# List of people associated with Balliol College, Oxford

The following comprises lists of notable people associated with Balliol College, Oxford, namely alumni and those who taught at the College or were based at the College or were involved in college life. The main source of information is the relevant edition of The Balliol College Register which lists Fellows and students by year of matriculation, thus providing evidence of existence, dates and some biographical information.
* 1st edition — 1832–1914
* 2nd edition — 1833–1933
* 3rd edition — 1900–1950
* 4th edition — 1916–1967
* 5th edition — 1950–1980
* 6th edition — 1940–1990
* 7th edition — 1950–2000
Other sources of information include the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Who's Who and Who was Who both published by Oxford University Press.
Each name links to its Wikipedia page where it exists. The alumni are grouped into categories corresponding to fields of work and are arranged chronologically.
The lists of notable alumni consists almost entirely of men, because women were admitted to the college only from 1979.

## Alumni
### Lists for specific categories

* Academics
* Economists
* Historians and Classicists
* Lawyers
* Media
* Philosophers
* Politicians
* Religious
* Scientists and Mathematicians
* Sports
* Writers

## Balliol Chancellors of Oxford University

* Richard FitzRalph (1332)
* William de Wilton (1374)
* Thomas Chace (1426)
* Richard Rotherham (1440)
* William Grey (1440)
* Robert Thwaytes (1445)
* George Neville (1453); (1461)
* John Morton (1494)
* George Nathaniel Curzon (1907)
* Alfred Milner (1925)
* Edward Grey (1928)
* Harold Macmillan (1960)
* Roy Harris Jenkins (1987)
* Christopher Francis Patten (2003)

## College Alumni
### Security, Military and Intelligence

| Name | Join Date | Field of work | Comments |
| Cressida Dick | 1979 | police | commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police daughter of Balliol Senior Tutor Marcus Dick |
| Lieutenant-General Simon Mayall | 1975 | army | Defence Senior Advisor Middle East |
| Sir John Rennie | 1932 | intelligence | Director MI6 |
| Group Captain Archie Hope | 1930 | RAF | DFC RAF pilot WW2 |
| Hon Richard Gilbert Hare | 1925 | propaganda | Head of Russian propaganda, Ministry of Information WW2Russian art historian |
| Lieutenant Arthur Rhys-Davids | 1916 | RFC | MC declined scholarship to join the RFC |
| Captain John Aidan Liddell | 1908 | RFC | VC MC |
| Lieutenant-General Adrian Carton de Wiart | 1899 | army | VC left before graduating to fight in Boer War |
| Vice-Admiral William Monson | 1581 | navy | his Naval Tracts describe Navy life |

### Music

| Name | Join Date | Field of work | Comments | Refs |
| Julian Sturgis | 1868 | librettist | "the best serious librettist of the day" (W.S.Gilbert) FA Cup Final winner | $^{:55}$ |
| Sir Harold Boulton | 1878 | songwriter | "Skye Boat Song" | $^{:4}$ |
| John Farmer | 1885 | Director of Music | organist, composer and keyboardist | |
| Ernest Walker | 1887 | composer | Honorary Fellow | $^{:22}$ |
| Donald Tovey | 1895 | composer | Essays in Musical Analysis | $^{:43}$ |
| F. S. Kelly | 1900 | composer | Olympic gold medallist in rowing | $^{:62}$ |
| Victor Hely-Hutchinson | 1920 | composer, conductor, pianist | switched to RCM after one year"Carol Symphony" | $^{:219}$ |
| Inglis Gundry | 1923 | composer | lecturer on musical appreciation | $^{:30}$ |
| Sydney Carter | 1933 | songwriter | "Lord of the Dance" | $^{:90}$ |
| Richard Buckle | 1934 | Ballet | Founded Ballet magazine | $^{:98}$ |
| George Malcolm | 1934 | harpsichordist | Master of Music, Westminster Cathedral | $^{:102}$ |
| Edward Heath | 1935 | organist, conductor | Prime Minister | $^{:107}$ |
| Vernon Handley | 1951 | conductor | supported British composers | $^{:246}$ |
| Nicholas Kenyon | 1969 | BBC Radio 3 | Organiser BBC Proms | $^{:450}$ |
| Miron Fyodorov | 2004 | hip hop | Russian artist Oxxxymiron | |

## Fictional alumni

* Sir Humphrey Appleby (from TV series Yes Minister)
* Sir Arnold Robinson (from TV series Yes Minister)
* The Rev Francis Arabin (from Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope)
* John Blaylock (from Whitley Streiber's The Hunger)
* Captain Hook from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
* Captain John Charity Spring (from Flash for Freedom! by George MacDonald Fraser)
* Lord Peter Wimsey (from short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers)

## Notable applicants who did not matriculate

* Isaiah Berlin – British philosopher (1909–1997)
* Tony Blair – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007
* Bill Clinton – President of the United States from 1993 to 2001
* Daniel Dennett – American philosopher (1942–2024)
* A. Hyatt Mayor – American art historian and curator (1901–1980)
* Avrion Mitchison – British zoologist and immunologist (1928–2022)
* Colin McGinn – British philosopher (born 1950)
* Lytton Strachey – English writer and critic (1880–1932)