List of people associated with Balliol College, Oxford

The following is a list of notable people associated with Balliol College, Oxford, including alumni and Masters of the college. When available, year of matriculation is provided in parentheses, as listed in the relevant edition of The Balliol College Register or in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Complete (or very nearly complete) lists of Fellows and students, arranged by year of matriculation, can be found in the published Balliol College Register; the 1st edition, 2nd edition and 3rd edition.

This list of notable alumni consists almost entirely of men, because women were admitted to the college only from 1979. To assist with verification, each name links to its Wikipedia page (except for those so ancient that no page exists). Each name only appears once in the lists, even though the person may have established themselves in more than one category.

Medicine

 * Alex Jadad (1992) FRS neuroscientist Jadad Scale
 * Atul Gawande (1987) Rhodes Scholar "The Checklist Manifesto"
 * Stephen Bergman (1966) Rhodes Scholar "The House of God" under pen name Samuel Shem
 * Sir George Alberti (c1960) FRCP diabetologist
 * Baruch Blumberg (1957) Nobel Prize Hep B virus
 * Stephen Grosz (1952) psychoanalyst "The Examined Life"
 * Raymond Michael Gaze (1949) neuroscientist
 * Ludwig Guttmann (1939) Refugee, founder of the Paralympic Games

Biology / Mathematical Biology

 * Ewan Birney FRS (c1992) genomicist
 * Sir Peter Donnelly (1980) Rhodes Scholar FRS biostatistician
 * Philip Maini (c1979) FRS Mathematical biologist
 * Julian Peto (1964) FRS Epidemiologist
 * Denis Noble (1963) FRS Systems biology
 * Robert Hinde (1948) FRS zoologist, ethologist and psychologist
 * P. A. P. Moran (1946) Population genetics
 * Sir Julian Huxley (1905) FRS evolutionary biologist, first Director of UNESCO
 * Reginald Farrer (1897) Plant collector "My Rock Garden"
 * Thomas Andrew Knight (c1777) FRS horticulturalist

Chemistry

 * Daniel Adzei Bekoe (c1954) FGA Vice-Chancellor, University of Ghana
 * Jeremy Knowles (1955) FRS FAAAS enzyme catalysis
 * Oliver Smithies (c1943) Nobel Prize gene recombination
 * Christopher Longuet-Higgins (1941) FRS FRSE Molecular Science
 * Bill Smythies (1931) Naturalist
 * Alexander George Ogston (1929) FRS Biochemist
 * Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood FRS (c1915) Nobel Prize mechanism of chemical reactions
 * E. J. Bowen (1915) FRS light chemist
 * Sir Benjamin Brodie (1835) FRS beeswax

Mathematics

 * Vicky Neale (2014) "Closing the Gap: the Quest to Understand Prime Numbers"
 * James Maynard (2009) Fields Medallist, Number theorist
 * Nick Trefethen(1997) FRS Numerical analysis
 * Sarah B. Hart (c1994) "Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature"
 * Dame Frances Kirwan (1986) FRS Oxford Professor of Geometry
 * Philip Candelas (1975) FRS Professor of Mathematics
 * Anand Pillay (1970) Model Theory
 * Aubrey William Ingleton (1967) "Representation of matroids"
 * Robin Wilson (1962) Public mathematician
 * Leslie Colin Woods (1961) Rhodes Scholar, Theromodynamics
 * Gilbert Strang (1955) Rhodes Scholar, Linear Algebra
 * Donald Michie (1945) Codebreaker, AI pioneer
 * Sir Wilfred Cockcroft (c1941) "The Cockcroft Report" on teaching mathematics
 * Graham Higman (1935) FRS Group theorist
 * Holbrook Mann MacNeille (1928) Rhodes Scholar,  Director, American Mathematical Society
 * Arthur Geoffrey Walker FRS FRSE (c1927) Cosmologist
 * J. H. C. Whitehead (c1922) FRS Codebreaker
 * Sir Alexander Oppenheim (1921) FRSE Oppenheim Conjecture
 * E. C. Titchmarsh (1917) FRS Number theorist
 * Theodore William Chaundy (c1907) "Differential Calculus"
 * Charles Howard Hinton (c1874) coined the term "tesseract"
 * Henry John Stephen Smith (1845) FRS FRSE Smith Normal Form
 * William Spottiswoode (c1843) FRS FRSE Determinants
 * James Stirling (1711) (expelled) Stirling's Approximation
 * Noah Bridges (fl. 1661) Cryptographer
 * Cuthbert Tunstall (fl. 1491) He published the first book of mathematics printed in England

Physics and Astronomy

 * Sir Anthony James Leggett (1955) FRS Nobel Prize superconductors and superfluids
 * Heinrich Gerhard Kuhn (1950) FRS worked on Manhattan Project
 * Herbert Squire FRS (c1927) Aerospace engineer
 * James Bradley (1711) FRS Astronomer Royal
 * David Gregory (1692) FRS Populariser of Isaac Newton
 * John Keill (c1691) FRS Newton's chief defender

Economists

 * Stephanie Flanders (1986) public economist
 * Gavyn Davies (1972) chaired BBC
 * Deepak Nayyar (c1968) Rhodes Scholar development economics
 * Patrick Minford (c1961) pro-Brexit economist
 * Lester Thurow (1960) "Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe and America"
 * Peter Donaldson (c1952) economics educationist
 * Michael Posner (c1949) UK Economic Advisor
 * Walter Rostow (1936) US National Security Advisor
 * Sir Donald MacDougall (1931) Head Government Economic Service
 * Sir John Hicks (1922) Nobel Prize general equilibrium theory
 * G. D. H. Cole (c1907) co-operative movement
 * Sir William Beveridge (c1897) Founder, the Welfare State
 * W. G. S. Adams (c1897) created Oxford PPE course
 * Sir William Ashley (c1878) economic historian
 * Francis Edgeworth (1868) FBA utility theory
 * Charles Stanton Devas (c1866) Catholic economist
 * Adam Smith (1740) "The Wealth of Nations"

Banking and Finance

 * Charles R. Conn (c1982) Rhodes Scholar, business creator
 * Nicola Horlick (1979) fund manager "superwoman"
 * Martin Taylor (c1971) CEO Barclays Bank
 * Sir Adam Ridley (c1962) director of several banks
 * James Robertson (1946) Director, Inter-Bank Research Organisation
 * John Templeton (c1934) Rhodes Scholar, Fund Manager
 * Sir Otto Niemeyer (c1901) Bank of England director
 * Oswald Toynbee Falk (c1897) stockbroker
 * Sir Lionel Barnett Abrahams (1892) Senior civil servant, India Office

Political, Social and Economic Historians

 * Maxine Berg (Fellow 2009) Economic
 * Arthur Marwick (1957) Social
 * Raphael Samuel (c1952) Marxist
 * Hugh Stretton (1946) Rhodes Scholar Economic
 * R. M. Hartwell (1948) Economic
 * Fin Crisp (1938) Rhodes Scholar Political
 * Peter Calvocoressi (1931) Political
 * Sir Denis Brogan (c1923) Political
 * Sir Keith Hancock (1921) Rhodes Scholar, Economic
 * Sir Lewis Namier (1908) History of Parliament
 * R. H. Tawney (1899) Economic

European History

 * Anthony Teasdale (1975) European Union
 * Timothy D. Snyder (1995) Central and Eastern Europe
 * Frank McDonough (c1981) WW2
 * Philip Nord (1971) France
 * Jeremy Lawrance (1971) FBA Spain
 * Geoff Eley (c1967) Germany
 * James H. Billington (1950) Rhodes Scholar, Russia, Librarian of Congress

Colonial Historians

 * Ronald Robinson Fellow (1971) FBA Empire
 * C. A. Bayly (c1963) Empire
 * Tapan Raychaudhuri (1957) India
 * Manning Clark (1938) Australia
 * Daniel J. Boorstin (1934) America
 * John La Nauze (1931) Australia, Rhodes Scholar
 * Max Crawford (c1928) Australia
 * Donald Creighton (c1925) Canada
 * Shyamji Krishna Varma (1879) India

Early Modern Historians

 * Suzannah Lipscomb (2009) "Not Just the Tudors"
 * Keith Thomas (c1951) "Religion and the Decline of Magic"
 * Gerald Aylmer (c1946) 17th Century bureaucracy
 * Christopher Hill (1931) Master of Balliol, 17th Century, Marxist
 * Vivian Hunter Galbraith (c1911) Domesday Book
 * Charles Harding Firth (c1875) English Civil War

Medievalists

 * Patrick Wormald (1966) "The Making of English Law"
 * Jeremy Catto (c1957) Politics and Religion
 * Maurice Keen (1954) Chivalry
 * Rodney Hilton (1935) Feudalism, Marxist
 * R. H. C. Davis (1937) History of Medieval Europe
 * Richard Southern (1929) "The Making of the Middle Ages"
 * F. M. Powicke (c1900) 13th Century
 * Robert Howard Hodgkin (1896) Anglo-Saxons
 * H. W. C. Davis (c1892) Medieval Europe, father of RHC Davis

General Historians

 * Dan Snow (c1998) TV historian
 * Dominic Sandbrook (c1992) "The Rest is History" podcast
 * Sir Henry Marten (1891) instructor, Queen Elizabeth II
 * Sir O. M. Edwards (1884) Wales

Middle East and Holocaust Historians

 * Peter Hayes (1968) The holocaust
 * Bernard Wasserstein (1966) Jewish History
 * Sir Leon Simon (c1899) Zionist

Public Intellectuals

 * David Aaronovitch (1972) did not graduate, communist, Orwell prizewinner
 * Christopher Hitchens (1967) New Atheist
 * Richard Dawkins (1959) FRS "The Selfish Gene"
 * C. E. M. Joad (1910) "It all depends on what you mean by.."
 * Arnold J. Toynbee (1907) FBA "A Study of History"

Archaeologists

 * Sir John Beazley (1903)
 * Sir George Macdonald (1884)

Judges

 * Julian Knowles (c1987) High Court Judge
 * Robert Reed (c1978) FRSE President of the Supreme Court
 * Alan Rodger (1969) FBA FRSE Justice of the Supreme Court
 * William Nimmo Smith (c1961) Judge of Supreme Courts of Justice, Scotland
 * Mathew Thorpe (1957) Lord Justice of Appeal
 * Sir Henry Brooke (1957) Lord Justice of Appeal
 * Thomas Bingham (1954) FBA Lord Chief Justice
 * Brian Hutton (1950) Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
 * Alan Stewart Orr (c1933) Lord Justice of Appeal
 * John Marshall Harlan II (c1921) Rhodes Scholar, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court
 * Charles Bowen (1853) FRS Lord Justice of Appeal
 * Joseph William Chitty (c1846) High Court Justice
 * John Coleridge (c1838) Lord Chief Justice
 * Henry Bathurst (c1722) Lord High Chancellor
 * Thomas Coventry (1592) Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
 * John Popham (c1549) Lord Chief Justice

Lawyers

 * Jennifer Robinson (2006) Human rights barrister
 * Joel Bakan (c1981) Constitutional law
 * Simon Walsh (c1980) Police law
 * George Carman (1949) Celebrity defence barrister
 * Peter Benenson (1939) Human rights barrister, founder Amnesty International
 * Charles Isaac Elton (c1957) Property Lawyer, "The Great Book Collectors"
 * Nicholas Katzenbach (1947) Rhodes Scholar, US Attorney General
 * Courtenay Ilbert (c1859)
 * Albert Venn Dicey (c1853) "the rule of law"

Music

 * Miron Fyodorov (2004) Russian hip hop artist Oxxxymiron
 * Nicholas Kenyon (1969) BBC Radio 3, BBC Proms
 * Vernon Handley (c1948) Conductor
 * John Farmer (c1935) Composer and keyboardist
 * George Malcolm (c1935) harpsichordist
 * Richard Buckle (c1934) Left after a year. Founded Ballet magazine
 * Sydney Bertram Carter(1933) "Lord of the Dance"
 * Inglis Gundry (1923) Composer
 * Victor Hely-Hutchinson (c1919) switched to RCM after one year, "Carol Symphony"
 * F.S.Kelly (1901) Musician and composer. Olympic Gold Medallist
 * Harold Boulton (c1877) "Skye Boat Song"
 * Julian Sturgis (c1867) "the best serious librettist of the day" (W.S.Gilbert) FA Cup Final winner

Chess

 * Raaphi Persitz (c1952) chess master, financial journalist and chess writer
 * Leonard Barden (c1947) chess master, activist and journalist
 * Sir Theodore Tylor (1918) Fellow, blind, jurisprudence don, chess master
 * H. J. R. Murray (1887) school inspector, chess historian, "The History of Chess", son of the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary

Novelists

 * Rana Dasgupta (1990) "Tokyo Cancelled"
 * Zia Haider Rahman (c1989) "In the Light of What we Know"
 * Amit Chaudhuri (c1983) Literary activist
 * Ian Watson (1960) Science Fiction
 * Robert Barnard (c1954) Crime, "Death of an Old Goat"
 * Kyril Bonfiglioli (1955) "Mortdecai
 * W. J. Burley (c1946) Crime, "Wycliffe"
 * Dan Davin (1936) Rhodes Scholar, "Cliffs of Fall"
 * Robertson Davies (1935) "The Deptford Trilogy"
 * Anthony Powell (1923) "A Dance to the Music of Time"
 * Graham Greene (1922) "The Power and the Glory"
 * Nevil Shute "A Town Like Alice" (c1918)
 * Beverley Nichols (1917) "Down the Garden Path"
 * L. P. Hartley (1915) "The Go-Between"
 * Aldous Huxley (1913) "Brave New World"
 * Anthony Hope Hawkins (c1881) "The Prisoner of Zenda"

Classicists

 * Timothy Barnes (1960)
 * John Beazley CH FBA Archaeologist
 * Glen Bowersock (1957)
 * Kenneth Dover FBA Classical Greek scholar
 * Robinson Ellis (1852) FBA
 * Jasper Griffin (1956) FBA
 * William Hardie (1880)
 * Richard William Hunt Paleographer
 * Edgar Lobel Papyrologist
 * Russell Meiggs Ancient History
 * David Binning Monro FBA Homeric scholar
 * Roger Mynors FBA Classicist
 * Robin Nisbet FBA Latinist
 * H. J. Rose (c.1905) Mythologist
 * Robert Scott Philologist
 * William Watt FBA Classicist
 * Martin Litchfield West

Literary Scholars

 * George Steiner (1950) Polyglot and polymath
 * David Daiches (1934) "A Critical History of English Literature"
 * Cyril Connolly (1922) "Enemies of Promise"
 * Logan Pearsall Smith (1891) "Words and Idioms"
 * Henry Watson Fowler(1877) "a lexicographical genius" (The Times)
 * Henry Sweet (1869) "A Handbook of Phonetics"
 * John Churton Collins(1868) "The Study of English Literature"
 * John Nichol (1855) Byron, Burns, Carlyle
 * Herbert Coleridge (c1848)

(Auto/) Biographers

 * Howard Marks (1964) "Mr Nice" autobiography
 * Ved Mehta (1956) blind, autobiography
 * Nicholas Mosley (c1946) wrote critical biography of his father, the fascist Sir Oswald Mosley
 * Francis King (c1941) "Yesterday Came Suddenly" 1993 autobiography
 * Peter Quennell (1923) "the last genuine example of the English man of letters"
 * John Stewart Collis (c1920) Biography of G.B.Shaw and "The Worm Forgives the Plough" about working the land in WW2
 * Sir Sidney Lee (c1879) Editor, Dictionary of National Biography
 * John Addington Symonds (1858) Shelley, Michelangelo etc
 * John Gibson Lockhart (c1810) wrote biography of this father-in-law, Sir Walter Scott
 * John Evelyn (1637) FRS diarist

Newspaper Editors

 * Andrew Knight (c1957) The Economist
 * William Rees-Mogg (1946) The Times
 * David Astor (c1931) did not graduate, The Observer
 * Henry Vincent Hodson (c1924) The Sunday Times

Political Journalists

 * Stephen Bush (2008) Financial Times
 * Robert Peston (c1978) BBC then ITV
 * Charles Krauthammer (c1971) Commonwealth Scholar, US conservative
 * Martin Kettle (c1967) The Guardian, Marxist
 * Peter Snow (c1958) Current affairs TV presenter
 * Hugo Young (c1956) The Guardian
 * Peter Usborne (c1955) co-founder, Private Eye, founder Usborne publishers

TV and Film

 * Chadwick Boseman (1998 summer school) Superhero actor (US)
 * Vanessa Engle (c1980) Documentary maker
 * Maurice Gorham (c1920) Controller of BBC TV
 * Raymond Massey (c1919) Hollywood Actor "Seven Angry Men"
 * Roger Mayne (c1947) Photographer
 * John Schlesinger (c1946) Film Director "Midnight Cowboy"

Security

 * Cressida Dick, (1979) commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police and daughter of Balliol Senior Tutor Marcus Dick
 * Lieutenant-General Simon Mayall (c1975) Defence Senior Advisor Middle East
 * Martin Fido (c1960) True crime writer
 * John Keegan (1953) Military historian
 * R. V. Jones (1934) FRS "the father of scientific intelligence"
 * Sir John Rennie (c1932) Director MI6
 * Group Captain Archie Hope (c1931) DFC, RAF pilot WW2
 * Lieutenant Arthur Rhys-Davids (1916) MC declined scholarship to join the Royal Flying Corps
 * Captain John Aidan Liddell (1906) VC MC Royal Flying Corps
 * Lieutenant-General Adrian Carton de Wiart (c1898) VC left before graduating to fight in Boer War
 * Vice-Admiral William Monson (1581) his Naval Tracts describe Navy life

School Masters

 * Nick Bevan (c1960) rowing coach and headmaster Shiplake School
 * Alec Peterson (c1926) International Baccalaureate
 * John Fulton (c1923) Chair, British Council
 * Robert Birley (c1921) Headmaster Eton
 * Richard Powell Francis (c1879) teacher and first Australian to graduate from Balliol
 * George Ferris Whidborne Mortimer (1823) Headmaster, City of London School, Abolitionist

Philosophers

 * Toby Ord (2003) Effective altruism
 * Katherine Hawley (1989) Metaphysics
 * John Tasioulas (1989) Moral philosophy
 * Herman Cappelen (1987) Philosophy of language
 * Michael Otsuka (1986) Political philosophy
 * Robert Maximilian de Gaynesford (1986) Philosophy of language
 * Stephen Mulhall (1984) German philosophy
 * Paul W. Franks (1983) Philosophy of language
 * Ian Rumfitt (1983) FBA Philosophy of language
 * Adrian William Moore (1979) FBA Metaphysics
 * Michael Sandel (1975) Rhodes Scholar, Political philosophy
 * Timothy Williamson (1974) Logic
 * Joseph Raz (1972) Jurisprudence
 * William Newton-Smith (1967) Fellow, Philosophy of science
 * Arthur Prior (1966) Fellow, Logic
 * Kit Fine (1964) Logic
 * Sir Anthony Kenny (1964) Master, Philosophy of mind
 * Roy Bhaskar (1963) Philosophy of Science
 * Sir Neil MacCormick (c1962) Jurisprudence
 * Derek Parfit (1961) Moral philosophy
 * Hans Sluga (c1960) German philosophy
 * Alan Ryan (1959) Political philsophy
 * Charles Taylor (1952) Rhodes Scholar, Political philosophy
 * Alan Montefiore (1948) European philosophy
 * John Lucas (1947) Philosophy of mathematics
 * Sir Bernard Williams (1947) FBA Moral philosophy
 * David Pears (1946) FBA Philosophy of mind
 * Ernest Gellner (1942) European philosophy
 * Richard Wollheim (1941) Philosophy of mind
 * R. M. Hare (1937) Moral philosophy
 * Peter Geach (1934) Logic
 * Sir Stuart Hampshire (1933) Philosophy of mind
 * J. L. Austin (1929) "How to Do Things with Words" 1955
 * John Niemeyer Findlay (1924) Rhodes Scholar rational mysticism
 * Austin Marsden Farrer (c1922) Theologian
 * John Macmurray (1913) The self as agent
 * Herbert James Paton (c1908) FBA German philosophy
 * Olaf Stapledon (c1905) transhumanist
 * Sir W. D. Ross (c1896) moral realist
 * Harold Joachim (c1886) FBA Coherence theory of truth
 * John Alexander Smith (1884) Idealist
 * F. C. S. Schiller (c1882) FBA pragmatist
 * Samuel Alexander (1878) Emergentist
 * David George Ritchie (1875) Idealist
 * John Cook Wilson (1868) Logic
 * Bernard Bosanquet (c1866) Idealist
 * Richard Lewis Nettleship (c1864) Idealism
 * William Wallace (1864) German philosophy
 * Alfred Barratt (1862) Ethics and science
 * Edward Caird (c1857) Master, Idealist
 * Thomas Hill Green (1855) Idealist
 * Sir William Hamilton (1807) natural realist

Social and political theorists

 * Graeme Garrard (1990)
 * Stephen Macedo (1980)
 * David Miller (1967)
 * Robert Putnam (c1964) Fulbright Fellow, "Bowling Alone"
 * Norman O. Brown (1932)
 * Sir Ernest Barker
 * Steven Lukes
 * Robert Ranulph Marett

Poets

 * Matthew Arnold
 * Henry Charles Beeching
 * Hilaire Belloc
 * Andrew Cecil Bradley
 * Charles Stuart Calverley
 * Arthur Hugh Clough
 * Edward Dyer
 * Julian Grenfell
 * William Money Hardinge
 * Gerard Manley Hopkins
 * Andrew Lang
 * Walter Lyon
 * Francis Turner Palgrave
 * F. T. Prince
 * Christopher Ricks
 * William Young Sellar
 * John Campbell Shairp
 * Patrick Shaw-Stewart
 * Robert Southey (did not graduate)
 * Eric Stenbock
 * Algernon Charles Swinburne (rusticated 1859)

Colonial Administrators

 * George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (c1877) viceroy of India
 * Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin (c1867) viceroy of India
 * Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (c1863) viceroy of India
 * Roger Ludlow (c1609) US Colonial lawmaker

Currently active
Members of Parliament
 * Yvette Cooper(Home Secretary)
 * Helen Hayes
 * Sir Julian Lewis
 * Matthew Pennycook
 * Yuan Yang (politician)

House of Lords
 * Alan Beith
 * Jo Johnson
 * Roger Freeman
 * Ralph Palmer
 * Chris Patten
 * Matilda Simon, 3rd Baroness Simon of Wythenshawe (2001)
 * Dick Taverne

Deceased members of the House of Lords since 2000

 * James Douglas-Hamilton died 2023
 * Peter Brooke died 2023
 * Robert Maclennan died 2020
 * Patrick Mayhew died 2016

MPs and MEPs who completed service after 2020

 * Damian Green
 * Boris Johnson (prime minister)
 * David Johnston (British politician)
 * Robin Walker

MPs and MEPs who completed service 2001 - 2020

 * David Faber
 * Louis Grech (MEP, Malta)
 * Charlotte Leslie
 * Neil MacCormick (MEP)
 * Ian Pearson
 * James Purnell
 * Rory Stewart
 * Charles Tannock (MEP)
 * Stephen Twigg
 * Kitty Ussher
 * Tony Wright

UK politicians active post-World War II

 * John Boyd-Carpenter
 * Alex Callinicos
 * George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk
 * Dingle Foot
 * Hugh Fraser
 * Ian Gilmour
 * Bryan Gould
 * Grey Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie
 * Anthony Greenwood
 * Jo Grimond
 * Denis Healey
 * Edward Heath (Prime Minister)
 * Stuart Holland
 * Christopher Hollis
 * David James
 * Roy Jenkins
 * Toby Jessel
 * Hamilton Kerr
 * James MacColl
 * John Mackintosh
 * Crawford Murray MacLehose
 * Harold Macmillan (Prime Minister)
 * Walter Monckton
 * Madron Seligman
 * Frank Soskice
 * Dick Taverne
 * Mike Woodin

UK politicians active between World War I and World War II

 * Leo Amery
 * H. H. Asquith (Prime Minister)
 * George Nathaniel Curzon
 * Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton
 * R Palme Dutt
 * Aubrey Herbert
 * Alfred Milner
 * Harold Nicolson
 * Herbert Samuel
 * Arthur Steel-Maitland
 * Tom Wintringham (did not graduate)

UK politicians pre-World War I

 * Victor Bruce
 * Edward Cardwell
 * Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon
 * Stafford Northcote
 * Arthur Peel
 * Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice
 * Robert Reid
 * Arnold Sandwith Ward
 * William Wickham (c1851)

Politicians, statesmen and monarchs in non-UK countries

 * Australia
 * Kim Beazley
 * Botswana
 * Seretse Khama
 * Canada
 * Vincent Massey
 * Bob Rae
 * Germany
 * Adam von Trott zu Solz
 * Richard von Weizsäcker
 * Hong Kong SAR
 * Carson Wen
 * Japan
 * Masako Owada
 * Kenya
 * Wambu Mathu
 * Norway
 * Harald V
 * Olav V
 * Malaysia
 * Tuanku Jaafar
 * South Africa
 * Jan Hofmeyr
 * Sri Lanka
 * Lakshman Kadirgamar
 * United States
 * Luke Bronin
 * James Burnham
 * Christopher Dell
 * E. J. Dionne
 * Philip Mayer Kaiser
 * Matthew Nimetz
 * Michael Sandel
 * Paul Sarbanes
 * George Stephanopoulos

Theologians and clergy

 * George Abbot
 * Mirza Nasir Ahmad
 * Archibald Alison (1775)
 * John Bell
 * Lionel Blue
 * Thomas Bradwardine
 * Alexander Briant
 * Israel Brodie
 * Thomas Byles
 * John Douglas
 * Shoghi Effendi
 * Frederick William Faber
 * Austin Farrer
 * Cardinal Heard
 * Ronald Knox
 * Cosmo Lang
 * Henry Manning
 * Thomas More (suggested but undocumented)
 * John Morton
 * George Neville
 * Henry Oxenham
 * John Coleridge Patteson
 * Hardwicke Rawnsley (1870) Founder, National Trust
 * Michael Sadgrove (1968)
 * Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
 * Bill Sykes
 * Archibald Campbell Tait
 * Frederick Temple
 * William Temple
 * Godfrey Thring
 * Joseph Wood
 * John Wycliffe
 * David Young (bishop)

Other

 * Johnny Acton (1989)
 * Cyril George Fox Cartwright
 * Sir Nigel Foulkes, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority
 * Cecil Jackson-Cole
 * Richard Jenkyns (1802) Master, educational innovator
 * Richard Lambert
 * Arnold Lunn
 * Hardit Malik
 * Ghislaine Maxwell, socialite and convicted child sex trafficker
 * Grigor McClelland
 * J. Irwin Miller (1931)
 * Leif Mills
 * Clare Moriarty
 * Geoff Mulgan
 * Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi
 * Raj Patel
 * Henry Primrose
 * Aly Kassam-Remtulla Rhodes Scholar
 * Alan Rotherham (1881)
 * Warren Rovetch
 * Peter Sedgwick
 * Richard Sharp
 * Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
 * Henry Hawkins Tremayne (1759)
 * Laurence Whistler (1946)
 * Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead (1880)

Fictional

 * Sir Humphrey Appleby
 * The Rev Francis Arabin (from Barchester Towers)
 * John Blaylock (from Whitley Streiber's The Hunger)
 * Captain Hook
 * Sir Arnold Robinson
 * Captain John Charity Spring
 * Lord Peter Wimsey

Notable applicants who were not matriculated

 * Isaiah Berlin
 * Tony Blair
 * Bill Clinton
 * Daniel Cohn-Bendit
 * Daniel Dennett
 * A. Hyatt Mayor
 * Avrion Mitchison FRS immunologist
 * Colin McGinn
 * Lytton Strachey

Balliol Chancellors of Oxford University

 * Richard FitzRalph (1332)
 * William de Wilton (1374)
 * Thomas Chace (1426)
 * Richard Rotherham (1440)
 * William Grey (1440)
 * Robert Thwaytes (1445)
 * George Neville (1453); (1461)
 * John Morton (1494)
 * George Nathaniel Curzon (1907)
 * Alfred Milner (1925)
 * Edward Grey (1928)
 * Harold Macmillan (1960)
 * Roy Harris Jenkins (1987)
 * Christopher Francis Patten (2003)

Masters of Balliol
Balliol is run by the Master and Fellows of the college. The Master of the college must be "the person who is, in [the Fellows'] judgement, most fit for the government of the College as a place of religion, learning, and education". The current Master of Balliol is Helen Ghosh.