List of Old Cliftonians

The following is a list of notable Old Cliftonians, former pupils of Clifton College, England.

See also .

Public life and the law

* James Allen, New Zealand politician
* Sir John Biggs-Davison, Conservative politician
* Sir Roger Hollis, journalist, secret-service agent and director general of MI5
* Leslie Hore-Belisha, Minister of War, 1937-1940
* Patrick Jenkin, Baron Jenkin of Roding, Conservative politician
* Edwin Samuel Montagu, Liberal politician
* Hector Sants, head of the Financial Services Authority
* John Henry Whitley, Speaker of the House of Commons 1921-1928
* Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson, Conservative politician
* Christopher Birdwood, 2nd Baron Birdwood, Conservative member of the House of Lords
* Colin Sleeman, Assistant Judge Advocate General and senior counsel for the defence of Japanese soldiers accused of war crimes
* Sir Rowland Whitehead, 3rd Baronet KC MP, barrister and politician

Military

* Field Marshal Douglas Haig
* Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood
* 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 military aviator during the First World War
* Percy Hobart KBE CB DSO MC, military engineer
* Cecil Rawling, CMG CIE DSO FRGS, soldier, explorer and author

Holders of the Victoria Cross

Seven Old Cliftonians have won the Victoria Cross, one in the Second Boer War, four 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. [Bland, R.L., "Clifton's V.C.s", Old Cliftonian Society, pp. 57 - 60]
*Second Boer War:
**Sergeant Horace Robert Martineau VC (at Clifton 1888-1889) (1874 - 1916). He later achieved the rank of Lieutenant.
*First World War:
**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

Literature

* C. E. W. Bean, War Correspondent and Official Historian of Australia during the First World War
* Joyce Carey, writer
* Geoffrey Household, author
* Tim Mackintosh-Smith, author and television presenter
* L. P. Hartley, author
* Clifford Henry Benn Kitchin, author
* Henry Newbolt, poet
* Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, poet (pseudonym “Q”).

Performing arts

* John Cleese, Monty Python actor [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. Alhough such pranks may have happened, Cleese was not expelled. ]
* Sir Michael Redgrave, actor
* John Inverdale, television presenter [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/presenters/inverdale_biog.shtml John Inverdale] at bbc.co.uk]
* Trevor Howard, actor
* Simon Russell Beale CBE, actor
* Clive Swift, actor (e.g Keeping up Appearances)
* David Swift, actor
* Alan Napier, actor
* John Houseman, actor
* Chris Serle, television presenter
* Simon Shepherd, actor
* Roger Michell, film & theatre director
* William Hanson, Broadcaster & Manners Expert

Music

* A. J. Potter, composer
* Boris Ord, conductor
* Peter Tranchell, composer
* Martina Topley-Bird, musician
* Sir David Willcocks, conductor

Fine arts

* Roger Fry, artist

Journalism

* Roger Alton, editor of "The Observer"
* Richard Stott, journalist
* Francis Wrigley Hirst, editor of "The Economist"

Academics

* Sir Richard Threlfall, physicist and chemical engineer
* Conrad Hal Waddington, developmental biologist, paleontologist, geneticist, embryologist and philosopher
* Reginald Punnett, geneticist
* Charles Alfred Coulson, chemist
* Martin Lings, scholar
* Arthur Wilberforce Jose, historian and journalist
* Godfrey Goodwin, scholar
* Herbert Paul Grice, philosopher
* John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart, philosopher
* Simon Blackburn, philosopher, founder of quasi-realism
* Norman O. Brown, author, philosopher
* Sir Charles Harding Firth, historian

Nobel Prize winners

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

ports

* James Kirtley, England cricketer
* Matt Windows, England cricketer
* A. E. J. Collins, cricketer, world record holder (highest individual score as batsman)
* R. P. Keigwin, England cricketer and hockey player
* Edward Tylecote, England cricketer
* William Brain, English cricketer and footballer
* Jerry Cornes, English Olympic runner
* Walter Gibb, world record holder (altitude)

Business

* Walter Owen Bentley, founder of Bentley Motors
* John Wyndham Beynon, entrepreneur of the fossil fuel and metals industry
* Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, 1st Baronet, business man, chairman of British-American Tobacco Company
* Julian Richer, entrepreneur, owner of Richer Sounds
* Hector Sants, head of the Financial Services Authority
* Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson, business man, chairman of GUS

References