This page lists over a hundred and forty former pupils (and fifteen members of staff) whose lives are recorded in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB). A dozen references in the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) are also noted. In a few cases, it is uncertain whether a particular individual was in fact at King’s. There are no records of commoners before 1750, and the names of scholars are sometimes only surnames.

 

Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork

Charles Abbott, first Baron Tenterden (1762-1832), judge. ODNB.

John Herbert Arthur James [Louis] Armstrong (1946-2014), naval officer and barrister. ODNB.

William Armstrong (1859-1941), physician. ADB.

Samuel James Arnold (1774-1852), playwright and theatre manager. ODNB.

John Aucher (1619-1701), clergyman. ODNB.

George René Aufrère (1715-1801), merchant. ODNB.

Isaac Bargrave (1586-1643), Dean of Canterbury. ODNB.

John Bargrave (1610-80), clergyman and collector. ODNB.

Robert Bargrave (1628-1661), merchant and diarist. ODNB.

James Bate (1703-75), clergyman and writer. ODNB.

Julius Bate (1710-71), clergyman and writer. ODNB.

Theodore Bathurst (c1587-1652), Latin poet and Church of England clergyman. ODNB.

George Monck Berkeley (1763-93), writer. ODNB.

Stephen Bing (1610-81), singer and music copyist. ODNB.

Gregory Blaxland (1778-1853), settler. ADB.

John Blaxland (1769-1845), landowner and merchant. ADB.

Weyman Bouchery (1684-1712), poet. ODNB.

Sir Frederick Carl Bovenschen (1884-1977), civil servant. ODNB.

John Boyle (1563-1620), Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. ODNB.

Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork (1566-1643), landowner and administrator. ODNB.

Edward Boys (1599-1667), Church of England clergyman. ODNB.

Edward Boys (1785-1866), naval officer. ODNB.

John Boys (1571-1625), Dean of Canterbury. ODNB.

Jocelyn Brooke (1908-66), writer. ODNB.

William Brooke, tenth Baron Cobham (1527-97), nobleman and diplomat. ODNB.

William Grant Broughton (1788-1853), Bishop of Australia. ODNB. ADB.

Sir Egerton Brydges (1762-1837), writer and genealogist. ODNB.

George Man Burrows (1771-1846), doctor and alienist. ODNB.

Cornelius Cardew (1936-81), composer. ODNB.

Benjamin Carier (1565-1614), clergyman. ODNB.

Harry William Carter (1787-1863), physician. ODNB.

John Carter (1554-1635), clergyman. ODNB.

Edmund Castle (1698-1750), college head and Dean of Hereford. ODNB.

William Chafy (1779-1843), college head. ODNB.

Benjamin Chandler (1736-86), surgeon. ODNB.

Nicholas Clagett (c1610-62), clergyman. ODNB.

John Chalk Claris (1796/7-1866), poet and newspaper editor. ODNB.

Sir Andrew Clarke (1824-1902), military engineer and colonial official. ODNB. ADB.

Roger Cocks (fl1611-42), Church of England clergyman and poet. ODNB.

John Coldwell (c1535-96) Bishop of Salisbury. ODNB.

Abraham Colfe (1580-1657), clergyman and benefactor. ODNB.

Isaac Colfe (1558/9-97), clergyman. ODNB.

Edward Henry Columbine (1762-1811), hydrographer and colonial governor. ODNB.

Sir Nathaniel Conant (1745-1822), bookseller and police magistrate. ODNB.

Hayne Constant (1904-68), mechanical and aeronautical engineer. ODNB.

William Cordeaux (1792-1839), land commissioner. ADB.

Richard Culmer (1597-1662), clergyman and iconoclast. ODNB.

John Denne (1693-1767), clergyman and antiquary. ODNB.

Samuel Denne (1730-99), antiquary. ODNB.

Edward Dering (c1540-76), clergyman. ODNB.

Alfred Brotherston Emden (1888-1979), historian. ODNB.

Nicholas Faunt (1553/4-1608), administrator. ODNB.

Sir Patrick Michael [Paddy] Leigh Fermor (1915-2011), special operations officer and author. ODNB.

Sir Robert Filmer (1588?-1653), political writer. ODNB.

James Ford (1779-1850), antiquary and benefactor. ODNB.

William Frend (1757-1841), writer and actuary. ODNB.

Accepted Frewen (1588-1664), Archbishop of York. ODNB.

John Frewer (1883-1974), bishop. ADB.

William Fuller (1670-1733), government agent and controversialist. ODNB.

Thomas Gann (1867-1938), colonial medical officer and archaeologist. ODNB.

Sir John Gellibrand (1872-1945), army officer. ODNB. ADB.

Sir Edward James Gent (1895-1948), civil servant and colonial governor. ODNB.

Sir George Gipps (1791-1847), colonial governor. ODNB. ADB.

Robert Glover (1543/4-88), herald. ODNB.

Stephen Gosson (1554-1625), clergyman and polemicist. ODNB.

William Gostling (1696-1777), antiquary and topographer. ODNB.

George Gregory (1790-1853), physician and vaccinator. ODNB.

John Gregory (1795-1853), colonial administrator. ADB.

Peter Gunning (1614-84), Bishop of Ely and theologian. ODNB.

William Harvey (1578-1657), physician and discoverer of the circulation of the blood. ODNB.

John Cyril Hawes (1876-1956), architect and priest. ADB.

Sir Cuthbert Morley Headlam (1876-1964), politician and diarist. ODNB.

(Patrick) Hugh Honour (1927-2016), writer and art historian. ODNB.

John William Horsley (1845-1921), social reformer. ODNB.

Sir Robert Baynes Horton (1939-2011), company director. ODNB.

Henry Hughes (1601?-52?), physician and poet. ODNB.

Sir Paulus Aemilius Irving (1751?-1828), army officer. ODNB.

Edward Jacob (1710?-88), antiquary and naturalist. ODNB.

Henry Jacob (1562/3-1624), semi-separatist minister. ODNB.

Robert Jenkin (1656-1727), college head and writer. ODNB.

John Johnson (1662-1725), theologian. ODNB.

William Knowler (1699-1773), clergyman. ODNB.

Michael Lade (1737-99), racehorse owner and miser. ODNB.

Edward Leeds (d. 1590), civilian and college head. ODNB.

Thomas Linacre (c1460-1524), humanist, scholar and physician. ODNB.

Thomas Lushington (1590-1661), author and theologian. ODNB.

Sir Fairfax Luxmoore (1876-1944), judge. ODNB.

John Lyly (1554-1606), writer and playwright. ODNB.

John Lynch (1697-1760), Dean of Canterbury. ODNB.

John ‘Rob Roy’ MacGregor (1825-1892), philanthropist and traveller. ODNB.

Frederick Mackeson (1807-53), army officer. ODNB.

Geoffrey Basil Maiden (1907-77), novelist. ODNB.

Sir (Howard) George Charles Mallaby (1902-78), public servant and headmaster. ODNB.

Sir Paul Copeland Maltby (1892-1971), air force officer. ODNB.

Christopher Marlowe (1564-93), playwright and poet. ODNB.

Herbert Marsh (1757-1839), Bishop of Peterborough and biblical critic. ODNB.

Francis Mason (1837-86), surgeon. ODNB.

Richard Master (c1515-87/8), physician. ODNB.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), writer and playwright. ODNB.

Michael Clement Otway Mayne (1929-2006), Dean of Westminster. ODNB.

Perry Mayne (1697-1761), naval officer. ODNB.

Edward Meetkerke (1590-1657), Church of England clergyman. ODNB.

Paul Micklethwaite (1588/9-1639), clergyman. ODNB.

Thomas Milles (c1550-1627), customs official and antiquary. ODNB.

Leslie Mitchell (1905-85), actor and television broadcaster. ODNB.

William Nassau Molesworth (1816-90), historian. ODNB.

Bernard Montgomery, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (1887-1976), army officer. ODNB.

Howard Mowll (1890-1958), Archbishop of Sydney. ODNB. ADB.

Francis, 8th Lord Napier (1758-1823), army officer. ODNB.

Alexander Neville (1544-1614), author. ODNB.

Stephen Nevinson (c1520-80), biographer and lawyer. ODNB.

Josias Nicholls (c1553-1639/40), minister and controversialist. ODNB.

George Parker (1732-1800), actor and public lecturer. ODNB.

Samuel Parker (1681-1730), nonjuror and theological writer. ODNB.

Sir Anthony Parsons (1922-1996), diplomatist. ODNB.

Walter Pater (1839-94), writer and aesthete. ODNB.

Samuel Pegge (1733-1800), antiquary and writer. ODNB.

Michael Powell (1905-90), film director. ODNB.

Cecil Robert Burnet Quentin (1917-79), professor of drama and theatre director. ADB.

Thomas Randolph (1525/6-90), diplomat. ODNB.

Thomas Randolph (1701-83), college head. ODNB.

Arthur Raymond (1892-1954), medical practitioner and air force officer. ADB.

Sir Carol Reed (1906-76), film director. ODNB.

Sir Alexander Meadows Rendel (1829-1918), civil engineer. ODNB.

Lawrence Rooke (1619/20-62), astronomer. ODNB.

Arthur Walton Rowe (1859-1926), doctor and geologist. ODNB.

Anthony Rush (1537-77), Dean of Chichester. ODNB.

George Sale (1692-1736), orientalist. ODNB.

Charles Sandys (1786-1858), antiquary. ODNB.

John Sawbridge (1732-95), politician. ODNB.

Sir John Guillum Scott (1910-83), ecclesiastical civil servant. ODNB.

Thomas Scott (c1566-1635), landowner and politician. ODNB.

William Somner (1598-1669), antiquary. ODNB.

Edward Sparke (?-1693) clergyman. ODNB.

John Spencer (1630-93), college head and Hebraist. ODNB.

Thomas Stapleton (1535-98), Roman Catholic theologian. ODNB.

Percy Sykes (1867-1945), diplomatist and author. ODNB.

James Tappenden (1742-1841), lawyer, banker and ironmaster. ODNB.

Edward Thurlow (1731-1806), Lord Chancellor. ODNB.

Peter Townsend (1919-2006), sinologist. ODNB.

John Tradescant the younger (1608-62), gardener and collector. ODNB.

Laurence Twyne (fl. 1564-88), translator. ODNB.

Thomas Twyne (1543-1613), physician. ODNB.

William Burton Tylden (1790-1854), army officer. ODNB.

Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941), novelist. ODNB.

John Ward (1590-1638), madrigalist. ODNB.

Henry Weekes (1807-77), sculptor. ODNB.

William Weston (1549/50-1615), Jesuit. ODNB.

William Ainger Wigram (1872-1953), advocate of the Assyrian church and people. ODNB.

Cooper Willyams (1762-1862), topographer and artist. ODNB.

Robert Winchelsey (c1240-1313), Archbishop of Canterbury. ODNB.

Warwick Wroth (1858-1911), numismatist. ODNB.

William Wyse (1860-1929), classical scholar. ODNB.

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The following members of staff are also listed in the ODNB:

Richard Johnson (1656/7-1721), schoolmaster and grammarian. Lower Master and Headmaster.

Bryan Keith-Lucas (1912-96), political scientist.

Geoffrey Lampe (1912-80), theologian.

Peter Levens (fl. 1552-87), lexicographer. Lower Master.

Ashley Gordon Lowndes (1885-1956), biologist and schoolteacher.

John Mitchinson (1833-1918), Headmaster, Bishop of Barbados and college head.

Peter Pilkington, Baron Pilkington of Oxenford (1933-2011), Church of England clergyman and headmaster.

Alan Ridout (1934-96), composer.

Reinhold Rost (1822-96), orientalist.

Frederick John Shirley (1890-1967), Headmaster.

Charles Singer (1876-1960), historian of medicine and science.

John Barry Steane (1928-2011), teacher, literary scholar and music critic.

John Twyne (1505-81), Headmaster.

Edward William Whitaker (1752-1818), Church of England clergyman and charity administrator. Lower Master.

Thomas Wilson (1562/3-1622), clergyman and author. Lower Master.