# List of masters of Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College, Oxford, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, is governed by the Master and Fellows of the college. The Master, when elected, must be "the person who is, in their [the Fellows'] judgement, most fit for the government of the College as a place of religion, learning, and education". Although the rules in no way suggest a preference for an alumnus/alumna or Fellow of the college to be chosen, there have been few who were not: only one Master in the 20th century had no previous connection with the college (David Lindsay Keir 1946-1964) and the previous non-member to hold the post before that was Theophilus Leigh, elected in 1726. However, the current Master of Balliol, Helen Ghosh, studied at St Hugh's and Hertford colleges.
List of masters of Balliol :
| Name | Date | Details |
| Walter de Fodringeye | 1282 |
| Hugh de Warkenby | 1296 |
| Stephen de Cornubia | 1303 |
| Richard de Chickwell | 1309 |
| Thomas de Waldeby | 1321 |
| Henry de Seton | 1323 |
| Nicholas de Luceby | 1327 |
| John Poclynton | 1332 |
| Hugh Corbrygge | 1340 |
| Robert de Derby | 1356 |
| John Wycliffe | 1360 |
| John Hugate | 1366 |
| Thomas Tyrwhit | 1371 |
| Hamond Haskman | 1397 |
| William Lambert | 1406 |
| Thomas Chase | 1412 |
| Robert Burley | 1428 |
| Richard Stapilton | 1429 |
| William Brandon | 1429 |
| Robert Twaytes | 1450 |
| William Lambton | 1461 |
| John Segden | 1472 |
| Robert Abdy | 1477 |
| William Bell | 1496 |
| Richard Barningham | 1504 |
| Thomas Cisson | 1511 |
| Richard Stubbys | 1518 |
| William White | 1525 |
| George Coote | 1539 |
| William Wright | 1545 |
| James Brooks | 1547 | Bishop of Gloucester (1554–1558) |
| William Wright | 1555 |
| Francis Babington | 1559 |
| Antony Garnet | 1560 |
| Robert Hooper | 1563 |
| John Piers | 1570 |
| Adam Squier | 1571 |
| Edmund Lilly | 1580 |
| Robert Abbots | 1609 | Later Bishop of Salisbury |
| John Parkhurst | 1616 |
| Thomas Laurence | 1637 |
| George Bradshaw | 1646 |
| Henry Savage | 1650 |
| Thomas Good | 1672 |
| John Venn | 1678 |
| Roger Mander | 1687 |
| John Baron | 1704 |
| Joseph Hunt | 1721 |
| Theophilus Leigh | 1726 | Longest incumbent in office |
| John Davey | 1785 |
| John Parsons | 1798 | Bishop of Peterborough from 1813 |
| Richard Jenkyns | 1819 |
| Robert Scott | 1854 | Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at Oxford (1861 to 1870) Dean of Rochester (1870 to 1887) |
| Benjamin Jowett | 1870 |
| Edward Caird | 1893–1907 | Snell Exhibitioner 1860 Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow 1866 First lay Master. |
| James Leigh Strachan Davidson | 1907–16 |
| Arthur Lionel Smith | 1916–24 |
| Alexander Dunlop Lindsay | 1924–49 | Vice-Chancellor in 1935. Founder of the University of Keele |
| David Lindsay Keir | 1949–65 | Fellow of University Coll. 1921 Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University Belfast 1939. |
| Christopher Hill | 1965–78 |
| Sir Anthony Kenny | 1978–89 |
| Baruch Blumberg | 1989–94 | George Eastman Visiting Professor 1983 Co-recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. |
| Colin Lucas | 1994–2001 | Vice-Chancellor (1997–2004) |
| Andrew Graham | 1997–2001 (acting) 2001–2011 |
| Drummond Bone | 2011–18 | Byron Scholar, Snell Exhibitioner 1968 Principal of Royal Holloway, University of London (2000 to 2002) Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool (2002 to 2008) |
| Helen Ghosh | From April 2018 |