University | Number of prime ministers |
---|---|
University of Oxford | |
University of Cambridge | |
University of Edinburgh | |
University of Glasgow | |
Other university in UK | |
University outside UK | |
No university |
A list of prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the educational institutions they attended. As of July 2024 [update] , of the 58 prime ministers to date, 31 were educated at the University of Oxford (including 13 at Christ Church), and 14 at the University of Cambridge (including six at Trinity College). Three attended the University of Edinburgh, three the University of Glasgow, two Mason Science College, a predecessor institution of the University of Birmingham, and one - the incumbent prime minister Keir Starmer - the University of Leeds. John Major was (as of 2024) the last of the eight prime ministers who did not attend university after leaving secondary education. A number of the prime ministers who attended university never graduated. Oxford gained its 29th prime-ministerial alumnus when Liz Truss succeeded Boris Johnson in September 2022, and its 30th - and fifth consecutive - a month later in Rishi Sunak. [1] Starmer followed his undergraduate degree at Leeds with a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law degree at Oxford.
Twenty prime ministers were schooled at Eton College, of whom nine were educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, including all three who held office between 1880 and 1902 (Gladstone, Salisbury, Rosebery). Seven were educated at Harrow School and six at Westminster School. Rishi Sunak was the second to be educated at Winchester College. Eleven prime ministers to date have been educated at only non-fee-paying schools; these include all five who held office between 1964 and 1997 (Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major). Theresa May was educated at both independent and grammar schools. Three did not receive (primary or secondary) school education and were homeschooled during childhood.
Sixteen Prime ministers trained as barristers at the Inns of Court, including 12 at Lincoln's Inn (although not all were called to the bar). Two (Wellington and Churchill) completed officer training at military academies.
Although William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (in 1746) and James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave (in 1757) briefly attempted to form governments, neither is usually counted as prime minister. They are not listed below.
The following Prime Ministers served as Chancellor of their university:
Cambridge:
Oxford:
The following Prime Ministers served as MP for the university constituency for their university:
St Mary's Church, Barnes, is the parish church of Barnes, formerly in Surrey and now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Charles Richard Sumner was a Church of England bishop.
George Moberly was an English cleric who was headmaster of Winchester College, and then served as Bishop of Salisbury from 1869 until his death.
Thomas Garnier the Elder was an English clergyman and botanist. He was Dean of Winchester from 1840 to 1872.
The High Steward in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge is a university official. Originally a deputy for the Chancellor, the office of High Steward had by the 18th century undergone the same evolution and become a position by which the universities honoured prominent external figures. The High Stewards still retain some functions relating to adjudication in disputes, appeals, and deputizing if there is a vacancy in the Chancellorship. In Oxford, the office of High Steward is now more similar to the office of Commissary in Cambridge.
Henry Roxby Benson was a 19th-century British General.
Osborne Gordon (1813–1883) was an English cleric and academic, known as an influential tutor at Christ Church, Oxford.
Events from the year 1755 in Wales.
The Registrar of the University of Oxford is one of the senior officials of the university. According to its statutes, the Registrar acts as the "head of the central administrative services", with responsibility for "the management and professional development of their staff and for the development of other administrative support". The Registrar is also the "principal adviser on strategic policy" to the university's Vice-Chancellor and Council, its main decision-making body.
Edward Grey was an Anglican bishop who served in the Church of England as the Bishop of Hereford from 1832 to 1837.
Henry Robert Clutterbuck was an English cleric, and a cricketer who represented Oxford University. A batsman of unknown handedness who was born in Great Stanmore, Middlesex, Clutterbuck made one appearance for the University when facing the Marylebone Cricket Club in July 1832 at Lord's. He batted at number 10, scoring one before being dismissed by William Lillywhite, followed by a duck in the second innings. The MCC were victorious by four wickets. He died in Bath, Somerset in 1883.
James Adey Ogle (1792–1857) was an English physician.
John Jope Rogers was the owner of Penrose, a house and estate near the Cornish town of Helston. The estate included Loe Pool, the largest lake in Cornwall, now owned by the National Trust. He was also an author and Conservative MP for Helston, Cornwall from 1859 to 1865.
James Ibbetson, D.D., J.P. (1717–1781) was Archdeacon of St Albans in the Church of England from 13 September 1754 until his death on 12 August 1781.
William Frederick Traill was an English barrister and first-class cricketer.
The Ven Gilbert Heathcote was Archdeacon of Winchester from 1819 until his death.
Charles Joseph Parke was a High Sheriff of Dorset in 1869 and a Lord of the Manor of Sturminster Marshall. He was born at Ham Common in Surrey and was the son of Charles Parke and Letitia Parke nee Alcock whose brother was Thomas Alcock (MP). In 1847 he married Ellen Mary Ethelston, daughter of the Rev Charles Wicksted Ethelston of Upplyme. Parke lived at Henbury, Dorset.
George Matthew Fortescue was a British military officer and Whig politician, who served as MP for Hindon 1826–1831.
He left Eton College in 1730, and subsequently travelled to the Netherlands where he too pursued civil law, first attending Groningen University, before moving to Leiden University in 1732. After spending two years in Leiden, Bute left in March 1734 with a degree in civil law.
In the following year [1728] he went to Utrecht, where he probably acquired the knowledge he afterwards displayed of Grotius and other writers on international law and diplomacy. How long he studied at Utrecht is not known; he was certainly there during the first quarter of 1728, in company with his cousin Lord Villiers and Lord Buchan and two other Erskines.
At Leipzig he made a long stay for a course of studies under the celebrated Mascow, whose lectures on the "Present State of Europe in Respect to Politics" gave him especial interest.
Palmerston had gone to Edinburgh to study under Duglad Stewart (1753–1828), professor of moral philosophy; Palmerston had also lodged with him.
Ramsay MacDonald studied science, botany, agriculture, mathematics, and physics at Birkbeck in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Ramsay MacDonald was a student at Birkbeck from 1886-1887, forging a lifelong passion for the arts.
After Rugby, his father decided that Neville should attend Mason College, the forerunner of Birmingham University, undertaking a course of metallurgy, mathematics and engineering for two years as a preparation for a career in the Birmingham metal industry.