Jump to content

List of people associated with Balliol College, Oxford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Balliol College alumni)

The following is a list of notable people associated with Balliol College, Oxford, including alumni and Masters of the college. When available, year of matriculation is provided in parentheses, as listed in the relevant edition of The Balliol College Register or in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Complete (or very nearly complete) lists of Fellows and students, arranged by year of matriculation, can be found in the published Balliol College Register; the 1st edition,[1] 2nd edition[2] and 3rd edition.[3]

This list of notable alumni consists almost entirely of men, because women were admitted to the college only from 1979.[4] To assist with verification, each name links to its Wikipedia page (except for those so ancient that no page exists). Each name only appears once in the lists, even though the person may have established themselves in more than one category.

Alumni

[edit]

Law

[edit]

Judges

[edit]
Image Name Join
Date
Role Dicta Refs
Julian Knowles 1987 High Court Judge the police’s treatment of the Claimant thereafter disproportionately interfered with his right of freedom of expression, which is an essential component of democracy [5] [6]: 304 
Robert Reed 1978 President of the Supreme Court a decision to prorogue Parliament will be unlawful if the prorogation has the effect of frustrating or preventing, without reasonable justification, the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions as a legislature [7] [6]: 304 
Alan Rodger 1969 Justice of the Supreme Court just as male heterosexuals are free to enjoy themselves playing rugby, drinking beer and talking about girls with their mates, so male homosexuals are to be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts, drinking exotically coloured cocktails and talking about boys with their straight female mates.[8] [6]: 464 
William Nimmo Smith 1961 Judge of Supreme Courts of Justice, Scotland We find it impossible to accept that there are categories of person, such as footballers, of whom it may be said, a priori and without other evidence, that they are "celebrities" [9] [6]: 401 
Mathew Thorpe 1957 Lord Justice of Appeal the very different role and functions of men and women, and the reality that those who sacrifice the opportunity to provide full-time care for their children in favour of a highly competitive professional race do question the purpose of all that striving, and question whether they should not re-evaluate their life before the children have grown too old to benefit [10] [6]: 401 
Sir Henry Brooke 1957 Lord Justice of Appeal The networked computer, supplied for the purposes of managing the court's current caseload, is surely going to be as important a judicial tool for the procedural judge in the new Millennium as the quill-pen and the chamber-pot behind the screen in the corner of the court was to the judges of Charles Dickens's day [11] [6]: 401 
Thomas Bingham 1954 Lord Chief Justice there are no circumstances in which a judge is entitled to direct a jury to return a verdict of guilty [12] [6]: 44 
Brian Hutton 1950 Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland I am satisfied that Dr Kelly took his own life and that the principal cause of death was bleeding from incised wounds to his left wrist which Dr Kelly had inflicted on himself with the knife found beside his body. The Hutton Enquiry Report 2004 [6]: 263 
Alan Stewart Orr 1933 Lord Justice of Appeal Alan Orr was a quiet unassuming judge of exceptional quality. His career reminds us that good judges do not need, and are often better without, a charismatic public personality. In court he listened, he perceived truth with a quick and accurate mind and he knew the law: the result was findings of fact based on a detailed and perceptive understanding of the evidence, with the law applied accurately and lucidly. Not many appeals against an Orr judgement succeeded. [13]: 93 
John Marshall Harlan II 1921

Rhodes Scholar

Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court Divorced from their 'prurient interest' appeal to the unfortunate persons whose patronage they were aimed at capturing (a separate issue), these portrayals of the male nude cannot fairly be regarded as more objectionable than many portrayals of the female nude that society tolerates. [14]
Charles Bowen 1853 Lord Justice of Appeal Coined the phrase "the man on the Clapham omnibus" denoting the legal concept of a reasonable person [15].
Joseph William Chitty 1847 High Court Justice

Liberal MP for City of Oxford 1880

When a piece of plaster fell from the ceiling in his courtroom, he aptly quoted 'fiat justitia, ruat coelum' ('let justice be done though the heavens fall') and he once famously remarked that 'truth will sometimes leak out even through an affidavit' [16]
John Coleridge 1838 Lord Chief Justice a man has no right to declare temptation to be an excuse, though he might himself have yielded to it, nor allow compassion for the criminal to change or weaken in any manner the legal definition of the crime. It is therefore our duty to declare that the prisoners' act in this case was wilful murder, that the facts as stated in the verdict are no legal justification of the homicide; and to say that in our unanimous opinion the prisoners are upon this special verdict guilty of murder. [17]
Henry Bathurst 1730 Lord High Chancellor

MP for Cirencester 1735

He was instrumental in writing the Intolerable Acts, most notably the Boston Port Act 1774 which led to the Boston Tea Party and revolution.
Thomas Coventry 1592 Lord Keeper of the Great Seal

MP for Droitwich 1621

In 1631 he passed sentence of death on Lord Audley who was convicted of raping his wife and committing sodomy with two of his servants
John Popham 1549 Lord Chief Justice 1592–1607

MP for Lyme Regis in 1558 and for Bristol in 1571

In 1595 Popham presided over the trial of the Jesuit Robert Southwell and passed a sentence of death by hanging, drawing and quartering. He also presided over the trials of Sir Walter Raleigh (1603) and the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, including Guy Fawkes (1606). He was also involved in the trial at Fotheringhay Castle of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587) which resulted in her execution. [18]

Lawyers

[edit]
Image Name Join
Date
Branch Focus Refs
Gautam Bhatia 2011
Rhodes Scholar
Indian scholar of Constitutional law

Science fiction author

"Offend, Shock, Or Disturb: Free Speech Under the Indian Constitution" 2016
Jennifer Robinson 2006
Rhodes Scholar
Human rights barrister the "alphabet soup" case

Julian Assange and Wikileaks

"Silenced Women: Why The Law Fails Women and How to Fight Back" 2024

Rose-Marie Belle Antoine 1994 Labour law Professor of Labor Law and Offshore Financial Law

pro-vice chancellor, graduate studies, University of the West Indies

Clare Moriarty 1982 Chief Executive Citizens Advice Permanent Secretary at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and then Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union
Joel Bakan 1981 Constitutional law Professor, University of Columbia

The New Corporation: How "good" corporations are bad for democracy 2020

Simon Walsh 1980 Police law Magistrate
Jane Stapleton 1980 FBA, Fellow

Law of tort

Ernest E. Smith Professor of Law at the University of Texas at Austin

Master of Christ's College, Cambridge 2016-2022

Hugh Tomlinson 1973 Media law
Privacy law

barrister

Co-founder of Matrix Chambers 2000
George Carman 1949 Celebrity defence barrister
Peter Benenson 1939 Human rights barrister
founder Amnesty International
Nicholas Katzenbach 1947 Rhodes Scholar

US Attorney General

Courtenay Ilbert 1860
Charles Isaac Elton 1857 property law

antiquary

MP West Somerset 1884
"The Great Book Collectors"
Albert Venn Dicey 1854 "the rule of law"

Music

[edit]

Chess

[edit]
  • Raaphi Persitz 1953 chess master, financial journalist and chess writer
  • Leonard Barden 1949 chess master, activist and journalist
  • Sir Theodore Tylor 1918 Fellow, blind, jurisprudence don, chess master
  • H. J. R. Murray 1887 school inspector, chess historian, "The History of Chess", son of the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary

Political journalists

[edit]
Robert Peston, ITV Political editor

Poets

[edit]
Hilaire Belloc
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Literary scholars

[edit]
Image Name Join
date
Field of work Comments Refs
George Steiner 1950 comparative literature Rhodes Scholar, Hon. Fellow

Professor at Geneva, Oxford, Harvard

Polyglot and polymath

[6]: 515 
David Daiches 1934 literary history Fellow

A Critical History of English Literature
The Penguin Companion to Literature

[6]: 120 
John Livingston Lowes 1930 Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Geoffrey Chaucer
first Eastman Professor

taught at Washington University St Louis, and Harvard

[13]: 65 
Cyril Connolly 1922 literary critic Enemies of Promise [13]: 25 
Logan Pearsall Smith 1887 essayist Words and Idioms

"The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood."

[19]: 21 
Henry Watson Fowler 1880 lexicographer A Dictionary of Modern English Usage

Concise Oxford English Dictionary

"a lexicographical genius" (The Times)

[19]: 7 
Henry Sweet 1869 phoneticist A Handbook of Phonetics [20]: 63 
John Churton Collins 1867 literary critic Professor, Birmingham

The Study of English Literature

"a louse in the locks of literature" (Tennyson)

[20]: 52 
John Nichol 1855 literary critic Regius Professor of English Literature, Glasgow

Byron, Burns, Carlyle

[20]: 15 
Herbert Coleridge 1847 philologist editor Oxford English Dictionary [20]: 5 

Newspaper editors

[edit]

Television and film

[edit]
Peter Snow, television presenter

Security, Military and Intelligence

[edit]
John Aidan Liddell VC MC

Educators and school teachers

[edit]
Image Name Join
date
Field of work Comments Refs
Nick Bevan 1960 Shiplake College headmaster [6]: 41 
Alec Peterson 1926 International Baccalaureate head of Oxford University Department of Education [13]: 47 
John Fulton 1923 British Council chair of British Council [13]: 29 
Robert Birley 1922 Charterhouse
Eton College
headmaster
professor, City University
[13]: 24 
Sir Henry Marten 1891 Eton College Provost of Eton

tutor to Princess Elizabeth later Queen Elizabeth II

[19]: 33 
Richard Powell Francis 1879 Brisbane Grammar School first Australian to graduate from Balliol [20]: 117 [23]
George Ferris Whidborne Mortimer 1823 City of London School headmaster

Abolitionist
"The Immediate Abolition of Slavery Compatible with the Safety and Prosperity of the Colonies" (1833)

[24]
Richard Jenkyns 1800 Balliol College Master, educational innovator [25]

Social and political theorists

[edit]

Philanthropists

[edit]

Colonial administrators

[edit]

Theologians and clergy

[edit]
John Wycliffe
Cardinal Manning
Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, head of the Baháʼí Faith (1921–1957)

Sport

[edit]

Other

[edit]

Fictional

[edit]

Notable applicants who were not matriculated

[edit]

Balliol Chancellors of Oxford University

[edit]

Masters of Balliol

[edit]

Balliol is run by the Master and Fellows of the college. The Master of the college must be "the person who is, in [the Fellows'] judgement, most fit for the government of the College as a place of religion, learning, and education".[35] The current Master of Balliol is Helen Ghosh.[36]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Balliol College (University of Oxford); Jones, John; Viney, Sally; Hilliard, Edward; Elliott, Ivo d'Oyle; Lemon, Elsie (1914). The Balliol College Register (1st ed.). Oxford. Retrieved 25 March 2013.(1914, covering matriculations 1832-1914)
  2. ^ Balliol College (University of Oxford) (1934). The Balliol College Register (2nd ed.). Oxford. Retrieved 25 March 2013.(1934, covering matriculations 1833-1933)
  3. ^ Balliol College (University of Oxford) (1953). The Balliol College Register (3rd ed.). Oxford. Retrieved 25 March 2013.(1953, covering matriculations 1900-1950)
  4. ^ "Balliol Women: Some Alumnae of the College | Balliol College, University of Oxford". www.balliol.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  5. ^ Miller v College of Police [2020] EWHC 225 (Admin)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Balliol College Register (Seventh Edition) by Tom Bewley and John Jones. 2005.
  7. ^ Miller/Cherry [2019] UKSC 41
  8. ^ HJ and HT v Home Secretary [2010] UKSC 31
  9. ^ Scottish Daily Record v Procurator Fiscal [2009] HCJAC 24
  10. ^ S (CHILDREN) Re: S (Children) [2002] EWCA Civ 583
  11. ^ Brooke H, 'Computers and Judges', Commentary, 1997 (3) The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT)
  12. ^ R v Wang [2005] UKHL 9
  13. ^ a b c d e f Balliol College Register (Fifth Edition)
  14. ^ Enterprises, Inc. v. Day 370 U.S. 478 1962
  15. ^ Sir Richard Henn Collins MR in McQuire v. Western Morning News ([1903] 2 KB 100)
  16. ^ Sir Joseph William Chitty ODNB
  17. ^ R v Dudley and Stephens (1884) 14 QBD 273, DC
  18. ^ John Popham ODNB. The college does not have an extant record of his being a student and the university has no record of his receiving a degree.
  19. ^ a b c Balliol College Register (Third Edition) by Ivo Elliott 1953
  20. ^ a b c d e Balliol College Register (Second Edition) by Ivo Elliott 1934
  21. ^ Singh, Olivia. "Denzel Washington addresses paying for 'Black Panther' star Chadwick Boseman's acting classes: 'Wakanda Forever, but where's my money?'". Insider. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  22. ^ "Foulkes, Sir Nigel (Gordon)" in Who's Who online, accessed 21 October 2023 (subscription required)
  23. ^ "Memorial inscriptions". Balliol College Archives & Manuscripts. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  24. ^ George Mortimer ODNB
  25. ^ Richard Jenkyns ODNB
  26. ^ https://www.alumniweb.ox.ac.uk/balliol/about-the-westerman-pathfinders
  27. ^ ONDB
  28. ^ "William A. Coolidge".
  29. ^ https://www.alumniweb.ox.ac.uk/balliol/about-the-westerman-pathfinders
  30. ^ "William A. Coolidge Dies; Sheehan Gathering". 3 June 1992.
  31. ^ "Archives & Manuscripts - Memorial inscriptions". Balliol College. 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  32. ^ Selinger-Morris, Samantha (12 August 2020). "Who is Maxwell and what is she charged with?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  33. ^ Avrion, Mitchison. "Getting into New College, Oxford". Web of Stories. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  34. ^ Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas. National Archives.; CP 40 / 677; in 1430; Thomas Chace appears as first name, but as defendant in a case of debt, brought by Thomas Coventre.
  35. ^ Statute II "The Master", clause 1
  36. ^ "Election of New Master". Balliol College, Oxford. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2011.