List of presidents of the Oxford Union

Past elected presidents of the Oxford Union are listed below, with their college and the year/term in which they served. Iterum indicates that a person was serving a second term as president.

Presidents of the United Debating Society

These are the Presidents as listed

Presidents of the Oxford Union Society

1826–1850

These are the presidents as listed:

Year	Michaelmas	Hilary	Trinity
1826	—	Hassard Hume Dodgson Digby Wrangham	Richard Durnford E. E. Villiers
1826–27	R. A. Hornby	Norman Hilton Macdonald Douglas Smith Henry Tufnell	J. Pearson Edward Twisleton
1827–28	William Courtenay Herman Merivale	Douglas Smith	Thomas Hobhouse A. Grant
1828–29	Charles Baring	Henry Wilberforce Thomas Acland	H. W. Moncrieff
1829–30	Henry Manning Henry Wilberforce	Sidney Herbert	James Gaskell
1830–31	James Gaskell William Gladstone	James Bruce Joseph Anstice	John Lyall
1831–32	Earl of Lincoln	G. K. Rickards	Roundell Palmer
1832–33	William Ward	Edward Cardwell	Archibald Tait
1833–34	Edward Massie	Robert Lowe Charles Marriott	William Sinclair
1834–35	J. Adams	William Ward	J. M. Capes
1835–36	Edward Cardwell	T. Brancker	John Cornish
1836–37	W. N. Tilson-Marsh	Henry Cripps	G. R. Moncrieff
1837–38	James Hessey	William Ridley	W. C. Lake
1838–39	Henry Highton	G. R. Moncrieff	H. W. Sullivan
1839–40	William Buckley	J. B. Blackett	George Rawlinson
1840–41	C. T. Arnold	R. C. Powles	J. T. B. Landon
1841–42	Richard Congreve	Melville Portal	Drummond Chase
1842–43	Edward Plumptre	George Bowen	W. H. Scott
1843–44	John Coleridge	H. M. White	John Mackarness
1844–45	George Bowen	Alfred Pott	John G. Cazenove
1846–47	Francis Sandford	John Conington	R. J. Simpson
1848–49	S. J. Hulme	C. H. Stanton	Earl of Dufferin W. B. Marriott
1847–48	George Hunt	Walter Congreve	Montagu Blackett
1848–49	G. R. Portal	F. Meyrick	George Boyle
1849–50	William Milman	J. R. K. Ralph	Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen

Other notable officeholders

The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury was Union secretary in Michaelmas 1848.
Harold Macmillan was secretary of the union in Hilary 1914, then junior treasurer in Trinity 1914; but for the war he would "almost certainly" have been president.
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was treasurer in Trinity 1924.
Humayun Kabir was librarian in 1931.
Roy Jenkins served as librarian and secretary and lost two presidential elections.
Norman St John-Stevas was secretary of the Oxford Union but never became president despite his ambition to be the first person to be president of both Oxford and Cambridge Unions; he had been president of the Cambridge Union during his undergraduate years, before he studied at Oxford.
Ann Widdecombe was treasurer in 1972, after having served as secretary the previous year.
Jacob Rees-Mogg was Librarian in 1990, losing the election for the presidency to future Education Secretary Damian Hinds.

In fiction

Simon Kerslake, protagonist of the Jeffrey Archer novel First Among Equals, invites sitting prime minister Winston Churchill to propose the motion during Eights Week that "This House Would Rather be a Commoner than a Lord". His future rival, The Hon. Charles Seymour, listens from the floor and resolves to enter politics also. Archer himself was elected to Standing Committee for one term in 1965.