The following is a list of notable people educated at St John's College, Cambridge. When available, years of attendance are provided as indicated in the College Register or in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Over 1000 former members of St John's College appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.http://www.oxforddnb.com/search/quick/?quicksearch=quicksearch&docPos=1&searchTarget=fulltext&simpleName=St+John's+College,+Cambridge&imageField.x=13&imageField.y=4&imageField=Go
Politics, military, and the civil service
United Kingdom John Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1718–21 Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (honorary degree) Roger Ascham, tutor of Elizabeth I and advisor to Edward VI and Mary I Martin Bladen, Chief Secretary for Ireland, 1715–17 Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, Secretary of State, 1642–43 John Cheke, Secretary of State, 1553 Thomas Clarkson, abolitionist and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire John Duncombe, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1672–76 Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 2nd Earl of Minto, Lord Privy Seal, 1846–52, First Lord of the Admiralty, 1835–1841 Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1841–44 Sir Percy James Grigg, Secretary of State for War, 1942–45 Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal, 1672–84 Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1855 Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett, Minister of Health, 1921–22, Founder & Chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford, Lord Keeper, 1682–85 Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1770–80 Matthew Prior, Chief Secretary for Ireland, 1697–99, poet, ambassador & secret agent who negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1829–30, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1840–47 Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1804-5 Richard Ryder, Home Secretary, 1809–12 Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Privy Seal, 1842–46 Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1812–22 Sarah Teather, Minister of State for Children and Families, 2010–12 Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquess of Bath, Secretary of State, 1768–70 & 1775–79 (South), 1768 & 1779 (North) Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty, British Ambassador to the Netherlands, 1813–23, President of the Board of Trade, 1812–18 James Vernon, Secretary of State 1697–1700 (North) and 1700–02 (South) Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey, Secretary of State 1699–1700 (South) George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1853–58, 1865–66, 1868–70 Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, leading advisor to Charles I, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1633–41 William Wilberforce, Member of Parliament and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade Fred Willey, Minister of State for Housing and Local Government, 1964–70 William, Prince of Wales (affiliated) Charles Philip Yorke, Home Secretary, 1803–04, First Lord of the Admiralty, 1810–12
Current Members of Parliament Richard Burgon Robert Jenrick, Minister of State for Immigration, 2022–present Hamish Falconer Josh Simons
Current Members of the House of Lords John Browne Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon Nigel Crisp Nigel Dodds Peter Hennessy David Hope Mervyn King Colin Renfrew Larry Whitty
Lord High Treasurers Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, Lord High Treasurer, 1608–12 William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, Lord High Treasurer, 1572–98 Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, Lord High Treasurer, 1614–18 Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, Lord High Treasurer, 1599–1608 Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, Lord High Treasurer, 1660–67
Prime Ministers George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1852–55 F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1827–28 Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1855–58 & 1859–65 Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (briefly admitted), Prime Minister of Great Britain, 1765–66 & 1782Thomson, George Malcolm. The prime ministers, from Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher. Morrow, 1981 p. 34.
Colonial Administrators and Diplomats Sir Thomas Bendish, 2nd Baronet, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 1647–55 Henry Brind, British Ambassador to Somalia, 1977–80, High Commissioner to Malawi, 1983–87 Sir Bryan Cartledge, British Ambassador to the USSR, 1985–88 Peter Collecott, British Ambassador to Brazil, 2004–08 Walter Coutts, Governor of Uganda, 1961–63 John Cradock, 1st Baron Howden, Governor of the Cape Colony, 1811–14 Sir Percy Cradock, British Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, 1978–83 Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens, British ambassador to Russia, 1783–87 & 1801–02 Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon, Governor of Cyprus, 1957–60, British Permanent Representative to the United Nations, 1964–70 Harry Edward Spiller Cordeaux, Governor of Saint Helena, 1912–20, and Governor of Uganda, 1910–11 Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, 1st Baron Carmichael, Governor of Victoria, 1908–11 Christopher Ingham, British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, 1999-2002 Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough, Governor-General of India, 1842–44 John Margetson, British Ambassador to Vietnam, 1978–80, Ambassador to the Netherlands 1984–88 Sir Robin McLaren, British Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, 1991–94 James Broom Millar – first Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (1954–1960) Sir James Peiris, Governor of Ceylon, 1929 Richard Penn, Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, 1771–73 Sir Richard Posnett, Governor of Belize, 1972–76, Governor of Bermuda 1981–83 Sir Andrew Ridgway, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey, 2006–11 John Vernon Rob, 1st British High Commissioner to Singapore, 1965–67 Sir Fraser Russell, Governor of Southern Rhodesia, 1934–35, 1942, and 1946 Sir Philip Thomas, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, 2001–04, Consul-General in New York, 2004–07
Military William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, General and major supporter of Charles I in the English Civil War Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, General and parliamentary commander-in-chief in the English Civil War Wilmot Fawkes, Admiral Sir Roger Palin, Air Chief Marshal Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland, Admiral, First Lord of the Admiralty, 1852 Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, Admiral of the Fleet, Lord High Admiral, 1638–43 Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland, General during the American Revolutionary War Edmund Phipps, General Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn, Field Marshal Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, Admiral of the Fleet, First Lord of the Admiralty, 1694–99, 1709–10, and 1714–17 Sir Thomas Snow, Lieutenant-General during WWI George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, Field Marshal, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1767–72
International Morris Alexander, South African member of parliament Sir James Allen, Minister of Finance (New Zealand), 1912–15 Fra' Matthew Festing, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 2008–17 Yoshirō Fujimura, 2nd Baron Fujimura, Minister of Communications (Japan), 1924, Director of Mitsui & Co. Akhter Husain, Governor of West Pakistan, 1957–60 Abul Hassan Isphani, Ambassador to the United States (Pakistan), 1948–52 Kenchō Suematsu, 1st Viscount Suematsu, Minister of Home Affairs (Japan), 1900–01, Minister of Communications, 1898 Nawab Mohammad Ismail Khan, President of the All-India Muslim League, 1930–47 Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs (Nigeria), 2015–present Sir R. P. Paranjpye, High Commissioner to Australia (India), 1944–47 Lim Chuan Poh, Chief of Defence Force (Singapore), 2000–03 Sir Henry Lee Hau Shik, Finance Minister of Malaysia, 1957–59 Makoto Taniguchi, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, 1986–89, Chairman of UNICEF, 1988 Edward Ronald Walker, Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations, 1956–59 Princess Theodora of Liechtenstein, environmentalist and founder of Green Teen Team Foundation, 2022–2025
Prime Ministers Sir Francis Bell, Prime Minister of New Zealand, 1925 Alfred Domett, Prime Minister of New Zealand, 1862–63 Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, 2004–2014
Justice
Edmund Anderson, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1583–1605 Stanley Berwin, one of the leading lawyers of the second half of the 20th century Robert Booth, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, 1679–80 Sir Codrington Edmund Carrington, 1st Chief Justice of Ceylon, 1801–06 E. C. Clark, Regius Professor of Civil Law, 1854–58 Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1832–50 Asaf Ali Asghar Fyzee (1899–1981), advocate in Bombay High Court, 1st Indian ambassador to Egypt Edward Marshall Hall, Victorian era barrister known as "The Great Defender" Robert Heath, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1642–45 Ahmad Mohamed Ibrahim, 1st Attorney-General of Singapore, 1965–67 Donald Kingdon, Chief Justice of Nigeria, 1929–46 William Martin, Chief Justice of New Zealand, 1841–57 G. M. Paterson, Attorney General of Ghana, 1956–57 Maharaj Nagendra Singh, President of the International Court of Justice, 1985–88 John Smalman Smith, Chief Justice of Lagos (Nigeria), 1889–95 Wee Chong Jin, Chief Justice of Singapore, 1963–90 Glanville Williams, described in 1997 by The New York Times as the greatest lawyer of the 20th century Humphrey Winch, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, 1608–11 Walter Woon, Attorney-General of Singapore, 2008–10
Science, mathematics, and technology
Bernard Armitage, fellow of the College and psychiatrist George Barnard, statistician known for his work on the foundations of statistics Frederic Bartlett, psychologist William Bateson, biologist Frank H. Berkshire, Principal Teaching Fellow in Fluid Dynamics at Imperial College London Jagdish Bhagwati, economist Henry Briggs, mathematician William Burnside, mathematician Gladwin Albert Hurst Buttle, pharmacologist Sir David Cox, prominent statistician Sir Samuel Curran, physicist, inventor of the scintillation counter and proportional counter, and founder of Strathclyde University George Darwin, astronomer John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I Eric Denton, marine biologist Fearon Fallows, astronomer Thomas Fink, physicist and author John Ambrose Fleming, electrical engineer Steve Furber, computer scientist William Gilbert, physician and natural philosopher, discoverer of the Earth's magnetic field and inventor of the word 'electricity' Johannes de Villiers Graaff, economist William Gregor, discoverer of titanium William D. Hamilton, evolutionary biologist who formalised the concept of kin selection Douglas Hartree, mathematician David Harvey, Marxist geographer, social scientist William Heberden, British physician, gave the first clinical description (1768) of angina pectoris and demonstrated that chicken pox was different from smallpox John Herschel, prominent mathematician and astronomer who coined the word "photography" W. E. Hick, pioneer of cognitive science and discoverer of Hick's law Robert Hinde, Professor of Zoology, and former Master of St. John's Cyril Benoni Holman Hunt, entomologist and agriculturist William George Horner, mathematician Sir Fred Hoyle, pioneering but controversial cosmologist who first used the term 'Big Bang' James Jago, scientist and physician Sir Harold Jeffreys, applied mathematician and geophysicist Joseph Larmor, mathematician and physicist Louis Leakey, archaeologist and naturalist credited with the discovery of Homo habilis John Marrack, immunologist Alfred Marshall, economist William McDougall, psychologist James McKeen Cattell, psychologist Louis J. Mordell, mathematician Seymour Papert, computer scientist