List of alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Notable alumni of King's College, Cambridge include prime ministers, archbishops, presidents and academics.
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Robert Walpole, first Prime Minister of Great Britain -
M. R. James, scholar and ghost-story writer -
George Santayana, philosopher -
E. M. Forster, novelist -
John Maynard Keynes, economist -
Rupert Brooke, poet -
Philip Noel-Baker, Olympic medallist and Nobel laureate in peace -
Xu Zhimo, poet -
Alan Turing, mathematician and computer scientist -
Salman Rushdie, novelist -
Stephen Poliakoff, playwright and director -

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David Baddiel, comedian -
Zadie Smith, novelist
Politicians
- Martin Bell, former politician and reporter
- Charles Clarke, former British Home Secretary
- Philip Noel-Baker, politician, Olympic medallist and recipient of a Nobel Prize
- Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, judge and Lord Chancellor
- David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville, peer and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
- Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, Secretary of State, who was also known for his interest in agriculture and his role in the British Agricultural Revolution
- Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain
- Francis Walsingham, spymaster to Queen Elizabeth I of England
Law
- Robert Alexander, Baron Alexander of Weedon, barrister and vice-chancellor
- Nicholas Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers, former President of the British Supreme Court
Clergy
- Richard Cox, Chancellor of Oxford before appointment as Dean of Westminster and eventually Bishop of Ely
- John Frith, 16th-century Protestant martyr
- John Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury
- William Thomas
Writers
- J. G. Ballard, author
- Rupert Brooke, poet
- E. M. Forster, author
- Sir John Harington, author and translator of Aristotle
- Martin Jacques, author
- M. R. James, writer and medievalist (student, fellow and Provost)
- Stephen Poliakoff, playwright
- Walter Raleigh, poet
- Salman Rushdie, author
- Zadie Smith, author
- Patrick White, Australian novelist and playwright and Nobel Prize winner
- Xu Zhimo, poet
Media and musicians
- Thomas Ades, composer
- Julian Anderson, composer
- David Baddiel, comedian
- George Benjamin, composer
- Lily Cole, model, author and actress
- James Gilchrist, tenor
- King's Singers, Grammy Award-winning a cappella group
- John Spiers, folk musician
- Judith Weir composer (Master of the Queen's Music)
- John Whitworth, countertenor [1]
Scientists and academics
- Benedict Anderson, historian
- Edgar Anstey, psychologist
- Charles Glover Barkla, physicist awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1917
- John Craven, economist
- John Dunn, political theorist
- Richard Fortey, palaeontologist
- Anthony Giddens, sociologist
- Oliver Hart, economist who received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2016
- Geoffrey Hinton, computer scientist awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024
- Eric Hobsbawm, historian
- Charles Inglis, engineer
- Tony Judt, historian
- John Maynard Keynes, economist and philosopher
- Karl Pearson, mathematician and eugenicist
- George Santayana, philosopher
Businesspeople
- Hermann Hauser, technology entrepreneur of Acorn and ARM
- Mervyn King, Baron King of Lothbury, Governor of the Bank of England
References
- ^ Garry Humphreys, John Whitworth: Celebrated countertenor, in The Independent, 15 September 2013, accessed 20 June 2020