This is a List of Old Brightonians, notable former students – known as "Old Brightonians" – of the co-educational, public school, Brighton College in Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom.
Academia, education and literature Edward Carpenter (1844–1929), socialist writer and campaigner for homosexual rights Robert H. Crabtree (born 1948), Organometallic Chemist, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, Yale University, creator of Crabtree's catalyst Andrew Gamble (born 1947), Professor of Politics, University of Sheffield and then University of Cambridge, Fellow of the British Academy Francis Llewellyn Griffith (1862–1934), Egyptologist and pioneer of Nubian archaeology, first Professor of Egyptology, University of Oxford George Bagshawe Harrison (1894–1991), Shakespearean scholar, Professor of English, Queen's University, Ontario and the University of Michigan, editor of the Penguin Shakespeare 1937–59, member of the Roman Catholic International Commission on English in the Liturgy C. L. James (1846–1911), anarchist writer and journalist Sir Richard Jolly (born 1934), development economist, Assistant Secretary-General United Nations, Director Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex 1972–81 Ewart Mackintosh (1893–1917), First World War poet, MC Michael Roberts (1908–1996), historian of Sweden, Professor of History at Queen's University Belfast, Fellow of the British Academy Sir Sydney Roberts (1887–1966), Dr Johnson scholar, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Secretary of Cambridge University Press and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Chairman British Film Institute John Alfred Ryle (1889–1950), physician and Regius Professor of Physic, University of Cambridge 1935–45, physician to King George V Gilbert Ryle (1900–1976), philosopher and Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy, University of Oxford, declined a knighthood in 1965 Ian Serraillier (1912–1994), novelist, children's writer and poet Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky of Tilton (born 1939), Professor of Political Economy, University of Warwick, created a life peer (changed whip from SDP to Conservative to cross-bencher) Leonard Strong (1896–1958), writer and poet, Director of Methuen Ltd
Architecture, building and engineering Sir Francis Fox (1844–1927), civil engineer, responsible for Mersey Railway Tunnel and the Snowdon Mountain Railway, consultant engineer for the Simplon Tunnel, consultant engineer in the restoration of Exeter Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral and Winchester Cathedral Charles Fraser-Smith (1904–1992), missionary, farmer, creator of gadgets for SOE during World War II and as such the model for Q in Ian Fleming's James Bond stories Sir Thomas Graham Jackson (1835–1924), architect and architectural historian, Master of the Art Workers' Guild 1896, RA
Business Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen (1870–1947), civil engineer, Chairman of British American Tobacco Cuthbert Heath (1859–1939), insurance pioneer at Lloyd's of London Sir Arthur Pease, Bt. (1866–1927), coal magnate, Second Civil Lord of the Admiralty David Quayle (1936–2010), co-founder of B&Q Sir George Reeves-Smith (1863–1941), managing director of the Savoy Company
Community and philanthropy Frederick Nicholas Charrington (1850–1936), Temperance worker and social reformer Mervyn Cowie (1909–1996), conservationist, founding Director of the Kenya National Park Service Alsager Hay Hill (1839–1906), social reformer on poor law and unemployment issues Ken Stevens (1922–2005), chief executive The Scout Association
Entertainment, media and the arts John Castle (born 1940), actor Dave Clarke (born c.1969), techno producer and disc jockey Tom Conway (1904–1967), actor Peter Copley (born 1962), composer and cellist Roland Curram (born c.1932) actor and novelist Wilfrid de Glehn (1870–1951), impressionist painter, RA Simon Dee (1935–2009) (real name Cyril Henty-Dodd), radio disk jockey and television presenter, Sixties celebrity and inspiration for Austin Powers Rose Elinor Dougall (born 1986), musician, former member of The Pipettes Rotimi Fani-Kayode, photographer Tim Hadcock-Mackay, TV shows presenter Christopher Hassall (1912–1963), writer and librettist Tony Hawks (born c.1960), comedian and author Gavin Henderson (born c.1947), Principal of Trinity College of Music and Chairman of Youth Music McDonald Hobley (1917–1987), actor, TV and radio presenter, TV Personality of the Year 1954 Sir Michael Hordern (1911–1995), actor Menhaj Huda (born 1967), film producer and director Selwyn Image (1849–1930), designer, illustrator and poet, joint founder of the Century Guild, Master of the Art Workers' Guild 1900, Slade Professor at Oxford 1910 and 1913 Bruce Lester (1912–2008), actor Miles Malleson (1888–1969), actor, playwright and scriptwriter Peter Mayle (1939–2018), writer. He has written that he loathed the school. Tamzin Merchant (born 1987), actress Leonard Merrick (1864–1939), writer Ward Muir (1878–1927), photographer David Nash (born 1945), sculptor, RA Laurie Penny (1986–present), journalist Sir Edward Poynter (1836–1919), painter, art educator and President of the Royal Academy George Sanders (1906–1972), actor. Won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1950. He said in his biography that he hated the school. Bijan Sheibani (born 1979), award-winning theatre director Chris Terrill (born 1952) Anthropologist, adventurer and multi award-winning documentary maker including Royal Television Society award for Innovation for Soho Stories (1997), Emmy for Ape Trade (1992) John Warner (1924–2001), actor John Worsley (1919–2000), artist and illustrator, World War II official war artist and creator of Albert RN, President Royal Society of Marine Artists Vera Filatova (born 1982), Actress Dakota Blue Richards (born 1994), Actress Chloé Zhao (born 1982), filmmaker, won Academy Award for Best Director 2021
Medicine and science Leslie Collier (1920–2011), virologist, Director of the Lister Institute laboratories, Professor of Virology at the University of London 1966–88 Sir Ronald Hatton (1886–1965), horticulturist, Fellow of the Royal Society John Alfred Ryle (1889–1950), physician and Regius Professor of Physic, University of Cambridge 1935–45, physician to King George V Sir George Savage (1842–1921), psychiatrist
Military Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Berney (1920–2016), Bergen-Belsen concentration camp liberator Alfred Carpenter (1847–1925), naval officer, commander Marine Survey of India, piloted the Burma Field Force up the River Irrawaddy in 1885 (awarded DSO), Albert Medal (Challenger Scientific Expedition) Air Commodore Lionel Charlton (1879–1958), Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force officer, Air Attache Washington 1919–22, as Chief Air Staff Officer Iraq Command in 1924 he resigned in protest at the policy of policing by bombing civilian targets, in retirement a successful author of children's fiction, wrote a series of influential books on air defence 1935–38 Brigadier-General Frank Crozier (1879–1937), commander of the British Mission to Lithuania, 1919–20, commander of the Black and Tans, 1920–21, military author and co-founder of the Peace Pledge Union Air Marshal Sir Humphrey Edwardes Jones (1905–1987), inaugural Commander-in-Chief, RAF Germany Colonel Sir George Malcolm Fox (1843–1918), Inspector of Gymnasia and sword designer Admiral Sir Herbert Heath (1861–1954), Rear-Admiral Commanding 2nd Cruiser Squadron at Jutland in 1916, Second Sea Lord General Sir William Peyton (1866–1931), commanded Western Frontier Force against the Senussi 1916, Military Secretary to Sir Douglas Haig 1916–18, commanded 40th Infantry Division July 1918 – March 1919 in France and Flanders, Military Secretary to Secretary of State for War 1922–26, Commander-in-Chief Scottish Command 1926–30 General Sir Harry Prendergast (1834–1913), Victoria Cross, Indian Army soldier, commander of the Burma Field Force 1885–86 Major-General Sir Herbert Stewart (1843–1885), army staff officer, commanded the Desert Column to relieve Khartoum, mortally wounded at Abu Klea General Sir Cecil Sugden (1903–1963), Quartermaster-General to the Forces and Master-General of the Ordnance Lieutenant-General Sir Francis Tuker (1894–1967), Indian Army officer and military historian, commander 4th Indian Division, 1941–44
Politics, public service and the law Robert Alexander, Baron Alexander of Weedon (1936–2005), barrister, banker, politician and Chancellor of the University of Exeter Sir Edmund Barnard (1856–1930), Chairman of the Metropolitan Water Board, Chairman of Hertfordshire County Council, Liberal MP for Kidderminster, Cambridge polo blue Sir Max Bemrose (1904–1986), Chairman of Bemrose Corporation, Chairman National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, High Sheriff of Derbyshire Keith Best (born 1949), lawyer and politician, Conservative MP for Anglesey and Ynys Mon 1979–87 (resigned and prosecuted for fraud), Director Prisoners Abroad 1989–93, chief executive Immigration Advisory Service, Chairman Conservative Action for Electoral Reform, Chairman of the Executive Committee World Federalist Movement Andrew Cayley CMG KC (born 1964), barrister specialising in international criminal law, public international law and international arbitration. Formerly Senior Prosecuting Counsel and Principal Trial Counsel at the ICTY and ICC. The UN’s International Chief Co-Prosecutor of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia from 2009 to 2013. The United Kingdom's Director of Service Prosecutions from 2013 to 2020 and His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2021 to 2024. Sir John Chilcot (1939–2021), Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office, 1990–97 Sir Henry John Stedman Cotton (1845–1915), Indian civil servant, Chief Commissioner of Assam, President of the Indian National Congress and Liberal MP for Nottingham East 1906–10 Eric Gandar Dower (1894–1987), air pioneer and Conservative MP for Caithness and Sutherland 1945–50 William Fuller-Maitland (1844–1932), cricketer and politician, Oxford blue, played for the MCC, the Gentlemen, I Zingari and Essex, Liberal MP for Breconshire 1875–95 Alan Green (1911–1991), Conservative MP for Preston South 1955–64 and 1970–74, Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1963–64 Sir Thomas Erskine Holland (1835–1926), Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, University of Oxford and legal historian Francis Hughes-Hallett (1838–1903), soldier and politician, Colonel Royal Artillery, Conservative MP for Rochester 1885–89 (resigned in a sex scandal) Sir Clement Kinloch-Cooke (1854–1944), barrister and politician, MP Devonport (Conservative) 1910–23 and Cardiff East (Unionist) 1924–29, created baronet Augustus Margary (1846–1875), Chinese Consular Service officer and explorer in China Sir Hubert Murray (1861–1940), Lieutenant-Governor of Papua New Guinea Denzil Roberts Onslow (1839–1908), Conservative MP for Guildford 1874–85, played cricket for Cambridge University, Sussex and the MCC Herbert Pike Pease, 1st Baron Daryngton (1867–1949), Liberal Unionist and then Unionist MP for Darlington, Assistant Postmaster-General, Privy Councillor and Ecclesiastical Commissioner Charles Campbell Ross (1849–1920), banker and politician, Conservative MP for St Ives 1881–85 Sir Walter Shaw (1863–1937), judge, Chief Justice of the Straits SettlementsBrighton College Register (1847-1922) (1922), p. 125 Arthur Wellesley Soames (1852–1934), Liberal MP for South Norfolk 1898–1918, son of the Brighton College founder William Aldwin Soames George Hampden Whalley (1851–1917), Liberal MP for Peterborough 1880–83 resigned and declared bankrupt, imprisoned for theft, emigrated to Australia, and vanished
Religion Timothy Bavin (born 1935), Anglican priest and Benedictine monk, Bishop of Johannesburg and then Portsmouth