List of Old Paulines

The following is a list of notable former pupils, known as Old Paulines, of St Paul's School (London). The abbreviation OP is sometimes used.

16th century

• John Leland (c.1503–1555); antiquary
• George Lily (died 1559); Catholic priest, biographer and topographer
• Peter Carew (1514–1575); adventurer
• Thomas Gresham (1519–1579); founder of the Royal Exchange
• William Harrison (1534–1593); clergyman and author of The Description of England
• William Camden (1551–1623); antiquary

17th century

• John Milton (1608–1674); poet
• Samuel Pepys (1633–1703); civil servant and diarist
• James Hayes (1637–1694); Prince Rupert's secretary and first Deputy Governor, Hudson's Bay Company.
• George Jeffreys (1645–1689); Lord Chief Justice
• Samuel Johnson (pamphleteer) (1649-1703) English political writer
• John Churchill (1650–1722); army officer and 1st Duke of Marlborough
• Edmond Halley (1656–1742); astronomer, geophysicist, meteorologist and physicist
• Spencer Compton (1674–1743); Earl of Wilmington and Prime Minister of Great Britain
• Roger Cotes (1682–1716); mathematician

18th century

• Joshua Toulmin (1740–1815); Dissenting minister
• George Dance the Younger (1741–1825); architect
• John André (1750–1780); army officer and spy
• Thomas Taylor (1758–1835); scholar and translator
• Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846); anti-slavery campaigner
• Daniel Alexander (1768–1846); architect

19th century

• Richard Ryan (1797–1849); biographer, poet and playwright
• Joseph Blakesley (1808–1885); clergyman
• Benjamin Jowett (1817–1893); Master of Balliol College, Oxford
• Henry Baden-Powell KC (1847–1921); older brother of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Sea Scouts, angler and notable canoe author & designer
• Ray Lankester (1847-1929); zoologist
• Cecil Clementi Smith (1849–1916); colonial administrator
• Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn (1864–1945); Royal physician
• Sidney Alexander (1866–1948); Newdigate Prize Winner and Canon, St. Paul's
• Gilbert Walker (1868–1958); Physicist and Statistician
• Charles Beazley (1868–1955); Historian and academic
• Laurence Binyon (1869–1943); poet
• Sidney Barton (1876–1946); diplomat
• William Martin Geldart (1870–1922); jurist
• Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950); Indian mystic, philosopher, poet, yogi and guru
• G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936); writer
• Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875–1956); journalist and poet
• Edward Thomas (1878–1917); poet
• Ernest Shepard (1879–1976); illustrator of Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows
• James Garnett (1880–1958); educationist, barrister, and peace campaigner
• Leonard Woolf (1880–1969); civil servant and political theorist
• Edward Ayrton (1882–1914); Egyptologist and archaeologist
• Compton Mackenzie (1883–1972); writer
• Otto Niemeyer (1883–1971), director at the Bank of England
• Archibald Comley Vivian (1884–1968); metallurgist
• John Littlewood (1885–1977); mathematician
• Philip Clayton (1885–1972), founder of Toc H
• Duncan Grant (1885–1978), Bloomsbury painter
• Valentine Vivian (1886–1969); vice-chief of SIS; head of counter-espionage
• George Watson (1886–1965); mathematician
• Bernard Law Montgomery (1887–1976), World War II General and Field Marshall
• Archibald Low, (1888–1956); scientist and inventor
• G. D. H. Cole (1889–1959), political philosopher
• Leonard Hodgson (1889–1969), theologian
• Paul Nash (1889–1946); artist
• Isaac Rosenberg; (1890–1918);poet
• John Armstrong (1893-1973); artist
• Victor Gollancz (1893–1967); publisher
• Baron Hannen ; judge
• Walter Sterndale Bennett, DSO and bar (1893–1917), Commander Royal Naval Divisions
• Ewart Alan Mackintosh MC (1893-1917),war poet and an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders
• Henry Daniell (1894–1963); actor
• Leonard Barnes (1895–1977); anticolonialist writer and educationalist
• George Catlin (1896–1979); political scientist and philosopher
• Indra Lal Roy (1898–1918); World War I fighter ace

20th century

• Hugh Schonfield (1901–1988); biblical scholar, critic of St Paul
• Desmond Nethersole-Thompson (1908-1989); renowned British ornothologist, naturalist and authour
• Magnus Pyke (1908–1992); author, scientist
• Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997); political philosopher and historian of ideas
• Max Beloff (1913–1999); historian
• George Ignatieff (1913–1989); Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations
• Eric Newby (1919–2006); writer
• John Russell (born 1919); chief art critic, NY Times
• John Chadwick (1920–1998); linguist, assisted Michael Ventris in the 1953 decipherment of Linear B.
• Dennis Brain (1921–1957); horn player
• Anthony Hinds (born 1922); film producer and scriptwriter, known for Hammer Films
• Lister Sinclair (1921–2006); writer, actor, playwright and presenter with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Ian Allan, OBE (1922-2015); book publisher and railwayman
• Sir Ninian Stephen (born 1923); Governor-General of Australia, Justice of the High Court of Australia
• Pete Murray (born 1923); disc jockey and broadcaster
• Donald Nicol (1923–2003); byzantinist
• Nicholas Parsons (born 1923); actor and television presenter
• James Moorhouse (born 1924); politician
• Peter Hilton (1923–2010); mathematician
• Clement Freud (1924–2009); writer, broadcaster and politician
• Klaus Roth (born 1925); mathematician, Fields medallist
• John Thorn (born 1925); headmaster of Repton and Winchester, chairman of the Headmasters' Conference for 1981
• Anthony Shaffer (1926–2001); author, playwright
• Richard Wilson (born 1926); physicist
• Peter Shaffer (born 1926); author, playwright
• Alexis Korner (1928–1984); blues musician
• Ioan James (born 1928); mathematician
• Greville Janner (1928-2015), politician (Labour)
• John Dunwoody (1929–2006); politician (Labour)
• John Cahill (1930-1995); businessman; Chairman British Aerospace, Chairman Trans World Airlines (TWA), CEO BTR
• Stanley Sadie (1930–2005); musicologist, editor of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
• Chris Barber (born 1930); trombonist, jazz band leader
• Antony Jay (born 1930); writer of Yes Minister, broadcaster
• Oliver Sacks (1933-2015); neurologist, author
• Julian Bream (born 1933); classical guitarist
• Kenneth Baker (born 1934); politician (Conservative)
• Jonathan Miller (born 1934); theatre and opera director
• Basil Moss (born 1935); television and radio actor
• Richard Gombrich (born 1937), professor of Sanskrit
• Benjamin Zander (born 1939); conductor
• Robert Winston (born 1940); biologist and television presenter
• Neil Trevor Kaplan, (born 1942) High Court judge, Hong Kong
• Chris Green (born 1943); railway manager
• John Gilbert (born 1943), television writer, director and producer
• Tim Razzall (born 1943), politician (Liberal Democrat) and solicitor
• John Simpson (born 1944); journalist
• Serge Lourie (born 1946); local politician and Leader of London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (Liberal Democrat)
• Paul Cartledge (born 1947); Levantis Professor of Greek Culture, Cambridge University
• Jon Blair (born 1950); television & film writer, director and producer
• Tim Hunkin (born 1950); inventor
• Lloyd Dorfman (born 1951); billionaire, philanthropist
• Terence Etherton (born 1951); Master of the Rolls
• Tim Fywell (born 1951), television and film director
• Philip Hardie (born 1951), professor and specialist in Latin literature, Cambridge University
• Duncan Haldane (born 1951), 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate
• Richard Davenport-Hines (born 1953); historian, writer
• Roly Bain (1954-2016), clown-priest
• David Bean (born 1954), judge
• Rob Manzoli (born 1954); musician, lead guitarist Right Said Fred
• Glen Oglaza (born 1955); political correspondent of Sky News
• Tom Hayhoe (born 1956); director of healthcare organisations, offshore racing sailor
• David Shilling (born 1956); hat designer
• Luke Hughes (born 1957); furniture designer
• Maxwell Caulfield (born 1959); actor
• Iain Gale (born 1959); journalist and author
• Euclid Tsakalotos (born 1960); Greek economist and politician, current Minister of Finance
• Simon Milton (1961–2011); politician (Conservative)
• David Levin (born 1962); businessman, CEO of McGraw-Hill Education
• Ian Livingstone (born 1962); chairman and co-owner, London & Regional Properties
• Ben Watt (born 1962); musician
• Imre Leader (born 1963): mathematician, Othello player
• James Reed (born 1963); chairman, Reed Group
• William Goodchild (born 1964); composer and orchestrator
• James Kennard (born 1964); rabbi and educationalist
• Patrick Marber (born 1964); playwright
• Stephen Greenhalgh (born 1967); Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime in London since June 2012
• Shanker Singham (born 1967); author, trade adviser, economist
• Robert Asch (born 1968); journalist and author; co-editor of St Austin Review
• Neil Jones ; academic at Cambridge University
• Hal Cruttenden, (born) actor & comedian
• James Harding (born 1969); editor of The Times newspaper (Dec 2007 – 2012)
• Alan Cox (born 1970); actor
• James Hyman (born 1970); presenter
• Saul Klein (born 1970); venture capitalist
• James Max (born 1970); broadcaster, journalist
• George Osborne (born 1971); M.P. (Conservative) June 2001, Chancellor of the Exchequer May 2010 – July 2016
• Sam Houser (born 1971); president of Rockstar Games
• Patrick Neate (born 1971); novelist
• Sacha Tarter (born 1972); actor and screenwriter
• Theo Hobson (born 1972); theorist
• Jamie Bamber (born 1973); actor
• Dan Houser (born 1974); vice-president of Rockstar Games
• Simon Dennis (born 1976); rower and Olympic gold medalist
• Rory Kinnear (born 1978); actor
• Dan Snow (born 1978); journalist & television presenter
• Robin Walker (born 1978); M.P. (Conservative) May 2010 – present
• Blake Ritson (born 1980); actor
• Tim Kash (born 1982); television presenter
• Robin Ticciati (born 1983); conductor
• Henry Lloyd-Hughes, (born 1985) actor
• Charlie Fink (born 1986); musician and member of folk band Noah and the Whale
• Winston Marshall (born 1988); musician and member of folk band Mumford & Sons
• George Burgess (born 1992); entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Gojimo

Victoria Cross holders

Three Old Paulines have been awarded the Victoria Cross.

• Captain Randolph Cosby Nesbitt, VC, (1867–1956), British South Africa Police. Later promoted to Major during the South African War. Awarded for act that took place during the Mashona Rebellion (Rhodesia) of 1896–1897. (OP 1880–1882)
• Major Cuthbert Bromley, VC, (1878–1915) 1st Lancashire Fusiliers. Awarded for act that took place during the First World War. (OP 1890–1895)
• Major Oliver Cyril Spencer Watson, VC, DSO, (1876–1918), Yeomanry, attached King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Later promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. Awarded for act that took place during the First World War. (OP 1888-95)