactures of Australia
• Greg Siegele, Co-founder of Ratbag Games Pty Ltd
• Sir, wheat-farmer and grazier
• , newspaper-owner, Christian Socialists and White Australia advocate
• William Edward Wainwright, mining and metallurgical engineer, government adviser

Clergy

• , Congregational minister and early advocate for the Uniting Church
• Ernest Henry Woollacott, Methodist minister, president of the State committee of the World Council of Churches and a founder of Westminster School, Adelaide

Entertainment and the arts

• Sir John Ashton, OBE, ROI, Painter and Director of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Charles Baeyertz, publisher of The Triad, critic and broadcaster
• Chris Bailey, bass guitarist with ARIA award-winning Australian Bands 'The Angels' and 'GANGgajang'
• Gustave Adrian Barnes, artist
• David Basheer, association football commentator and analyst
• , horticultural sketcher and industrialist
• John Henry Chinner, caricaturist and PAC board member
• Norman Chinner, organist and conductor
• Sir Thomas Melrose Coombe, businessman, film exhibitor and philanthropist
• Bob Francis, radio presenter, FIVEaa
• Robert Hannaford, AM, portrait painter and sculptor
• Sir Ivor Hele, war artist and prolific portraitist
• Sir Robert Helpmann, CBE, Ballet dancer, actor, director and choreographer
• Laurence Hotham Howie, artist and teacher, president of the South Australian Society of Arts in 1927-32 and 1935-37
• Reginald Charles (Rex) Ingamells, poet and editor
• Graham Jenkin, poet, composer and historian
• Hayley Lever, painter
• Adam Liaw, lawyer and winner of 2010 MasterChef Australia
• Rex Heading, the creator of Humphrey B. Bear whose show won two Logies; former managing director of Channel Nine

Exploration

• Duncan Chessell, Mountaineer
• Cecil Madigan, explorer, Geologist, Rhodes Scholar, University Lecturer
• Andrew Martin, Marathon swimmer, first recorded solo crossing of the treacherous Backstairs Passage between Cape Jervis and Kangaroo Island.

Judiciary, civic leadership and public service

• Hugh Thomas Moffitt Angwin, engineer and public servant
• Harold Boas, Perth architect, town planner and Jewish community leader
• Edward Erskine Cleland, barrister and justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia
• , magistrate
• Sir Russell John Dumas, public servant and engineer
• , forester, public servant, and government-enterprise manager
• Elliott Johnston, Justice of the South Australian Supreme Court and the only openly communist judge in Australian history, Commissioner of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
• Alexander Melrose, solicitor, writer and patron of the arts
• , chief judge of the Arbitration Court 1941-47
• Sir Herbert Angas Parsons, Justice of the Supreme Court of SA, member of the House of Assembly
• Sir Geoffrey Reed, judge in the Supreme Court of South Australia, first Director-General of ASIO

Politics

Federal

• Cory Bernardi, Senator for South Australia from 2006 to 2020
• Gordon Bilney, Labor member of the House of Representatives, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel from 1990 to 1993, Minister for Development Cooperation and Pacific Island Affairs from 1993 to 1996, OECD official, High Commissioner to the West Indies
• Grant Chapman, Member for Division of Kingston and Senator for South Australia
• John Chapman, Country Party senator for South Australia
• David Combe, National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party from 1973 to 1981.
• David Fawcett, Liberal Senator for South Australia, former assistant minister for defence
• Joel Moses Gabb, Labor then independent member of the House of Representatives
• Clive Hannaford, Liberal and independent senator for South Australia from 1950 to 1967.
• , politician, farmer and columnist, Nationals MP 1958-77, minister of works, minister of the navy
• Sir, member of the House of Representatives, minister of defence 1950-58
• Horace Keyworth Nock, Country Party member of House of Representatives
• Rex Pearson, Liberal senator for South Australia
• Nick Xenophon, Senator for South Australia from 2008 to 2017.
• Sir Harold Young, senator for South Australia, President of the Senate from 1981 to 1983.

State

• Sir John Lavington Bonython, editor of The Advertiser, Lord Mayor of Adelaide
• Francis Cotton, founding member of the NSW Labor Party, unionist, later Free Trade politician
• John Lancelot Cowan, Member for the District of Southern Districts in the South Australian Legislative Council
• Fraser Ellis, Independent member of the House of Assembly
• Edward Allan Farquhar, Councillor, Alderman and Chair of Finance on the Port Adelaide City Council
• Charles Glover, first Lord Mayor of the City of Adelaide
• Hermann Robert, member of the Legislative Council, two-time SA attorney-general, minister for industry
• Sir Shirley Williams Jeffries, SA attorney-general, minister of education, and minister of industry and employment.
• George Richards Laffer, minister and Speaker of the House of Assembly
• Nick McBride, independent member of the Legislative Assembly
• Sir Alexander Lyell McEwin, member of SA parliament 1934-1975, chief secretary, minister for mines, minister for health
• Major-General Sir Newton Moore KCMG, eighth Premier of Western Australia, World War I general, member of the UK House of Commons
• Sir Frank Tennyson Perry, member of the legislative council, industrialist, wartime public servant.
• Robert Thomson Robinson, WA attorney-general, minister for mines, minister for industry
• Crawford Vaughan, Premier of South Australia 1915-17
• John Howard Vaughan, union leader and Attorney-General of South Australia
• Sir Frederick William Young, member of the South Australian House of Assembly 1902-05 and 1909-15, commissioner of crown lands and immigration in 1912-14, South Australian agent-general in London 1915-18, member of the House of Commons 1918-22.

Medical, mathematics, natural and social sciences

• Herbert Basedow, anthropologist, geologist, explorer, politician
• Isaac Herbert Boas, botanist
• Roger Brissenden Deputy Director, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
• Henry Brose, physicist, translator, pathologist, biochemist, academic, Rhodes Scholar
• Thomas Draper Campbell, professor of dentistry and anthropologist
• , medical scientist and paediatrician
• Charles Chewings, geologist and anthropologist
• Sir Raphael Cilento, medical practitioner and public health administrator
• Sir John Burton Cleland, CBE, Naturalist, microbiologist, mycologist, ornithologist, Professor of Pathology
• Sir Darcy Rivers Warren Cowan, medical practitioner
• , psychiatrist
• Hugo Flecker, medical practitioner, radiotherapist, toxicologist and natural historian
• Henry Fry, DSO, Physician, anthropologist, Rhodes Scholar
• Bill Griggs, AM, ASM, doctor
• Herbert Mathew Hale, Director of the South Australian Museum
• Brian Kenneth Hobbs, doctor
• Frank Sandland Hone, medical practitioner
• , medical practitioner and soldier
• Lionel Logue, CVO, speech therapist who successfully treated King George VI's stammer, portrayed in The King's speech
• , physicist
• , botanist and geneticist
• Howard Rayner, doctor
• Brian Sando OAM, sports doctor for the Adelaide Football Club, Redlegs and Australian Olympics team.
• , medical practitioner and army medical officer
• , surgeon and photographer
• Con Stough, Professor of Psychology – Swinburne University
• John Burnard West, respiratory physiologist
• John Raymond Wilton, Elder Professor of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide.
• Traugott Bernhard Zwar, surgeon

Military

• , air force officer and city inspector
• Major General Steve Gower AO, Director of the Australian War Memorial 1996–2011
• , air force officer
• Major-General Sir Newton Moore KCMG, eighth Premier of Western Australia, World War I general, member of the UK House of Commons 1918-23, 1924-34.
• John Alexander Raws, journalist and WW1 diarist, killed in action 23 August 1916 at Pozieres – no known grave
• Lieutenant Leonard Taplin, DFC, World War fighter ace, pioneer aerial photographer and aerial cartographer
• Captain Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell, VC, soldier, farmer
• , soldier and auctioneer

Sports

Cricket

• Greg Blewett
• Greg Chappell, MBE, Australian captain 1975–1977, 1979–1983
• Ian Chappell, Australian captain 1971–1975
• Trevor Chappell
• Joe Darling, CBE, Australian captain 1899–1902, 1902–1903, 1905
• Rick Darling
• Simon Douglas Fry
• Clem Hill, Australian captain 1910–1912
• Tim May
• Howard Rayner
• Paul Rofe
• James Smith
• Ashley Woodcock

Australian rules football

• Edward Charles Atkins Norwood, Sturt, West Perth, East Fremantle
• Zac Bailey, Brisbane Football Club 2018– ; AFL premiership player 2024
• Kade Chandler, Melbourne Demons 2019–
• Riley Bonner, Port Adelaide Football Club 2016–2023 ; St. Kilda Football Club 2024 - Total: 112 Games, 14 Goals
• James Borlase, Adelaide Crows 2021–
• Mitch Crowden, Fremantle Football Club 2018–2022
• Peter Dalwood, Norwood, Fitzroy 1945, South Australia
• Peter Darley South Adelaide ; premiership winners 1964, captain 1967–1969, 1971. 7 times best and fairest, leading goalkicker 1974
• Rick Davies South Australia ; SANFL: Sturt, South Adelaide ; VFL: Hawthorn 1981
• Sam Day, Gold Coast Suns 2011–2024 ; Brisbane Lions 2025-; Inaugural member of the Gold Coast Suns
• Aaron Francis, Essendon Football Club ; Sydney Swans 2023-
• George Hewett, Sydney Swans Football Club 2016–2021 ; Carlton Blues 2022-
• Wayne Jackson, CEO of the AFL
• Craig Kelly, Collingwood
• Ed Lower, North Melbourne Kangaroos 2006–2010
• Nick Lower, Port Adelaide 2006–2009 ; Fremantle Dockers 2011–2012 ; Western Bulldogs 2013 – Total
• Rodney Maynard, Adelaide Crows
• Kane McAuliffe Richmond Football Club 2023-
• Ian McKay, North Adelaide ; South Australia ; 1950 Magarey Medalist.
• John Mossop, Geelong 1979–1986 ; North Melbourne 1987–1988 – Total ; Carji Greeves Medalist 1982
• Kysaiah Pickett - Melbourne Football Club 2020–; AFL premiership player 2021
• David Pittman, Adelaide Crows 1992–1999 ; 2× AFL premiership player 1997, 1998
• Loch Rawlinson West Coast Eagles 2023-
• Kym Russell, Collingwood Magpies 1991
• Scott Russell, Collingwood Magpies 1990–1998 ; Sydney Swans 1999 – Total ; AFL premiership player 1990
• Luke Pedlar Adelaide Crows 2021-
• Harry Schoenberg, Adelaide Football Club 2020–
• Tom Sparrow Melbourne Football Club 2019–; AFL premiership player 2021
• Luke Tapscott, Melbourne Demons 2011–2014
• Jack Trengove, Melbourne Demons, Captain of Melbourne FC, youngest Captain in VFL/AFL history
• Bernie Vince, Adelaide Crows 2006–2013 Melbourne Demons 2014–2018 – Total ; 2009 Malcolm Blight Medalist, 2015 Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medalist
• Jack Viney, Melbourne Demons 2013– Co-Captain ; AFL premiership player 2021; 2x Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medalist 2016 & 2024
• Tim Weatherald Sturt and Norwood Football Club (SANFL), Magarey Medallist 2002
• Tex Wanganeen Essendon Football Club 2022-2024

Association football

• John Hall, Western Sydney Wanderers and Olyroos

Rowing

• Dr. Matthew Bolt, former Australian Under 23 Rower, stroke of the 2011 Bronze medal winning South Australian Kings Cup crew, member of 2012 Bronze medal winning Kings Cup crew, former Captain of Adelaide University Boat Club
• Alexander Hill, Current Australian Rowing Team member, Olympic Silver Medallist M4–, World Cup Medallist, Australian Under 23 Rower, 2011/2012 Bronze medal winning Kings Cup crew member, former Under 19 World Champion
• Brian Richardson, former Olympic Rower, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980

Noted members of staff

Headmasters

• William Bayly
• John Anderson Hartley,

Teachers

• , art
• Sir Frederick William Holder
• , gymnastics
• Martin McKinnon, history
• , English
• Richard Sanders Rogers, science
• , science and mathematics

Governors

• , judge
• , clergyman

Foundation council

• , businessman and philanthropist

Founders and early figures

• Sir John Colton, Premier of South Australia
• George Witherage Cotton, politician, land dealer and Christian Socialist
• Sir Thomas Elder, businessman, pastoralist and public benefactor
• Daniel Garlick, architect
• William McMinn, surveyor and architect
• T. G. Waterhouse, businessman, investor and philanthropist
• , Wesleyan minister