List of former pupils of Westminster
The following people were educated at
Westminster School, and are sometimes listed with
OW (
Old Westminster) after their name (collectively,
OWW):-
- Robert Bruce Cotton (1570 - 1631), antiquarian
- Ben Jonson (1573 - 1637), poet and dramatist
- Charles Chauncy (1592 - 1672), President of Harvard 1654-72
- George Herbert (1593 - 1633), public orator and poet
- John Dryden (1631 - 1700), poet and playwright
- John Locke (1632 - 1704), philosopher
- Sir Christopher Wren (1632 - 1723), architect and scientist, co-founder of the Royal Society
- Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703), scientist
- George Jeffreys, 1st Baron (1648-1689), Lord Chief Justice of the Bloody Assize, Lord Chancellor, died a prisoner in the Tower
- Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695), composer
- Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax (1661 - 1715), creator of the Bank of England
- William King (1663 - 1712), poet
- John Carteret, 1st Earl Granville (1690 - 1763), statesman and Cabinet Minister
- Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle (1693 - 1768), First Lord of the Treasury 1754 - 1756, Prime Minister
- Henry Pelham (1696 - 1754), First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer 1743 - 1754, Prime Minister
- Charles Wesley (1707 - 1788), Methodist preacher and writer of over 6,000 hymns
- James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave (1715 - 1763), First Lord of the Treasury, Prime Minister for five days in 1757
- Francis Lewis (1713 - 1803), signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence
- General Thomas Gage (1721-1787), C in C North America, Governor of Massachusetts 1774
- John Burgoyne (1723 - 1792), Lieutenant-General who surrendered British Army at Saratoga
- Richard Howe, Earl Howe (1726-1799), Admiral of the Fleet
- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (1730 - 1782), Prime Minister
- Warren Hastings (1732-1818), Governor-General of Bengal
- Edward Gibbon, FRS (1737 - 1794), historian
- William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738 - 1809), Prime Minister
- Arthur Middleton (1742 - 1787), signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence
- Charles Pinckney (1746 - 1825), ADC to Washington 1777, defeated by Jefferson in 1804 in contest for Presidency
- Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832), lawyer, eccentric, and philosopher
- Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766 - 1841), ambassador to Constantinople, bringer of the Elgin Marbles to Britain
- Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (1768-1854), cavalry and horse artillery officer at Waterloo, where he lost a leg
- Robert Southey (1774 - 1843), Poet Laureate 1813
- Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan (1788-1855), lost his right arm at Waterloo, C in C in the Crimea
- Sir James Robert George Graham (1792 - 1861), politician
- Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792 - 1878), Prime Minister
- John Nelson Darby (1800 - 1882), Irish clergyman
- Benjamin Hall (1802 - 1867), Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings responsible for, amongst others, the current Palace of Westminster
- Gilbert Abbott a Beckett (1811 - 1856), writer
- Charles Dodgson (1832 - 1898), author under the pen name "Lewis Carroll"
- George Henty (1832 - 1902), author of more than 80 popular books for boys
- William Knox D'Arcy (1849 - 1917), entrepreneur
- A. A. Milne (1882 - 1956), author and journalist
- Henry Tizard (1885 - 1959), scientist and inventor
- Sir Adrian Boult (1889 - 1984), conductor
- Sir John Gielgud (1904 - 2000), actor and director
- H. A. R. (Kim) Philby (born 1912), journalist who defected to USSR 1963
- Angus Wilson (born 1913), novelist
- Norman Parkinson (born 1913), photographer
- Sir Andrew Huxley (born 1917), scientist
- Sir Peter Ustinov (born 1921), actor, writer and director
- Michael Flanders (1922 - 1975), entertainer and writer
- Donald Swann (1923 - 1994), entertainer and musician
- Tony Benn (born 1925), politician
- Peter Brook (born 1925), theatre director
- Nigel Lawson (born 1932), politician
- Anthony Howard (born 1934), journalist
- Roger Norrington (born 1934), musician
- Dan Topolski (born 1945), rower
- Andrew Lloyd Webber (born 1948), composer and producer
- John Brown (born 1953), publisher
- Stephen Poliakoff (born 1952), playwright
- Imogen Stubbs (born 1961), actress
- Matt Frei (born 1963), television journalist
- Gavin Rossdale (born 1965), lead singer of the band Bush
- Helena Bonham Carter (born 1966), model and actress
- Ruth Kelly MP (born 1968), Treasury minister
- Joe Cornish (born 1968), comedian
- Adam Buxton (born 1969), comedian
- Louis Theroux (born 1970), television presenter
- Dido Armstrong (born 1971), musician under the name "Dido"
- Oli Bennett (1972 - 2001), financial journalist, WTC attack victim
- Martha Lane Fox (born 1973), e-commerce businessperson, lastminute.com founder
All persons listed are thought to be or have been British unless otherwise stated.