List of people educated at Westminster School
The following people were educated at Westminster School in London, and are sometimes listed with OW after their name. There are over 900 Old Westminsters listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography so these are necessarily a small sample:
15th century
- John Hygdon, first dean of Cardinal College Christ Church, Oxford
16th century
- Richard Hakluyt, travel writer
- Thomas Braddock, clergyman and translator
- William Alabaster, poet
- Robert Bruce Cotton, antiquarian
- Ben Jonson, poet and dramatist
- Arthur Dee, physician
- Richard Corbet, poet
- Sir Richard Lane, Chief Baron of the Exchequer
- Robert Herrick, poet
- Charles Chauncy, President of Harvard 1654–72
- Henry King, poet
- George Herbert, public orator and poet
17th century
- Jasper Mayne, dramatist
- Thomas Randolph, poet and dramatist
- John Maplet, physician and poet
- Abraham Cowley, poet
- Sir John Baber, physician to Charles II of England
- Richard Lower, pioneering physician
- John Dryden, poet and playwright
- John Locke, philosopher
- Sir Christopher Wren, architect, scientist and co-founder of the Royal Society
- Robert Hooke, scientist and co-founder of the Royal Society
- Thomas Gale, classical scholar and antiquarian
- Henry Aldrich, philosopher
- George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem, Lord Chief Justice of the Bloody Assize, Lord Chancellor
- Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich
- William Taswell, priest and witness to the Great Fire of London
- Lancelot Blackburne, Archbishop of York
- Henry Purcell, composer
- Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, creator of the Bank of England
- James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn, Privy Counsellor
- William King, poet
- Matthew Prior, poet
- Nicholas Rowe, Poet Laureate 1715
- Richard Newton,, founder and principal of the first Hertford College, Oxford
- William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, Cabinet Minister
- John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, statesman and Cabinet Minister
- Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, First Lord of the Treasury 1754–1756, Prime Minister
- James Bramston, satirist
- John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, Lord Privy Seal
- Henry Pelham, First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer 1743–1754, Prime Minister
- John, Lord Hervey, statesman and writer
- John Dyer, poet
18th century
- Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls
- Charles Wesley, Methodist preacher and writer of over 6,000 hymns
- William Beckford, politician, twice Lord Mayor of London
- John Cleland, author of the first erotic novel
- Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
- Robert Hay Drummond, Archbishop of York
- James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, First Lord of the Treasury, Prime Minister for five days in 1757
- Francis Lewis, signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence
- General Thomas Gage, C in C North America, Governor of Massachusetts 1774
- John Burgoyne, Lieutenant-General who surrendered British Army at Saratoga
- Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, Admiral of the Fleet
- Sir William Dolben, 3rd Baronet, MP and campaigner for the abolition of slavery
- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister
- William Cowper, poet and hymnodist
- Henry Constantine Jennings, collector
- Charles Churchill, George Colman the Elder, Bonnell Thornton and Robert Lloyd, satirists and poets; founders of the satirists' Nonsense Club
- Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal impeached but acquitted by Parliament
- Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal
- Richard Cumberland, dramatist
- Welbore Ellis Agar, commissioner of HM Revenue and Customs and art collector
- Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, Prime Minister
- Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, reforming politician
- John Horne Tooke, politician and philologist
- Edward Gibbon, FRS, historian
- William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, Prime Minister
- Arthur Middleton, signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence
- Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, ADC to Washington 1777, defeated by Jefferson in 1804 in contest for Presidency
- Jeremy Bentham, philosopher, lawyer and eccentric
- Archibald James Edward Stewart, 1st Baron Douglas of Douglas ; winner of the Douglas Cause; MP and Lord Lieutenant of Forfarshire
- Edward Hussey, cricketer, sportsman and owner of Scotney Castle in Kent
- Henry William Bunbury, caricaturist
- Thomas Pinckney, American ambassador to Britain
- James Bland Burgess, dramatist and playwright
- Richard Burke Jr., Member of Parliament
- Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, ambassador to Constantinople, bringer of parthenon marbles to Britain
- Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, cavalry and horse artillery officer at Waterloo, where he lost a leg
- James Bruce, Member of Parliament
- Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet, radical parliamentarian and parliamentary reformer
- Robert Southey, Poet Laureate 1813
- Matthew Lewis, dramatist
- Benjamin Hall, Welsh industrialist, father of 1st Baron Llanover
- Henry Fynes Clinton, scholar
- John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton, companion and ally of Byron
- Charles Robert Cockerell, architect, archaeologist, and writer
- FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, lost his right arm at Waterloo, C-in-C in the Crimea
- Sir James Graham, politician
- John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister
- Henry Westenra, 3rd Baron Rossmore, politician and piper
- Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury
- William Mure, scholar and politician
19th century
- John Nelson Darby, Irish clergyman
- Thomas Henry Lister, novelist and first Registrar General
- Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover, Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings responsible for, amongst others, the current Palace of Westminster, likely to have given his name to Big Ben
- Augustus Short, the first Anglican bishop of Adelaide, South Australia
- Zerah Colburn, American child mathematics prodigy
- Sir Robert Joseph Phillimore, Judge of the Arches
- Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, writer
- Sir Charles Dilke, 1st Baronet, reformer, instigator of the Great Exhibition
- Henry Mayhew, reforming and satirical journalist; chronicler of London's poor and founder of Punch
- Sir George Webbe Dasent, author
- Sir Edward Poynter, painter
- Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge, Liberal politician
- Sir Roland Vaughan Williams, Lord Justice of Appeal
- Henry Bull, cricketer
- Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet, Liberal and Radical statesman
- Arthur Lee, cricketer
- Herbert Rawson, England footballer
- Norman Bailey, England footballer
- Oswell Borradaile, cricketer and cricket administrator
- F. W. Bain, writer of fantasy stories
- Percy Dearmer, radical clergyman and liturgist
- Edward Henry Blakeney, poet and classical scholar
- Harry Robert Kempe, electrical engineer, author and editor
- Frederick Ranalow, baritone and actor
- Sir Guy Francis Laking, art historian and Keeper of the London Museum
- Charles Dennis Fisher, classical scholar
- Sir K. A. C. Creswell, architectural historian specialising in Egyptian Islamic architecture
- Jasper Blaxland, consultant surgeon
- Hugh Bompas, first-class cricketer, barrister, First World War aviator and civil servant
- A. A. Milne, author and journalist
- Hussein Ala, Prime Minister of Iran
- Battiscombe Gunn, Egyptologist
- Adrian Stephen, Bloomsbury psychoanalyst
- Henry Tizard, scientist and inventor
- Harry St. John Philby, Arabist, explorer, author, agent
- John Spedan Lewis, founder of employee-owned John Lewis Partnership
- Reginald Hackforth, classical scholar, professor of Ancient Philosophy at University of Cambridge
- R. C. S. Walters, civil engineer, hydrogeologist
- John Colin Campbell, 1st Viscount Davidson, Conservative politician
- Gustav Hamel, pioneer aviator
- Sir Adrian Boult, conductor
- Edgar Adrian, scientist and Nobel Prizewinner
- Francis Turner, cricketer, educator and soldier
- Jack Hulbert, actor
- Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos, Cabinet Minister during World War II, chairman of the National Theatre Board
- Frederick Melville, philatelist
- Guy Chapman, OBE MC, historian
- Meredith Frampton, artist
- Geoffrey Bailey, World War I flying ace
- Leslie Woodgate, choral conductor, composer and writer
- Arthur Foster, cricketer and Royal Army Medical Corp physician
20th century
1900–1949 births
- R. A. Bevan, media pioneer
- Robert Rattenbury, classical scholar and Registrary of the University of Cambridge
- Gregory Dix, liturgical scholar
- C. W. A. Scott, pioneer aviator
- Patrick Hamilton, novelist and playwright
- Sir John Gielgud, actor and director
- Sir John Aitken, Conservative newspaper owner
- H. A. R. "Kim" Philby, agent who defected to USSR 1963
- Professor Sir Richard Doll, CH FRS, epidemiologist
- Pierre Turquet, psychiatrist and Olympic fencer
- Sir Richard Stone, Nobel Prize winner
- Angus Wilson, novelist
- Norman Parkinson, photographer
- Sir William Deakin, historian and literary assistant to Winston Churchill
- John Freeman, Labour politician, broadcaster, diplomat and television chairman
- Jack Simmons, historian
- Henry Young, RAF pilot who took part in Dambusters raid
- Sir Andrew Huxley, FRS, scientist
- Cecil Gould, art historian
- Sir Brian Urquhart, UN undersecretary-general and pioneer of peacekeeping
- Sir Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and director
- Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, performers, writers and musicians
- Neville Sandelson, founder member of the Social Democratic Party
- Michael, Lord Havers, lord chancellor
- Richard Wollheim, philosopher
- Michael Hamburger, translator, poet and literary critic
- Colin Turnbull, anthropologist
- Jean Hewitt, English-American food writer and home economist
- Tony Benn, politician
- Peter Brook, theatre director
- Tristram Cary, pioneering electronic and classical composer
- Anthony Sampson, author, founder member of the Social Democratic Party
- Edward Enfield, broadcaster
- Donald Allchin, theologian
- Sir Crispin Tickell, environmentalist, diplomat and academic
- Nigel, Lord Lawson, former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Anthony Howard, journalist
- Sir Roger Norrington, musician
- Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Orthodox theologian
- Graham Fraser, otolaryngologist
- Simon Gray, playwright
- John Goldman, medical scientist
- William Cookson, literary critic
- Adam Roberts, academic
- Jonathan Fenby, journalist, writer and former editor of The Observer and the South China Morning Post
- Julian, Lord Hunt, climate change writer and Labour peer
- Hugh Davies, pioneering electronic and classical composer
- Sir Peter Bottomley, Conservative politician
- Robin Gill, ethicist
- Peter Asher, musician
- Maqbool Rahimtoola, Pakistani minister of commerce, musician
- Paul Atterbury, broadcaster
- David Carpenter, historian
- William, Lord Bach, Labour politician
- Martyn Poliakoff, scientist
- Ian Patterson, poet and academic
- David, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, President of the Supreme Court
- Andrew, Lord Lloyd-Webber, musician
- Francis Monkman, rock and classical composer
1950–1999 births
- Michael Attenborough, theatre director
- Henry Marsh, neuro-surgeon and author
- Jacek Rostowski, Polish cabinet minister
- Tim Sebastian, television correspondent and interviewer
- Stephen Poliakoff, playwright
- Philip Carr-Gomm, druid and author
- Nigel Planer, novelist and actor
- Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat politician
- Adam Mars-Jones, novelist and critic
- Patrick Wintour, journalist
- Christopher Catherwood, author
- James Robbins, diplomatic correspondent
- Tim Gardam, journalist and educator, former director of Channel 4
- Andrew Graham-Dixon, broadcaster and art historian
- Dominic Grieve, former Attorney-General and pro-European politician
- Dominic Lawson, journalist
- Nicholas Hamblen, Lord Hamblen, Justice of the Supreme Court
- Shane MacGowan, musician
- James Lasdun, poet and novelist
- Thomas Dolby, musician
- Louisa Young, author
- Edward St Aubyn, author
- Tom Holt, novelist
- Timothy Winter, Islamic scholar
- Michael Reiss, Anglican bioethicist
- George Benjamin, composer
- Daisy Goodwin, television producer, poetry anthologist and novelist
- David Heyman, film producer
- Tessa Ross, National Theatre director
- Imogen Stubbs, actress
- John Kampfner, arts director and journalist
- Simon Target, documentary filmmaker
- Geoff Mulgan, academic, former adviser to Gordon Brown and Tony Blair
- Chris Nineham, antiwar activist, founder of anti-Iraq war protest
- Bronwen Maddox, journalist, writer, director of the Institute for Government
- Alexander Beard, arts administrator
- Matt Frei, foreign correspondent
- Ian Bostridge, tenor
- Richard Rutnagur, sportsman
- Michael Sherwood, banker
- Lucasta Miller, literary critic
- Helena Bonham Carter, actress
- Julian Anderson, composer
- Sir Nick Clegg, British Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader
- Noreena Hertz, economist and campaigner
- Jason Kouchak, musician and composer
- Gavin Rossdale, musician and actor
- Alexander Williams, artist and animator
- Richard Harris, composer and pianist
- Ruth Kelly, former Education Secretary and MP
- Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish, TV performers and journalists
- Giles Coren, journalist
- Marcel Theroux, novelist
- Louis Theroux, documentary filmmaker
- Lucy Walker, documentary director
- Tobias Hill, poet and novelist
- Jonathan Yeo, artist
- Dido Armstrong, musician under the name of "Dido"
- Jamie McCartney, artist and sculptor
- Polly Arnold, scientist
- Martha, Baroness Lane Fox, public servant, dot.com entrepreneur and philanthropist
- James Reynolds, BBC Rome Correspondent
- Mike Sergeant,, BBC foreign correspondent
- Helen Whately, politician
- Conrad Shawcross
- Blaise Metreweli, civil servant and Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service
- Christian Coulson, actor
- Pinny Grylls, filmmaker
- Samaya Nissanke, scientist
- Benjamin Yeoh, playwright
- Alexander Shelley, conductor
- Jenny Kleeman, documentary film-maker, journalist and reporter/presenter of Unreported World
- Clemency Burton-Hill, novelist and broadcaster
- Alastair Sooke, art historian and broadcaster
- Alice Eve, actress
- Nick Douwma, musician - DJ under the name "Sub Focus"
- Hassan Damluji, author and international development expert
- Mica Penniman, musician under the name "Mika"
- Anna Stothard, novelist
- Tamsin Omond, environmental activist and campaigner
- Alexander Campkin, conductor and composer
- Grace Chatto, musician
- Sophie Troiano and Marcus Mepstead, Olympic sportspeople
- Alfred Enoch, actor
- Alexander Guttenplan, captain of winning University Challenge team 2010
- Jack Aitken, racing driver
- Blondey McCoy, artist and fashion designer