# List of members of Gray's Inn

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known simply as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns. The Inn has existed for over 600 years. Its members have included many noted lawyers and judges, such as Francis Bacon, Lord Slynn, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Pannick and others. Outside the Bar and judiciary of England and Wales, members have included the clergy (including five Archbishops of Canterbury), the industrialist John Wynne, the astronomer John Lee, media figures, such as Huw Thomas, and members of the Bar and judiciary of other nations, such as Yang Ti-liang (former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong) and Aitzaz Ahsan (former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan). As well as full members, the Inn also offers honorary membership to particularly distinguished members of society. During the Second World War, for example, both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill became honorary Benchers, and therefore members. Other than honorary members, this list only contains those individuals who were called to the Bar, not those who simply joined but left before qualifying.

## Lawyers

| Call | Name | Noted for |
| 1540 | Nicholas Barham | Serjeant-at-Law who investigated and prosecuted the Ridolfi plot |
| 1583 | Thomas Ashe | legal writer and qualified barrister, although he never practised the law |
| 1585 | Henry Finch | legal writer |
| 1674 | William Atwood | Lawyer and writer |
| 1792 | John Bell | Considered the best equity barrister of his age, even though he could "neither read, write, walk, nor talk" |
| 1922 | B. R. Ambedkar | Indian polymath, jurist, economist, politician and social reformer and the father of the Indian Constitution |
| 1937 | Jack Hamson | legal writer and jurist of comparative and common law, President of the International Academy of Comparative Law |
| 1940 | V.T. Thomas | Indian advocate, jurist and philanthropist. |
| 1959 | Christopher Bathurst | English barrister with a successful practice who became a Queen's Counsel in 1978 before inheriting a hereditary peerage and joining the House of Lords |
| 1961 | Samuel Eson Johnson Ecoma | former Chief Judge of Cross River State, Nigeria. |
| 1967 | Aitzaz Ahsan | Pakistani advocate, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan |
| 1967 | Michael Mansfield | King's Counsel and head of chambers at Nexus Chambers |
| 1977 | Francis Chang-Sam | Seychelles advocate, former Registrar General of Seychelles and Attorney-General of Seychelles. He also headed the secretariat of the Constitution of the Third Republic of Seychelles. |
| 1980 | Noor Dean | Fiji Indian lawyer and politician |
| 1988 | Roger Tan Kor Mee | Malaysian advocate & solicitor, former member of the Malaysian Bar Council and now a Water Commissioner of Malaysia. |

## Judiciary

| Call | Name | Noted for |
| 1342 | William Skipwith | Chief Baron of the Exchequer |
| 1374 | William Gascoigne | Chief Justice of the King's Bench |
| 1420 | William Yelverton | Justice of the Court of King's Bench |
| 1430 | Thomas Billing | Chief Justice of the King's Bench |
| 1438 | John Markham | Chief Justice of the King's Bench |
| 1448 | Thomas Bryan | Chief Justice of the Common Pleas |
| 1455 | William Hussey | Chief Justice of the King's Bench |
| 1461 | John Fineux | Chief Justice of the King's Bench |
| 1535 | John Birch | Baron of the Exchequer |
| 1581 | James Altham | Baron of the Exchequer |
| 1611 | Timothy Turner | Chief Justice of Chester |
| 1614 | John Bankes | Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and of the King's Bench |
| 1616 | Thomas Bedingfield | Justice of the Court of Common Pleas |
| 1625 | Thomas Widdrington | Chief Baron of the Exchequer |
| 1627 | John Bradshaw | President of the High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I and first Lord President of the Council of State |
| 1627 | John Archer | Justice of the Court of Common Pleas |
| 1657 | John Powell | Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of King's Bench |
| 1651 | Robert Baldock | Justice of the Court of King's Bench |
| 1663 | John Holt | Lord Chief Justice |
| 1670 | Richard Allibone | Justice of the Court of King's Bench |
| 1676 | Thomas Bury | Chief Baron of the Exchequer |
| 1729 | Thomas Clarke | Master of the Rolls |
| 1792 | John Bayley | Justice of the Court of King's Bench and Baron of the Exhequer |
| 1827 | James Bacon | Vice Chancellor in Bankruptcy and later, by custom, Judge of the High Court of Justice |
| 1879 | John Romilly | Master of the Rolls |
| 1879 | John Ross | Lord Chancellor of Ireland |
| 1891 | James Atkin | Law Lord |
| 1904 | Maas Thajoon Akbar | Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Solicitor General of Sri Lanka |
| 1904 | Augustus Uthwatt | Lord Justice of Appeal |
| 1907 | Malcolm Hilbery | Judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice |
| 1919 | Gilbert Walter King | Judge of the British Supreme Court for China |
| 1928 | Humphrey Waldock | Justice of the International Court of Justice |
| 1937 | Colin Sleeman | Assistant Judge Advocate General and circuit judge |
| 1946 | Elwyn Jones | Lord Chancellor |
| 1946 | John Vinelott | High Court Judge Chancery Division |
| 1954 | Yang Ti-liang | former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong |
| 1956 | John Geoffrey Jones | former president of the Mental Health Review Tribunal for England and Wales |
| 1959 | Gordon Slynn | Lord of Appeal in Ordinary |
| 1959 | Robin Auld | Lord Justice of Appeal |
| 1960 | Anthony Campbell | Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland |
| 1961 | Mark Potter | President of the Family Division |
| 1966 | Richard Banda | Chief Justice of the Malawi High Court, Chief Justice of the Swaziland High Court |
| 1967 | Robin Jacob | Lord Justice of Appeal |
| 1969 | Brenda Hale | President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom |
| 1970 | Michael Hart | Judge of the Chancery Division |
| 1972 | Falak Sher | Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan |
| 1973 | Dame Joan Sawyer | First female Chief Justice of The Bahamas Supreme Court and then first female President of the Court of Appeal of The Bahamas (retired 2010) |
| 1974 | John Sheil | Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland |

## Politicians

| Call | Name | Noted for |
| 1355 | Robert Ashton | Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Lord High Treasurer |
| 1515 | Robert Aske | Politician and rebel who led the Pilgrimage of Grace |
| 1524 | Thomas Cromwell | Chief minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540 |
| 1533 | Nicholas Bacon | Lord Keeper of the Great Seal |
| 1552 | Christopher Yelverton | Speaker of the House of Commons |
| 1554 | Thomas Snagge | Speaker of the British House of Commons and Attorney-General for Ireland |
| 1560 | John Brograve | Member of Parliament for Preston, Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster |
| 1565 | Edward Bacon | Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth and Tavistock |
| 1582 | Francis Bacon | Politician and statesman who served as Lord Chancellor and Attorney General |
| 1617 | Nathaniel Bacon | Member of Parliament for Ipswich |
| 1631 | John Cooke | Solicitor General |
| 1644 | Levinus Bennet | Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire |
| 1648 | William Brodrick | Member of the Sealed Knot, Surveyor General of Ireland, Member of Parliament for Dungarvan in the Irish House of Commons |
| 1658 | William Williams | Solicitor General and Speaker of the House of Commons |
| 1673 | Thomas Allen | Lord Mayor of the City of London |
| 1682 | Alexander Pendarves | Member of Parliament for Penryn, Saltash, Helston, and Launceston |
| 1718 | Hugh Williams | Member of Parliament for Anglesey |
| 1839 | George Hammond Whalley | Member of Parliament for Peterborough |
| 1871 | William Bowen Rowlands | Member of Parliament for Ceredigion |
| 1885 | Sidney Webb | Member of Parliament for Seaham, President of the Board of Trade, Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Co-founder London School of Economics |
| 1894 | F.E. Smith | Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for India |
| 1910 | Khabeeruddin Ahmed | Member Bengal Legislative Council |
| 1922 | David Maxwell Fyfe | Solicitor General, Attorney General, Lord Chancellor and Home Secretary |
| 1922 | Hartley Shawcross | Attorney General |
| 1923 | Grantley Herbert Adams | Premier of Barbados |
| 1924 | Ba Maw | Prime Minister of Burma |
| 1933 | Leslie Goonewardene | Sri Lankan independence activist and founder of the nation's first political party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party. Also served in cabinet post. |
| 1935 | Elwyn Jones | Attorney General, Lord Chancellor |
| 1944 | Emrys Roberts | Member of Parliament for Merioneth |
| 1948 | Noor Hassanali | The first Indo-Trinidadian to hold the office of President of Trinidad and Tobago and was the first Muslim Head of State in the Americas |
| 1950 | Glafcos Clerides | Fourth President of the Republic of Cyprus |
| 1954 | Spyros Kyprianou | Second President of the Republic of Cyprus |
| 1954 | Tassos Papadopoulos | Fifth President of the Republic of Cyprus |
| 1959 | John "Tom" Adams | Premier of Barbados |
| 1959 | Lalith Athulathmudali | Sri Lankan Member of Parliament and Minister of Education |
| 1974 | Roy Roebuck | Member of Parliament |
| 1975 | Vera Baird | Solicitor General for England and Wales |
| ? | Stuart Young | Prime Minister-designate of Trinidad and Tobago |

## Clergy

| Call | Name | Noted for |
| 1520 | William Atwater | Bishop of Lincoln |
| 1555 | Stephen Gardiner | Bishop of Winchester |
| 1588 | Richard Bancroft | Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1589 | Lancelot Andrewes | Bishop of Winchester |
| 1592 | John Whitgift | Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1615 | William Laud | Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1615 | Joseph Hall | Bishop of Exeter |
| 1622 | Thomas Morton | Bishop of Lichfield |
| 1623 | James Ussher | Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland |
| 1635 | William Juxon | Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1663 | Gilbert Sheldon | Archbishop of Canterbury |

## Other

| Call | Name | Noted for |
| 1599 | Eubule Thelwall | Principal of Jesus College, Oxford |
| 1602 | Simon Archer | antiquary |
| 1639 | Bartholomew Beale | Auditor of the imprests |
| 1669 | John Wynne | industrialist |
| 1841 | Gilbert Abbott à Beckett | Humorist and police magistrate |
| 1863 | John Lee | Astronomer |
| 1882 | Arthur William à Beckett | Journalist and humorist for Punch |
| 1905 | Gurusaday Dutt | Civilian |
| 1913 | Joseph Ball | Intelligence officer with MI5 and first Chairman of the Conservative Research Department |
| 1913 | Thomas Williams Phillips | Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour |
| 1929 | Sophy Sanger | labour law reformer and internationalist |
| 1951 | Huw Thomas | presenter for ITN News |
| ? | John Finnis | legal academic and philosopher |

## Honorary members

| Call | Name | Noted for |
| 1590 | John Amy | Civil lawyer |
| 1606 | Francis Barrington | Member of Parliament for Essex |
| 1942 | Winston Churchill | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
| 1943 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | President of the United States |
| 2004 | Geoffrey Ma | Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong |