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.

 

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.