The following people were educated at Westminster School in London, and are sometimes listed with OW (Old Westminster) after their name (collectively, OWW). There are over 900 Old Westminsters listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography so these are necessarily a small sample:

15th century John Hygdon (c. 1472–1532), first dean of Cardinal College Christ Church, Oxford

16th century Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552–1616), travel writer Thomas Braddock (1556–1607), clergyman and translator William Alabaster (1567–1640), poet Robert Bruce Cotton (1570–1631), antiquarian Ben Jonson (1573–1637), poet and dramatist Arthur Dee (1579–1651), physician Richard Corbet (1582–1635), poet Sir Richard Lane (1584–1650), Chief Baron of the Exchequer Robert Herrick (1591–1674), poet Charles Chauncy (1592–1672), President of Harvard 1654–72 Henry King (1592–1669), poet George Herbert (1593–1633), public orator and poet

17th century Jasper Mayne (1604–1672), dramatist Thomas Randolph (1605–1635), poet and dramatist John Maplet (1612?–1670), physician and poet Abraham Cowley (1618–1667), poet Sir John Baber (1625–1704), physician to Charles II of England Richard Lower (1631–1691), pioneering physician John Dryden (1631–1700), poet and playwright John Locke (1632–1704), philosopher Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723), architect, scientist and co-founder of the Royal Society Robert Hooke (1635–1703), scientist and co-founder of the Royal Society Thomas Gale (c. 1636–1702), classical scholar and antiquarian Henry Aldrich (1647–1710), philosopher George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem (1648–1689), Lord Chief Justice of the Bloody Assize, Lord Chancellor (also ed. by Thomas Chaloner at Shrewsbury and attended St Paul's)Jeffreys, George, first Baron Jeffreys (1645–1689), judge by Paul D. Halliday in Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2004) Humphrey Prideaux (1648–1724), Dean of Norwich William Taswell (1652–1721), priest and witness to the Great Fire of London Lancelot Blackburne (1658–1743), Archbishop of York Henry Purcell (1659–1695), composer Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (1661–1715), creator of the Bank of England James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn (1661–1734), Privy Counsellor William King (1663–1712), poet Matthew Prior (1664–1771), poet Nicholas Rowe (1674–1718), Poet Laureate 1715 Richard Newton, (1676–1753), founder and principal of the first Hertford College, Oxford William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (1684–1764), Cabinet Minister John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville (1690–1763), statesman and Cabinet Minister Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1693–1768), First Lord of the Treasury 1754–1756, Prime Minister James Bramston (1694–1744), satirist John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower (1694–1754), Lord Privy Seal Henry Pelham (1696–1754), First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer 1743–1754, Prime Minister John, Lord Hervey (1696–1743), statesman and writer John Dyer (1699–1748), poet

18th century Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls Charles Wesley (1707–1788), Methodist preacher and writer of over 6,000 hymns William Beckford (1709–1770), politician, twice Lord Mayor of London John Cleland (1709–1789), author of the first erotic novel Sir John Eardley Wilmot (1709–1792), Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Robert Hay Drummond (1711–1776), Archbishop of York 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, 1st Earl Howe (1726–1799), Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Dolben, 3rd Baronet (1727–1814), MP and campaigner for the abolition of slavery Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (1730–1782), Prime Minister William Cowper (1731–1800), poet and hymnodist Henry Constantine Jennings (1731–1819), collector Charles Churchill, George Colman the Elder, Bonnell Thornton and Robert Lloyd (1731–1764, 1732–1794, 1725–1768, and 1733–1764), satirists and poets; founders of the satirists' Nonsense Club Warren Hastings (1732–1818), Governor-General of Bengal impeached but acquitted by Parliament Nevil Maskelyne (1732–1811), Astronomer Royal Richard Cumberland (1732–1811), dramatist Welbore Ellis Agar (1735–1805), commissioner of HM Revenue and Customs and art collectorRebecca Lyons, “Selling the collection of Welbore Ellis Agar” in Susanna Avery-Quash, Christian Huemer, eds., London and the Emergence of a European Art Market, 1780-1820 (Getty Publications, 6 August 2019), pp 176 Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (1735–1811), Prime Minister Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond (1735–1806), reforming politician John Horne Tooke (1736–1812), politician and philologist Edward Gibbon, FRS (1737–1794), historian William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738–1809), Prime Minister Arthur Middleton (1742–1787), signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746–1825), ADC to Washington 1777, defeated by Jefferson in 1804 in contest for Presidency Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), philosopher, lawyer and eccentric Archibald James Edward Stewart, 1st Baron Douglas of Douglas (1748–1827); winner of the Douglas Cause; MP and Lord Lieutenant of Forfarshire Edward Hussey (1749–1816), cricketer, sportsman and owner of Scotney Castle in Kent Henry William Bunbury (1750–1811), caricaturist Thomas Pinckney (1750–1828), American ambassador to Britain James Bland Burgess (1752–1824), dramatist and playwright Richard Burke Jr. (1758–1794), Member of Parliament Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766–1841), ambassador to Constantinople, bringer of parthenon marbles to Britain Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (1768–1854), cavalry and horse artillery officer at Waterloo, where he lost a leg James Bruce (1769–1798), Member of ParliamentBRUCE, Hon. James (1769-98), of Broom Hall, nr. Dunfermline, Fife, at historyofparliamentonline.org, accessed 23 October 2012 Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet (1770–1844), radical parliamentarian and parliamentary reformer Robert Southey (1774–1843), Poet Laureate 1813 Matthew Lewis (1775–1818), dramatist Benjamin Hall (1778–1817), Welsh industrialist, father of 1st Baron Llanover (below) Henry Fynes Clinton (1781–1852), scholar John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton (1786–1869), companion and ally of Byron Charles Robert Cockerell (1788–1863), architect, archaeologist, and writer FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855), lost his right arm at Waterloo, C-in-C in the Crimea Sir James Graham (1792–1861), politician John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878), Prime Minister Henry Westenra, 3rd Baron Rossmore (1792–1860), politician and piper Charles Longley (1794–1868), Archbishop of Canterbury William Mure (1799–1860), scholar and politician

19th century John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), Irish clergyman Thomas Henry Lister (1800–1842), novelist and first Registrar General Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover (1802–1867), Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings responsible for, amongst others, the current Palace of Westminster, likely to have given his name to Big Ben Augustus Short (1802–1883), the first Anglican bishop of Adelaide, South Australia Zerah Colburn (1804–1840), American child mathematics prodigy Sir Robert Joseph Phillimore (1810–1885), Judge of the Arches Gilbert Abbott à Beckett (1811–1856), writer Sir Charles Dilke, 1st Baronet (1811–1869), reformer, instigator of the Great Exhibition Henry Mayhew (1812–1887), reforming and satirical journalist; chronicler of London's poor and founder of Punch Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817–1896), author Sir Edward Poynter (1836–1919), painter Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge (1837–1912), Liberal politician Sir Roland Vaughan Williams (1838–1916), Lord Justice of Appeal Henry Bull (1843–1905), cricketer Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet (1843–1911), Liberal and Radical statesman Arthur Lee (1849–1925), cricketer Herbert Rawson (1852–1924), England footballer Norman Bailey (1857–1923), England footballer Oswell Borradaile (1859–1935), cricketer and cricket administrator F. W. Bain (1863–1940), writer of fantasy stories Percy Dearmer (1867–1936), radical clergyman and liturgist Edward Henry Blakeney (1869–1955), poet and classical scholar Harry Robert Kempe (1852–1935), electrical engineer, author and editor Frederick Ranalow (1873–1953), baritone and actor Sir Guy Francis Laking (1875–1919), art historian and Keeper of the London Museum Charles Dennis Fisher (1877–1916), classical scholar Sir K. A. C. Creswell (1879–1974), architectural historian specialising in Egyptian Islamic architecture Jasper Blaxland (1880–1963), consultant surgeon Hugh Bompas (1881–1944), first-class cricketer, barrister, First World War aviator and civil servant A. A. Milne (1882–1956), author and journalist Hussein Ala (1882–1964), Prime Minister of Iran Battiscombe Gunn (1883–1950), Egyptologist Adrian Stephen (1883–1948), Bloomsbury psychoanalyst Henry Tizard (1885–1959), scientist and inventor Harry St. John Philby (1885–1960), Arabist, explorer, author, agent John Spedan Lewis (1885–1963), founder of employee-owned John Lewis Partnership Reginald Hackforth (1887–1957), classical scholar, professor of Ancient Philosophy at University of Cambridge R. C. S. Walters (1888–1980), civil engineer, hydrogeologist John Colin Campbell, 1st Viscount Davidson (1889–1970), Conservative politician Gustav Hamel (1889–1914), pioneer aviator Sir Adrian Boult (1889–1984), conductor Edgar Adrian (1889–1977), scientist and Nobel Prizewinner Francis Turner (1890–1979), cricketer, educator and soldier Jack Hulbert (1892–1978), actor Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos (1893–1972), Cabinet Minister during World War II, chairman of the National Theatre Board Frederick Melville (1882–1940), philatelist Guy Chapman, OBE MC (1889–1972), historian Meredith Frampton (1894–1984), artist Geoffrey Bailey (1899after 1929), World War I flying ace Leslie Woodgate (19001961), choral conductor, composer and writer Arthur Foster (1881–1956), cricketer and Royal Army Medical Corp physician

20th century

1900–1949 births R. A. Bevan (1901–1974), media pioneer Robert Rattenbury (1901–1970), classical scholar and Registrary of the University of Cambridge"RATTENBURY, Robert Mantle" in Who's Who (London, 1968), p. 2524 Gregory Dix (1902–1952), liturgical scholar C. W. A. Scott (1903–1946), pioneer aviator Patrick Hamilton (1904–1962), novelist and playwright Sir John Gielgud (1904–2000), actor and director Sir John Aitken (1910–1985), Conservative newspaper owner H. A. R. "Kim" Philby (1912–1988), agent who defected to USSR 1963 Professor Sir Richard Doll, CH FRS (1912–2005), epidemiologist Pierre Turquet (1913–1975), psychiatrist and Olympic fencer Sir Richard Stone (1913–1991), Nobel Prize winner Angus Wilson (1913–1991), novelist Norman Parkinson (1913–1990), photographer Sir William Deakin (1913–2005), historian and literary assistant to Winston Churchill John Freeman (1915–2014), Labour politician, broadcaster, diplomat and television chairman Jack Simmons (1915–2000), historian Henry Young (1915–1943), RAF pilot who took part in Dambusters raid Sir Andrew Huxley, FRS (1917–2012), scientist Cecil Gould (1918–1994), art historian Sir Brian Urquhart (1919–2021), UN undersecretary-general and pioneer of peacekeeping Sir Peter Ustinov (1921–2004), actor, writer and director Michael Flanders and Donald Swann (1922–1975 and 1923–1994), performers, writers and musicians Neville Sandelson (1923–2002), founder member of the Social Democratic Party Michael, Lord Havers (1923–1992), lord chancellor Richard Wollheim (1923–2003), philosopher Michael Hamburger (1924–2007), translator, poet and literary critic