List of alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in England. Its alumni include politicians, lawyers, bishops, poets, and academics.

Among politicians, the college's alumni include heads of government (Jan Smuts of South Africa and John Kotelawala of Sri Lanka), as well as several parliamentarians from various countries. Notable scientists, including Charles Darwin and J. Robert Oppenheimer, as well as Nobel laureate Duncan Haldane have studied at the college. Sportspersons associated with the college include several Olympic medalists.

Alumni

The sub-headings are given as a general guide and some names might fit under more than one category.

Abbreviations used in the following tables

• DNG – Did not graduate: left the college without taking a degree

Degree abbreviations

• Undergraduate degree: BA – Bachelor of Arts
• Postgraduate degrees:
  • MA – Master of Arts
  • MPhil – Master of Philosophy

Arts

Name	Degree	Notability	Ref
Anthony Caro			[1]
Tom de Freston			[2]
Phillip King			[3]

Business

Name	Degree	Notability	Ref
Ian Cheshire			[4]
Jonathan Galassi			[5]
David Ross Granger			[6]
Yusuf Hamied			[7] [8]
Mike Lynch			[9]
Martin Sorrell			[10]

Humanities and social sciences

Name	Degree	Notability	Ref
J. W. Burrow		Historian
Percy Gardner	BA 1869		[11]
Harinath De		Indologist, polyglot	[12]
John Leland		Antiquary	[13]
Madhavan_K._Palat		Historian
John H. Plumb		Historian	[14]
Roy Porter		Historian	[15]
John Holland Rose		Historian
John Robert Seeley		Historian	[16]
Walter William Skeat		Philologist	[17]
William Robertson Smith		Orientalist, Old Testament scholar, professor of divinity	[18]
Taw Sein Ko		Burmese archaeologist	[19]

Religion

Name	Degree	Notability	Ref
Frederick Cornwallis		Archbishop of Canterbury	[20]
Richard Cheyney		Bishop of Gloucester	[21]
Jill Duff		Bishop of Lancaster
Edmund Grindal		Archbishop of Canterbury	[22]
Matthew Hutton		Archbishop of Canterbury	[23]
Thomas Jones		Archbishop of Dublin	[24]
Edmund Law		Bishop of Carlisle	[25]
William Paley			[26]
Hugh Thomas (priest)			[27]
Armitage Robinson			[28]
William Pope (priest)			[29]

Politicians, civil servants, royalty and nobility

Name	Degree	Notability	Ref
Anandamohan Bose		Indian nationalist, President of the Indian National Congress	[30]
Sam Carling		MP for North West Cambridgeshire	[31]
James Chuter Ede			[32]
Cuthbert Ellison		MP for Newcastle	[33]
Henry Finch		MP for Canterbury	[34]
James FitzGerald			[35]
William Grimston		MP	[36]
John Healy		MP	[37]
John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire		Lord Lieutenant of Ireland	[38]
Sir John Jardine, 1st Baronet		MP for Roxburghshire	[39]
Heng Swee Keat		Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore	[40]
Lim Hng Kiang		Singaporean politician; Minister for Trade and Industry	[41]
John Kotelawala		Prime Minister of Ceylon
Manmath Chandra Mallik		Barrister, writer, and Liberal Party politician	[42]
Thomas Nelson Jr.		Governor of Virginia	[43]
Zeid bin Ra'ad		Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations	[44]
Jan Smuts		Prime Minister of South Africa	[45]
Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet		MP for Suffolk
Thomas Robinson, 2nd Baron Grantham		Foreign Secretary	[46]
Thomas White		MP for East Retford
Walter Wren			[47]
Oliver Wright			[48]
Ra'ad bin Zeid

Judges

Name		Notability
Mian Abdul Rashid		Chief Justice of Pakistan
Mahomed Hameed Ullah Khan		Chief Justice of Hyderabad State	[49]

Science, technology, and mathematics

Name	Degree	Notability	Ref
John George Adami			[50]
Charles Alfred Barber			[51]
Jagdish Chandra Bose	BA 1884	Indian polymath; Known for his contributions to botany and microwave radio optics	[52]
John Clark		British geneticist	[53]
Charles Darwin		English naturalist and biologist; Known for describing the theory of evolution	[54]
Francis Darwin			[55]
C. J. Eliezer	PhD
Martin Evans		British biologist; Nobel laureate
Duncan Haldane		British physicist; Nobel laureate	[56]
E. W. Hobson
Leon Isserlis
Archibald Liversidge		British chemist and mineralogist	[57]
J. Robert Oppenheimer	DNG	American theoretical physicist; Known as the "father of the atomic bomb"
Arthur Shipley		British zoologist	[58]
Harry Marshall Ward	BA 1879; MA 1883; ScD 1892	British botanist, mycologist, and plant pathologist	[59]

Sportspersons

Name	Degree	Notability	Ref
Paul Bircher		British rower; Olympic silver medalist	[60]
Clifford Davis		Olympic athlete	[61]
Richard Hutton		British cricketer
Gilbert Jessop		British cricketer	[62]
Tony Lewis		British cricketer and rugby player; Later sports journalist and president of the Marylebone Cricket Club	[63]
Steve Palmer		British footballer	[64]
David Robertson		British rugby union and golf player; Olympic bronze medalist	[65]
Reggie Schwarz		South African cricketer	[66]
Swaranjit Singh		Indian cricketer	[67]
Ralph Starr		Olympic athlete	[68]
Kieran West		British rower; Olympic gold medalist	[69]
William Windham		British rower	[70]

Others

Name	Degree	Notability	Ref
George Augustus Auden			[71]
Walter Besant		Novelist and historian	[72]
Frederic Chase			[73]
John Wesley Hales			[74]
John Scandrett Harford		Artist, abolitionist, and High Sheriff of Cardiganshire	[75]

References

Citations

1. "Anthony Caro". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-06-09.
2. "Tom de Freston". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
3. "Phillip King". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
4. "Ian Cheshire". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
5. "Johanthan Galassi". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
6. "David Ross Granger". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
7. "Yusuf Hamied". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
8. Sonwalkar, Prasun (2020-12-01). "Cambridge's chemistry department named after Indian scientist Yusuf Hamied". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
9. "Mike Lynch". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
10. "Martin Sorrell". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
11. Peile 1913, p. 587.
12. "Harinath De in memory and oblivion".
13. Peile 1910, p. 13.
14. "Jack Plumb (1911-2001)". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
15. "Roy Porter". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
16. Peile 1913, p. 525-526.
17. Peile 1913, p. 534.
18. Peile 1913, p. 712-713.
19. Peile 1913, p. 780.
20. Peile 1913, p. 225.
21. Peile 1910, p. 16.
22. Peile 1910, p. 23.
23. Peile 1913, p. 176-177.
24. Peile 1910, p. 93.
25. Peile 1913, p. 200-201.
26. Peile 1913, p. 267-268.
27. Peile 1913, p. 208-209.
28. Peile 1913, p. 654.
29. "Death of Canon Pope, at Harrogate. Well-known disciple of Newman passes away. His connections with Ilkley and Harrogate" . Wharfedale & Airedale Observer. 10 November 1905. p. 8 cols 4–6. Retrieved 23 July 2024– via British Newspaper Archive.
30. Peile 1913, p. 612-613.
31. https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/27871
32. "James Chuter Ede (1882-1965)". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
33. Peile 1913, p. 350.
34. Peile 1910, p. 122.
35. Peile 1913, p. 461.
36. Peile 1913, p. 286-287.
37. "John Healy (MP)". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
38. Peile 1913, p. 238-239.
39. Peile 1913, p. 580.
40. "Heng Swee Keat". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
41. "Lim Hng Kiang". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-12-25.
42. Peile 1913, p. 630-631.
43. Peile 1913, p. 900.
44. "Prince Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein".
45. Peile 1913, p. 770-771.
46. Peile 1913, p. 260-261.
47. Peile 1913, p. 526.
48. "Oliver Wright". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
49. Peile 1913, p. 691.
50. Peile 1913, p. 677.
51. Peile 1913, p. 710.
52. Peile 1913, p. 685.
53. "John Clark". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
54. Peile 1913, p. 428.
55. Peile 1913, p. 746.
56. "Duncan Haldane". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
57. Peile 1913, p. 614-615.
58. Peile 1913, p. 673.
59. Peile 1913, p. 655.
60. "Paul Bircher". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
61. "Meeting of the Varsities" . Pall Mall Gazette. 20 July 1923. Retrieved 17 April 2025– via British Newspaper Archive.
62. Peile 1913, p. 807.
63. "Tony Lewis". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
64. "Steve Palmer". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
65. Peile 1913, p. 754.
66. Peile 1913, p. 783.
67. "Swaranjit Singh". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-09-26.
68. "Athletics" . Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 12 March 1923. Retrieved 17 April 2025– via British Newspaper Archive.
69. "Kieran West". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-03-28.
70. "William "Bill" Windham". Christ's College, Cambridge Alumni. Archived from the original on 2023-12-25.
71. Peile 1913, p. 760.
72. Peile 1913, p. 540.
73. Peile 1913, p. 619.
74. Peile 1913, p. 541-542.
75. Peile 1913, p. 402.

Bibliography

• Peile, John (1910). Biographical Register of Christ's College, 1505-1905, and of the earlier foundation, God's House, 1448-1505. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press.
• Peile, John (1913). Biographical Register of Christ's College, 1505-1905, and of the earlier foundation, God's House, 1448-1505. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.