List of alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford

Dominic Grieve, former Attorney General for England and Wales

• Geoffrey Adams, British Diplomatic Service
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Indian economist and civil servant
• Francis Ashley, lawyer and MP between 1614 and 1625
• Sir Walter Bagot, 5th Baronet, 18th-century MP
• Lord Baker, politician, former MP
• Thomas Berkeley, MP
• Sir John Biggs-Davison, former Conservative MP
• Sir Trevor Bigham, barrister and Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, 1914–1931
• Nicholas Boles, Conservative MP for Grantham and Stamford
• Sir Ian Bowater, Lord Mayor of London (1967–1970)
• Sir Ashley Bramall, Labour Party politician, MP for Bexley, 1946–1950
• George Brandis, Australian diplomat and former Attorney-General (2013–2017)
• Jock, Lord Bruce-Gardyne, Conservative politician
• Sir Julian Bullard, diplomat, Foreign Office Minister and Pro-chancellor of Birmingham University
• Tankerville Chamberlayne, landowner in Hampshire and a Member of Parliament for Southampton
• Wesley Clark, American Army general and politician
• Sir Cecil Clementi, British colonial administrator who served as Governor of Hong Kong, 1925–1930; Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements, 1930–1934
• Robert Douglas Coe, diplomat and U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, 1953–1957
• Sir Douglas Dodds-Parker, member of the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War, and later a UK Conservative MP
• Francis Patrick Donovan, Australian diplomat and jurist
• Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament for Banbury (1624)
• Gareth Evans, Australian international policymaker, former politician and current Chancellor of the Australian National University
• Jim Forbes, Australian politician
• Malcolm Fraser, former Australian Liberal Party politician; 22nd Prime Minister of Australia
• Sir Marrack Goulding, diplomat, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Warden of St Antony's College (1997–2006)
• Dominic Grieve, Conservative politician and former Attorney General
• William Hague, Conservative politician and former Foreign Secretary
• John Hemming, Liberal Democrat politician and businessman[3]
• Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat politician
• Jeremy Hunt, Conservative politician and former Foreign Secretary
• Lord Hutton, formerly John Hutton MP
• Harford Montgomery Hyde, barrister, politician (Ulster Unionist MP for Belfast North), author and biographer
• Christopher Jackson, politician, businessman, author (Conservative MEP for Kent East 1979–1994, Deputy Leader Conservative MEPs)
• Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme, former diplomat and Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission
• Gladwyn Jebb, civil servant, diplomat and politician
• Keith Joseph, barrister and politician
• Francis Oswald Lindley, British diplomat
• Stephen Milligan, Conservative politician and journalist
• Randy Minchew, American politician and lawyer
• Audri Mukhopadhyay, Canadian diplomat
• George Osborne, Conservative politician and newspaper editor
• John Redwood, Conservative MP for Wokingham
• Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry, Conservative politician: Chief Whip, Minister of State and Arts Minister, 1984-1992
• William Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank, one of the "Gang of Four" of senior British Labour Party politicians who defected to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP)
• Henry Sacheverell, clergyman and politician
• Duncan Sandys, politician
• Sir John Scarlett, Director General of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), 2004–2009
• Siôn Simon, Labour politician and MP (2001–2010)
• Zev Sufott, British-born Israeli diplomat, Ambassador to the Netherlands, first Israeli Ambassador to China[4]
• John Turner, lawyer and former politician; 17th Prime Minister of Canada

King Edward VIII

Russ Feingold

• James Richard Atkin, lawyer and judge
• Charles Arnold-Baker, barrister, author and historian
• Michael Beloff, barrister and former President of Trinity College
• Jocelyn Benson, lawyer, Dean and author
• Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Michael Briggs, Lord Briggs of Westbourne, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
• Alan Brodrick, 1st Viscount Midleton, Irish lawyer and politician
• Sir Charles Caesar, Judge and Master of the Rolls
• Guido Calabresi, legal scholar and senior Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit
• Simon Chesterman, Dean and Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore
• Alfred Denning, Baron Denning, lawyer and senior Law Lord
• Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne, lawyer, politician, Lord Chancellor (1962—1964)
• John Doyle, jurist, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia (1995—2012)
• James Edelman, Justice of the High Court of Australia
• Russ Feingold, US lawyer and politician
• Michael Fox, barrister and High Court judge
• Sir James Gobbo, jurist and 25th Governor of Victoria
• Edward Anthony Hawke, Common Serjeant of London and Recorder of London
• Patrick Keane, Justice of the High Court of Australia
• Henry Keith, Baron Keith of Kinkel GBE, PC, Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, United Kingdom
• John Neely Kennedy Bachelor of Civil Law in 1979, United States Senator from Louisiana
• Harold Hongju Koh, Korean-American lawyer and legal scholar
• Neal Macrossan, lawyer, judge and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland
• Dinah Rose, human rights barrister and current President of the College
• David Souter, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Jonathan Sumption, Lord Sumption, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
• Gerald Thesiger, High Court Judge

• 

  William Tyndale
  Edward Barber, (Archdeacon of Chester) (1886–1914)
• Hugh Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh in the Church of Ireland
• John Colet, churchman and educational pioneer
• Thomas Cooper, English bishop, lexicographer, theologian, and writer
• John Davenport, puritan clergyman and co-founder of the American colony of New Haven
• Alan Don, Chaplain & Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury (1931–1941), Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, 1936–1946; Dean of Westminster, 1946–1959
• David Edwards, Dean of Norwich, Provost of Southwark and a prolific author
• Accepted Frewen, priest and Archbishop of York, 1660–1664
• Bede Griffiths, monk and theologian
• Henry Hammond, 17th-century churchman
• Robert Hawker, Anglican vicar and scholar
• Charles Bousfield Huleatt, Anglican priest
• Basil Jellicoe, missioner to Canning Town
• Owen Oglethorpe, academic and Catholic Bishop, President of Magdalen College, Oxford (1536–1552 and 1553–1555), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1551–1552)
• Robert Parker, clergyman and scholar
• Henry Phillpotts, Anglican Bishop of Exeter, 1830–1869
• Reginald Pole, Cardinal in the Church of Rome
• Jeremy Sheehy, Anglican priest and academic
• William Tyndale, English reformer, linguistic genius, theologian
• Timothy Ware, monk and Bishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church (alias Kallistos Ware)
• Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal in the Church of Rome

Nobel laureates are identified

Ben Goldacre in 2009

• Paul Attfield, chemist and materials scientist
• John D. Barrow, cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician
• James Bateman, horticulturist
• H. A. Berlin, neuroscientist
• Humphry Bowen, chemist and botanist
• Henry Clerke, academic and physician, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1672–1687
• Frank Close, particle physicist, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford
• William Henry Corfield
• Charles Daubeny, chemist, botanist and geologist
• Sir Gavin de Beer, evolutionary embryologist, Director of the British Museum of Natural History and President of the Linnean Society of London
• Robin Dunbar, anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist, currently Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford
• John Eccles, Nobel laureate (1963, Medicine)
• Sir John Bretland Farmer, botanist; Professor of Botany at Imperial College London
• James Fisher, author, editor, broadcaster, naturalist
• Howard Walter Florey, Nobel laureate (1945, Medicine)
• Ben Goldacre, physician, academic and science writer
• Jeffrey Alan Gray, psychologist
• John M. Goldman, haematologist, oncologist and medical researcher; pioneer in bone-marrow transplantation for chronic myeloid leukaemia; founding Chairman of the charity Leuka[5]
• Brian Greene, theoretical physicist and string theorist
• Frank Robinson Hartley, chemist, Vice Chancellor Cranfield University
• Geoffrey Herford, entomologist and civil servant
• Francis Charles Robert Jourdain, amateur ornithologist and oologist
• Anthony James Leggett, physicist Nobel Laureate (2003, physics)
• Alfred Lodge, mathematician and President of the Mathematical Association
• Amory Lovins, American physicist, environmental scientist and writer
• Peter Medawar, Nobel laureate (1960, Medicine)
• Desmond Morris, zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter
• Gareth A. Morris, chemist
• Sheffield Airey Neave, naturalist and entomologist
• Matt Ridley, scientist, journalist, popular author, member of the House of Lords
• Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders, biologist and sociologist and later Director of the London School of Economics (1937–1957)
• A. Michael Spence, Nobel laureate (2001, Economics)
• Jon Stallworthy, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oxford
• Thomas William Webb, astronomer

• Mark Andrews, rower in the 1981 World Rowing Championships
• Harold Arkwright, cricketer
• Francis Barmby, cricketer
• Edgar Burgess, rower
• Charles Burnell, rower in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• John Carr, first-class cricketer
• Sir Christopher Chataway, former middle and long-distance runner, television news broadcaster, and Conservative politician
• Sir Collier Cudmore, lawyer, politician and Olympic rower who won the Gold medal in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Michael England, cricketer
• Philip Fleming, banker, rower, competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Stanley Garton, rower, competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Sir James Angus Gillan, Scottish rower and colonial service official; competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Ewart Horsfall, rower (1912 Summer Olympics and 1920 Summer Olympics)
• Alister Kirby, rower at the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Sir Clement Courtenay Knollys, rower and Colonial Administrator and Governor
• David Laitt, cricketer
• Sir Henry Leveson Gower, England cricketer and Test Captain
• Alister Kirby, rower who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Duncan Mackinnon, rower in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Gilchrist Maclagan, rower in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Evelyn Montague, athlete and journalist; ran in the 1924 Paris Olympics, and is immortalized in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire
• Guy Nickalls, rower who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics
• Guy Oliver Nickalls, son of Guy Nickalls, rower who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics and in the 1928 Summer Olympics
• Malcolm Nokes, schoolteacher, soldier, research scientist and Olympic athlete (hammer throw and discus throw)
• Tuppy Owen-Smith, sportsman who played Test cricket for South Africa and captained England at Rugby Union
• Henry Wells, judge and coxswain at the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Leslie Wormald, rower in the Leander-eight in the 1912 Summer Olympics

Ian Hislop in 2009

• Donald Adamson, author and historian
• Julian Barnes, writer
• Neil Bartlett, author, theatre director
• Sir John Betjeman, poet, writer and broadcaster
• Christopher Derrick, author, reviewer, publisher's reader and lecturer
• Lord Alfred Douglas, author, poet and translator
• Fernanda Eberstadt, writer
• Duncan Fallowell, novelist, travel writer, memoirist
• John Florio, linguist and lexicographer
• Alan Garner, novelist
• John Gerrard, Legacy Fellow at Magdalen and artist
• Alan Hollinghurst, novelist and poet
• Pico Iyer, essayist and writer
• Gavin Lambert, screenwriter, novelist and biographer
• Andrew Lloyd Webber, Peer of the realm and music composer
• John Lyly, writer, poet, dramatist, playwright and politician
• Robert Macfarlane, travel writer
• Compton Mackenzie, writer of fiction, biography, histories, and memoir
• Andrew McNeillie, currently Literature Editor at Oxford University Press
• Dave Morris, author of gamebooks, novels and comics
• Douglas Murray, author, writer and commentator
• Stephen Potts, author
• Benjamin Schwarz, writer
• Andrew Sullivan, author, editor, political commentator and blogger
• Wilfred Thesiger, explorer and travel writer
• Lucy Wadham, writer
• Oscar Wilde, Irish writer and poet
• George Wither, poet, pamphleteer and satirist

• Aravind Adiga, writer and journalist
• Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar, journalist and columnist
• Clive Crook, columnist for the Financial Times
• Matthew D'Ancona, journalist
• Geoffrey Dawson, editor of The Times (1912–1919 and 1923–1941)
• Bill Emmott, editor of The Economist (1993–2006)
• Sagarika Ghose, journalist, news anchor and author
• Julia Hartley-Brewer, presenter of the weekday morning radio show on Talkradio
• Bevis Hillier, art historian, author and journalist
• Ian Hislop, editor Private Eye magazine and TV series Have I Got News for You team captain
• Paul Johnson, journalist, historian, speechwriter and author
• Robert Kee, broadcaster, journalist and writer
• Nicholas D. Kristof, journalist, author, op-ed columnist
• Donald McLachlan, Scottish journalist and author, founding editor of The Sunday Telegraph
• John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of The Economist
• Peter Millar, journalist
• John Sergeant, journalist and TV personality
• Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, UK Peer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, journalist and broadcaster
• John Thornhill, deputy editor of the Financial Times
• George Will, columnist, journalist and author
• Ronan Farrow, investigative journalist

• Paul Agnew, operatic tenor
• John Mark Ainsley, lyric tenor
• Robin Blaze, countertenor
• Paul Brough, conductor and teacher
• Harry Christophers, conductor
• Vinicius de Moraes, poet, essayist, playwright and lyricist
• Anna Lapwood, organist, conductor and broadcaster
• David Lloyd-Jones, conductor
• Dudley Moore, actor, comedian, composer and musician
• Nicholas O'Neill, composer, arranger, organist and choral director
• Paul Sartin, oboist, violinist and singer with Bellowhead, and others
• James Whitbourn, composer and conductor

Louis Theroux in 2009

• Peter Brook, film and stage director
• Michael Denison, actor
• Freddie Grisewood, radio broadcaster
• Robert Hardy, actor
• Brian Inglis, journalist, historian and television presenter
• Terrence Malick, film director, screenwriter and producer
• Katie Mitchell, theatre director
• Louis Theroux, broadcaster
• Simon Woods, actor

• David Abraham, Channel Four CEO
• Sir Eric Berthoud, oil man and diplomat
• Raymond Bonham Carter, banker; father of Helena Bonham Carter
• Sir Rupert Clarke, 3rd Baronet, soldier, businessman and horse rider
• Sir Vernon Ellis, Chair of the British Council
• Darius Guppy, British-Iranian businessman
• Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk
• Luke Johnson, businessman and Financial Times columnist
• J. Paul Getty, Anglo-American industrialist
• Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, co-founder of Lastminute.com and Peeress
• Prince Rupert Loewenstein, manager of the Rolling Stones[6]
• Sir Humphrey Mackworth, industrialist and politician
• Clare Melford, former CEO of the International Business Leaders Forum
• Michael Montague, Baron Montague of Oxford, businessman and politician
• Pete Flint, founder of Trulia, Internet entrepreneur
• Sir Simon Robey, investment banker, co-founder of Robey Warshaw
• Laura Wade-Gery, Director of multi-channel e-commerce at Tesco and member of the British Government's Digital Advisory Board

Portrait of Vincent Cartwright Vickers, platinum print, circa 1910.

• T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), 'Lawrence of Arabia'
• Thomas Tudor Loveday (1875–1966), Principal of Southampton University College (1920–1922) and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol (1922–1944)
• Simon Forman, Elizabethan astrologer, occultist and herbalist
• Robert Peverell Hichens, officer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve
• Marc S. Ellenbogen, diplomat, philanthropist and President of the Prague Society for International Cooperation
• Vincent Cartwright Vickers, economist, humorist, artist, and Governor of the Bank of England.
• James Rebanks, author and sheep farmer.

• P. G. Wodehouse attributes a Magdalen undergraduateship to his fictional literary character Bertie Wooster.
• Tibby, in E. M. Forster's Howards End, is also a Magdalen undergraduate.
• Bridey in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited
• Nicholas Glozier in J.H. Fox's A Kentish Dream
• Bernard, the political adviser in Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, often wears a Magdalen tie.