List of Old Cliftonians

This is a list of notable Old Cliftonians, former pupils of Clifton College in Bristol in the West of England.

Academics

John Barron, classicist and Master of St Peter's College, Oxford
Eric Birley, Vindolanda archaeologist, Classical scholar
Simon Blackburn, philosopher, founder of quasi-realism
Frederick S. Boas, English scholar
Horatio Brown, historian
Norman O. Brown, author, philosopher
Charles Alfred Coulson, mathematician and theoretical chemist
G. E. M. de Ste. Croix Classical scholar
Sir Charles Harding Firth, historian
Herbert Paul Grice, philosopher of language
Sir Thomas Little Heath, polymath, civil servant, mathematician, classical scholar, historian of ancient Greek mathematics, translator and mountaineer
Geoffrey Hinton, computer scientist and cognitive psychologist^[1]
Professor Arthur Hutchinson OBE FRS, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge^[2]
Arthur Wilberforce Jose, historian and journalist
John Cowdery Kendrew, biochemist and crystallographer. Winner (joint) of 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Martin Lings, scholar
Patrick McGuinness, academic, critic, novelist and poet
John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart, philosopher
John Pinkerton, designer of world's first business computer, the LEO computer
Harold Arthur Prichard, philosopher
Reginald Punnett, geneticist
Ivor Armstrong Richards scholar, critic, rhetorician author The Meaning of Meaning
Edgar Samuel, Director of the London Jewish Museum
Sir Richard Threlfall, physicist and chemical engineer
Herbert Hall Turner, Professor of Astronomy and seismologist
Conrad Hal Waddington, developmental biologist, palaeontologist, geneticist, embryologist and philosopher
Sir Thomas Herbert Warren, Professor of Poetry and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University
R. P. Winnington-Ingram, scholar of Greek tragedy, Professor of Greek at King's College, London

Public life and the law

Sir John Dyke Acland, 16th Baronet
Sir James Allen, New Zealand politician
Mirza Osman Ali Baig, MBE, Indian Army officer, Pakistani diplomat and statesman, and Secretary-General of CENTO
Michael Bear, Lord Mayor of London 2010/11
Christopher Birdwood, 2nd Baron Birdwood, Conservative member of the House of Lords
Arthur Shirley Benn, 1st Baron Glenravel, KBE Conservative MP.
Leslie Hore-Belisha, Minister of War, 1937–1940
Sir Edward John Cameron, , colonial administrator
Lothian Bonham-Carter, English cricketer, Justice of the Peace and soldier
Sir Edgar Bonham-Carter, CIE Barrister
John Bonham-Carter (1817-1884) Liberal Party Politician
Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton, GCMG, PC
Sir John Biggs-Davison, Conservative politician
Sir Richard Ashmole Cooper, 2nd Baronet, Conservative MP
Viscount Caldecote, Sir Thomas Inskip, lawyer, politician and Lord Chancellor
Alban Dobson, civil servant, secretary of the International Whaling Commission, president of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
Raymond Evershed, 1st Baron Evershed, Master of the Rolls and Law Lord
Geoff Gollop, OBE, Deputy Mayor of Bristol, former Lord Mayor and former Deputy Lord Mayor of Bristol
Jeremy Hackett British fashion designer, founder of Hackett clothing
Sir James Heath Bt, MP North West Staffordshire.
Herbert Hervey, 5th Marquess of Bristol, Diplomat
Sir Thomas Little Heath, Treasury Secretary and scholar and author.
Lord Henley 8th Baron Henley. Tory Politician
Sir Roger Hollis, journalist, secret-service agent and director general of MI5
Syed Fakhar Imam, the 11th Speaker of National Assembly of Pakistan.
Patrick Jenkin, Baron Jenkin of Roding, Conservative politician
Sir John Keane, 5th Baronet, Irish Politician, Senator 1st, 2nd, 3rd Seanad
Neville Laski QC Judge and leader of Anglo Jewry
Sir John May, Judge
Navendu Mishra, Labour MP
Sir Alan Abraham Mocatta, English judge, leader of Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the UK
Edwin Samuel Montagu, Liberal politician
Louis Samuel Montagu, 2nd Baron Swaythling
Sir Max Muspratt, 1st Baronet, Industrialist and Liberal MP
Sir Peter Newsam chairman of Commission for Racial Equality and Inner London Education Authority chief education officer.
Arthur Richards, 1st Baron Milverton GCMG
Hector Sants, head of the Financial Services Authority
Colin Sleeman, Assistant Judge Advocate General, senior defence counsel for Japanese accused of war crimes
Abel Thomas, Welsh Liberal MP
Col. Josiah Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood, brother of Sir Ralph Wedgwood, 1st Baronet, Liberal and Labour, Minister in Ramsay MacDonald government.
Sir Ralph Lewis Wedgwood, 1st Bt
Philip William Wheeldon Bishop of Whitby
Sir Rowland Whitehead, 3rd Baronet KC MP, barrister and politician
John Henry Whitley, Speaker of the House of Commons 1921–1928
Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson, Conservative politician
Baron Wyfold, Colonel Sir Robert Trotter Hermon-Hodge, Bt MP.

Military

Field Marshal Douglas Haig
Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood
Lieutenant General Frederick E. Morgan
Sir Francis Younghusband, British Army officer, explorer, and spiritualist
Sir Hugh Elles KCB KCMG KCVO DSO, general
Sir Charles Bonham-Carter, General of the Territorial Army and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta.
Lieutenant Colonel Oswald Watt, Australian flying ace in First World War
Percy Hobart KBE CB DSO MC, military engineer
Cecil Rawling, CMG CIE DSO FRGS, soldier, explorer and author
Alexander Kearsey, OBE, DSO, soldier, cricketer and military historian
Lothian Bonham-Carter, English cricketer, Justice of the Peace and soldier
Jock Hamilton-Baillie MC
John Whitty, MC DSO
Sir Charles Cuyler, 4th Baronet OBE, soldier and cricketer
Leslie Innes Jacques, CB, CBE, MC, British Army engineer officer^[3]

Holders of the Victoria Cross

Eight Old Cliftonians have won the Victoria Cross, one in the Second Boer War, five in the First World War (1914–1918), one in the Russian Civil War (North Russia Relief Force, 1919), and one in the Second World War.^[4]

Second Boer War:
- Sergeant Horace Robert Martineau VC (at Clifton 1888–1889) (1874–1916). He later achieved the rank of Lieutenant.
First World War:
- Richard Douglas Sandford VC (11 May 1891 – 23 November 1918) was a Royal Navy officer who took part in the Zeebrugge Raid and won the Victoria Cross.
- Captain Theodore Wright, VC (at Clifton 1897–1900) (1883–1914)
- Lieutenant Cyril Gordon Martin, VC, CBE, DSO (at Clifton 1910-1910) (1891–1980). He later achieved the rank of Brigadier.
- Lieutenant Edward Donald Bellew, VC (at Clifton 1897–1900) (1882–1961). He later achieved the rank of Captain.
- Captain George Henry Tatham Paton, VC, MC (at Clifton 1909–1914) (1895–1917)
Russian Civil War:
- Commander Claude Congreve Dobson, VC, DSO (at Clifton 1893–1900) (1885–1940)
Second World War:
- Lance-Corporal John Pennington Harman, VC, (at Clifton 1923–1925) (1914–1944)

Arts and sciences

Literature

C. E. W. Bean, War Correspondent and Official Historian of Australia during the First World War
Joyce Cary, writer
Robin Fedden, writer
L. P. Hartley, author
Robert Smythe Hichens, Author and playwright
Geoffrey Household, author
Clifford Henry Benn Kitchin, author
Tim Mackintosh-Smith, author and television presenter
Alan Noel Latimer Munby, author
Henry Newbolt, poet
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, poet (pseudonym "Q").
George Shipway, novelist
Montague Summers, author, translator, Occultist, scandalous Clergyman and member of Uranian poets- bards of Greco-Roman pederasty.

Drama, theatre and performing arts

John Cleese, Monty Python actor^[5]
Manuel del Campo, film editor, actor, and third husband to Mary Astor
Thorold Dickinson, film director, screenwriter and producer.
Donald Hewlett, actor
John Houseman, actor, director and producer
Trevor Howard, actor
John Inverdale, television presenter^[6]
John Madden, film director
Roger Michell, film & theatre director
Alan Napier, actor
Sir Michael Redgrave, actor
Sir Simon Russell Beale, actor
Chris Serle, television presenter
Simon Shepherd, actor
Tim Sullivan, film and television director and screenwriter
Clive Swift, actor
David Swift, actor
Naunton Wayne, actor
Chris Harris, automotive journalist and television presenter^[7]
Elliot Levey, actor

Music

Joseph Cooper
Scott Ford, musician
John Rippiner Heath, physician and composer
C. S. Lang, organist and composer
Boris Ord, conductor
Ian Partridge, tenor
Harry Plunket Greene
A. J. Potter, composer
Martina Topley-Bird, musician
Peter Tranchell, composer
Sir David Willcocks, conductor
Jonathan Willcocks, composer
Nicky Chinn, songwriter
Kitty Brucknell, singer/songwriter

Education

C.T. Atkinson, tutor in history at Exeter College, Oxford, 1898–1955).
J. R. Eccles, schoolmaster and author^[8]

Fine arts

Roger Fry, artist
Derek Gillman, President of the Barnes Foundation
Peter Lanyon (1918–1964) Cornish painter of Euston Road School.
Henry Tonks, English surgeon, artist, like Fry, Slade Professor of Fine Art

Science

Philip D'Arcy Hart (1900–2006), pioneer in tuberculosis treatment^[9]
Victor Riddell FRCS, cricketer and surgeon
Frank Yates FRS, statistician

Nobel Prize winners

John Kendrew (Chemistry)
John Hicks (Economics)
Nevill Mott (Physics)

Journalism

Sir William Emsley Carr, Chairman of The News of the World
Roger Alton, editor of The Observer
Leigh Brownlee, cricketer and former editor of the Daily Mirror
Francis Wrigley Hirst, editor of The Economist
Hugh Schofield, BBC Paris Correspondent
Steve Scott, ITV newscaster and former ITN foreign correspondent
Richard Stott, journalist
Andrew Wilson, Sky News news presenter and former foreign correspondent

Sports (in alphabetical order)

Cricket, rugby and football

Basil Allen, cricketer, Gloucestershire captain
Joseph Beardsell, cricketer
Lothian Bonham-Carter, English cricketer, Justice of the Peace and soldier
William Brain, English cricketer and footballer
Bernard Brodhurst, cricketer
James Bush Gloucestershire cricketer, England rugby international
Robert Edwin Bush Gloucestershire cricketer
Charles Carnegy , cricketer
A. E. J. Collins, cricketer, world record holder (highest individual score as batsman)
John Daniell, captain of Somerset, England rugby international
David Dickinson, cricketer
Alban Dobson, cricketer
Archibald Fargus, English cricketer, scholar, clergyman
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, England and Exeter Chiefs rugby player
Edwin Field, Middlesex cricketer, England rugby international
Sir Stephen Finney, England rugby international^[10]
W. G. Grace junior, Gloucestershire and MCC cricketer
Paul Green-Armytage, cricketer
George Harrison, cricketer
Hubert Johnston, Scottish cricketer
R. P. Keigwin, England cricketer and hockey player
Sir Kingsmill Key, Bt., captain of Surrey, MCC and England cricketer.
James Kirtley, England cricketer
Ioan Lloyd, Wales and Scarlets rugby player
Leslie Lloyd, cricketer
Meredith Magniac, cricketer
Frank May, cricketer
Thomas Penny, cricketer
Rowland Raw, Royal Navy cricketer
Henry Schwann, cricketer
Dr. Edward Scott, Gloucestershire & MCC cricketer, England rugby international (captain).
Louie Shaw, cricketer
Thomas Stubbs, cricketer
Charlie Townsend, England cricketer
Edward Tylecote, England cricketer
Henry Tylecote, cricketer
William van Someren, cricketer
George Whitehead, England cricketer^[11]
John Whitty, cricketer and British Army officer
Matt Windows, Gloucestershire cricketer and England 'A' cap.

Other

Jerry Cornes, English Olympic runner
Justin Chaston, Welsh athlete who competed at three Olympic Games for Great Britain
Walter Gibb, world record holder (altitude)
Rowley Leigh, English chef
Michael Francis Middleton, Businessman and father of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. Both Middleton's father, Capt. Peter Francis Middleton (d.2010) and his grandfather, solicitor and company director Richard Noel Middleton (d.1951) also boarded at Clifton
Ernest Geoffrey Parsons CVO, CBE, farmer and a commissioner of the crown estates.
William Pollock, English chess master
Lily Owsley, Hockey GB and England
Boris Schapiro, bridge player
Simon Hazlitt, Hockey GB and England

Business

Walter Owen Bentley, founder of Bentley Motors
John Wyndham Beynon, entrepreneur of the fossil fuel and metals industry
Sir Trevor Chinn, Tycoon and Philanthropist
Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, 1st Baronet, business man, chairman of British-American Tobacco Company
Sir Roy Fedden, engineer
Jeremy Hackett, fashion designer and entrepreneur
Patrick Seager Hill T.D. clothing manufacturer, who was a pioneer & developer of safety & fire protective clothing.
Andy Hornby, former Chief Executive of HBOS
Anthony Jacobs, Baron Jacobs, entrepreneur
Sir Horace Kadoorie, industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist
Lord Kadoorie, industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist
Julian Richer, entrepreneur, owner of Richer Sounds
Sir James Swinburne, 9th Baronet, industrialist
Hector Sants, head of the Financial Services Authority
Sir Clive Thompson former Chairman of Farepak and Chief executive of Rentokil Initial
Sir Robert Waley Cohen, industrialist and leader of Anglo-Jewry
Sir Bernard Waley Cohen, business man and Lord Mayor of London
Henry Herbert Wills, tobacco baron and philanthropist
Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson, business man, chairman of GUS
David Wolfson, Baron Wolfson of Sunningdale, politician, businessman, chairman of Next
(( Edward Clarke, Wine merchant and business man))

Fictional

Christopher Tietjens, the protagonist of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End.

References

^ Onstad, Katrina (29 January 2018). "Mr. Robot". Toronto Life. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
^ "Arthur Hutchinson, 1866-1937". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 2 (7): 483–491. 1 January 1939. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1939.0008.
^ Institution of Royal Engineers (1960). "Brigadier L. I. Jacques, CB, CBE, MC" (PDF). Royal Engineers Journal. 74: 102.
^ Bland, R.L., Clifton's V.C.s, Old Cliftonian Society, pp. 57–60
^ A school legend has it that Cleese was expelled. In one version, Cleese used painted footsteps to suggest that the statue of General Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the lavatory. In another version, he was expelled for staging a suicide jump from the Wilson Tower during Commem, shouting, "I can't stand it any longer" to parents coming out of the Chapel before a dummy plummeted to the ground. Although such pranks may have happened, Cleese was not expelled.
^ John Inverdale at bbc.co.uk
^ OC Society, eNewsletter, May 2016 at https://oc-online.co.uk
^ S. G. G. Benson, Martin Crossley Evans, I Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School (James & James, London, 2002), pp. 35-36
^ Draper, Philip; John Skehel (30 August 2006). "Philip D'Arcy Hart". Obituaries. Retrieved 9 May 2008.
^ Edmund Burke, The Annual register of world events: a review of the year, Volume 166, p119, Longmans, Green, 1925
^ George Whitehead at cricinfo.com. Retrieved 25 November 2008

[1] Onstad, Katrina (29 January 2018). "Mr. Robot". Toronto Life. Retrieved 24 December 2023.

[2] "Arthur Hutchinson, 1866-1937". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 2 (7): 483–491. 1 January 1939. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1939.0008.

[3] Institution of Royal Engineers (1960). "Brigadier L. I. Jacques, CB, CBE, MC" (PDF). Royal Engineers Journal. 74: 102.

[4] Bland, R.L., Clifton's V.C.s, Old Cliftonian Society, pp. 57–60

[5] A school legend has it that Cleese was expelled. In one version, Cleese used painted footsteps to suggest that the statue of General Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the lavatory. In another version, he was expelled for staging a suicide jump from the Wilson Tower during Commem, shouting, "I can't stand it any longer" to parents coming out of the Chapel before a dummy plummeted to the ground. Although such pranks may have happened, Cleese was not expelled.

[6] John Inverdale at bbc.co.uk

[7] OC Society, eNewsletter, May 2016 at https://oc-online.co.uk

[8] S. G. G. Benson, Martin Crossley Evans, I Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School (James & James, London, 2002), pp. 35-36

[9] Draper, Philip; John Skehel (30 August 2006). "Philip D'Arcy Hart". Obituaries. Retrieved 9 May 2008.

[Burke-10] Edmund Burke, The Annual register of world events: a review of the year, Volume 166, p119, Longmans, Green, 1925

[11] George Whitehead at cricinfo.com. Retrieved 25 November 2008

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