The following is a list of notable Old Greshamians, former pupils of Gresham's School, an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt, Norfolk, England.

Public life

James Allan – British High Commissioner in Mauritius and ambassador to MozambiqueLidell, Charles Lawrence Scruton & Douglas, A. B., The History and Register of Gresham's School, 1555-1954 (Ipswich, 1955)Old Greshamian Club Address Book (Cheverton & Son Ltd., Cromer, 1999)Who's Who 2003 (A. & C. Black, London, 2003) Charles M. Anderson (1918–1961), UNICEFAnderson, Charles Martin, Who's Who and Who Was Who, online edition by Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007 Duncan Baker (born 1979) – Conservative Member of Parliament. Jeremy Bamber (born 1961) - British convicted mass murderer, apprehended 29 September 1985. Sir Eric Berthoud – British ambassador to Denmark and PolandOxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) Robert Brightiffe (c. 1666–1749) barrister and Member of Parliament Derek Bryan – Diplomat, sinologist, writer Erskine Childers – fourth President of IrelandI Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School by S.G.G. Benson and Martin Crossley Evans (James & James, London, 2002)Young, John N., Erskine H. Childers, President of Ireland: a Biography (Gerrards Cross and Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Colin Smythe, 1985, ), page 18 Sir Stewart Crawford – diplomat Kenelm Hubert Digby (1912–2001), proposer of the notorious 1933 "King and Country" debate and later Attorney General and judge in Sarawak Bernard Floud – Labour politician Sir Cecil Graves – Director-General of the BBC Thomas George Greenwell – National Conservative member of parliament"Greenwell, Col. Thomas George", in Who Was Who (A. & C. Black, 1920–2008; online edition by Oxford University Press, December 2007, accessed 3 December 2011 (subscription required) Sir Christopher Heydon – 16th century member of parliament Paul Howell – Conservative Member of the European Parliament for Norfolk Robert Lymbery - Common Serjeant of London Donald Maclean – diplomat and spy 11th Earl of Northesk – parliamentarian Terence O'Brien – British ambassador to Nepal, Burma and Indonesia John Playfair Price – diplomat, a President of the Oxford Union Laurance Reed – Conservative politician Lord Reith – first Director-General of the BBC – politician Wilfrid Roberts – Liberal politician Christian Schiller – HM Inspector of Schools 11th Lord Strabolgi – Labour politician Dr Thomas Stuttaford – Conservative politician and journalist C. G. H. Simon (1914–2002), Income Tax General Commissioner Lord Simon of Glaisdale – Conservative politician and law lord Lord Simon of Wythenshawe – socialist and journalist Sir Edward Blanshard Stamp – Lord Justice of Appeal Sir William Royden Stuttaford – President of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations"Stuttaford, Sir William (Royden)", in Who Was Who, A. & C. Black, 1920–2008, online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007 STUTTAFORD, Sir William (Royden) (subscription site) accessed 5 January 2009 Sir Gerald Thesiger – High Court JudgeBurke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, ed. Charles Mosley (107th edition, 3 volumes, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 759 Sir John Tusa – Director of BBC World Service Lord Wilson of High Wray – governor of the BBC and Lord Lieutenant of Westmorland and of Cumbria Sir Percy Wyn-Harris – governor of The Gambia

Armed forces

General Sir Terence Airey – soldier, GOC Hong Kong Captain Joe Baker-Cresswell – Royal Navy officer, aide-de-camp to George VI Peter Beck – soldier and schoolmasterThe London Gazette dated 9 December 1938, p. 7,787"PETER BECK Headmaster who caned Prince Charles — twice" (obituary) in The Times dated 4 June 2002, p. 27, from The Times Digital Archive, accessed 16 September 2013 General Sir Robert Bray – Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe Sir Stephen Bull, 2nd Baronet – killed on active service in Java, 1942 Donald Cunnell – First World War fighter pilot Air Vice-Marshal Sir William Cushion – Royal Air Force officer and British Overseas Airways Corporation executive"Cushion, Air Vice-Marshal Sir William Boston", in Who Was Who, A. & C. Black Major-General Guy Gregson – soldierWho's Who 1969 (A. & C. Black, London, 1969) Sir Christopher Heydon – took part in the capture of Cádiz, 1596J. Venn and J. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses: a biographical list of all known students, graduates, and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900, 2 pts in 10 vols.(1922–54); repr. in 2 vols.(1974–8) General Sir William Holmes – Second World War generalSpeech Days: A New Tradition At Gresham's in The Times, Monday, June 27, 1938, page 20 Henry Howard – Second World War commander of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry"Lt. Colonel Henry Howard DSO MC" (obituary) in The Herald (Glasgow) dated 27 May 2000 Brigadier Julian Jefferson, British Army officer Major-General John Lethbridge – soldier Rear Admiral Martin Lucey (1920–1992), Flag Officer, Scotland and Northern Ireland and Admiral President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich"Lucey, Rear-Adm. Martin Noel", in Who Was Who 1991–1995 (A. & C. Black, 1996) Major-General Patrick Marriott – Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst 2009–2012'MARRIOTT, Major-General Patrick Claude' in Who's Who 2012 (London: A. & C. Black, 2012) Rear-Admiral Brian Perowne – Chief of Fleet Support, Royal Navy'Perowne, Rear-Adm. (Benjamin) Brian (born 24 July 1947)' in Who's Who 2011 (A. & C. Black, 2011) Brigadier Sir Philip Toosey – Bridge on the River Kwai commander Tom Wintringham – soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, communist Major-General A. E. Younger – soldier Major General Alastair Duncan – soldier

Church

John Astley – 18th-century Norfolk pluralistJohn Archibald Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses: Part II. 1752–1900, Vol. I (1940), p. 88 Edwin Boston – founder of the Cadeby Light Railway, "the Fat Clergyman" in the books of the Rev. W. AwdryScott, Peter, A History of the Alton Towers Railway: Including Other Railways & Transport Appendix Eight: Cadeby Light Railway online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 13 April 2008) John Bradburne – Franciscan John Burrell (1762–1825), clergyman and entomologistJohn Venn, 'Burrell, John', in Alumni Cantabrigienses (Part II, 1752–1900, vol. I Abbey–Challis, 1940), unique identifier BRL779J John Daly – bishop of The Gambia, Accra, Korea and Taejon Colin Forrester-Paton – missionary and Chaplain to H.M. The Queen in Scotland Most Rev. David Hand – Archbishop of Papua New GuineaGod's colourful and inspirational soldier Obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald, 28 April 2006 (accessed 21 October 2007) Dr John Johnson (1769–1833) – clergyman and editorCatharine Bodham Johnson, Introduction to Letters of Lady Hesketh to the Rev. John Johnson LL.D. (1901), pp. 5–7 Peter Lee – bishop of the diocese of Christ the King, Johannesburg William Lubbock – 18th-century divine, Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge Charles Abdy Marcon – Master of Marcon's Hall, Oxford, 1891 to 1918'Marcon, Rev. Charles Abdy, M.A.' in Who's Who, vol. 60 (1908) John Moorman – Bishop of Ripon Thomas Pyle – 18th-century clergyman and writer Herbert Reeve – Church of England missionary and clergyman in New ZealandJohn Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part II. 1752–1900, vol. v (1953), p. 268 Robin Woods – Dean of Windsor and Bishop of Worcester

Medicine

Richard Battle – plastic surgeon Arthur Doyne Courtenay Bell – consultant paediatrician"Arthur Doyne Courtenay Bell", rcplondon.ac.uk, accessed 30 October 2023 Roger Carpenter – neurophysiologist Major-General Joseph Crowdy – Commandant of the Royal Army Medical Corps Michael Fordham – psychiatrist Douglas Gairdner, paediatrician'D. M. T. Gairdner' (obituary) in British Medical Journal, vol. 304, no. 6839 (1992), p. 1438 Thomas Girdlestone – physician and writer John Grange – immunologist William Henry Kelson, physician, president of the Hunterian Society"Kelson, William Henry" in Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edition by OUP, December 2007 (subscription required)accessed 23 August 2008 Dermod MacCarthy – paediatrician"Dermod De La Chevallerie MacCarthy" in Munks Roll – Lives of the Fellows volume VIII, Royal College of Physicians, 2011, page 300 William Rushton FRS – physiologist Thomas Stuttaford – doctor and politician Hugh Christian Watkins – cardiologist'WATKINS, Prof. Hugh Christian', in Who's Who 2012 (London: A. & C. Black, 2012) Anthony Yates – rheumatologist

Nobel Prize-winner

Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin – Nobel Prize for Medicine, President of the Royal Society, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge

Academics Arts

John Bensusan-Butt – landscape painter"BENSUSAN-BUTT, John Gordon, landscape painter" in Bernard Dolman, ed., Who's Who in Art, Vol. 26 (Art Trade Press, 1994), p. 36 Norman Cohn – historianNorman Cohn: Historian who drew parallels between apocalyptic medieval movements and Marxism and nazism, The Guardian (London, England) Obituary August 9, 2007 Oliver Elton – literary critic, translator Boris Ford – literary critic, editor Alfred Gissing – biographer John Davy Hayward – editor and critic Andrew Hurrell - Professor of International Relations, Oxford University Michael Kitson – art historian James Klugmann – Communist historian 2nd Baron Lindsay of Birker – political scientist W. Wesley Pue – academic lawyerW. Wesley Pue (Canada) , profile at faculty.law.ubc.ca, accessed 17 July 2008 Sir James Maude Richards – architectural historian E. Clive Rouse – archaeologist John Saltmarsh – historian Brian Simon – educational historian Peter J N Sinclair – economist

Sciences

L. E. Baynes – aeronautical engineer Arnold Beck – electrical engineer, Professor of Engineering at Cambridge'BECK, Prof. Arnold Hugh William', in Who's Who 1997 (London: A. & C. Black, 1997)'CONTRIBUTORS: Arnold Hugh William Beck' in New Scientist, issue dated 19 September 1963 (Vol. 19, no. 357), 627 David Bensusan-Butt – economist Derek Bryan – sinologist Anthony Bull – transport engineer Sir Henry Clay, 6th Baronet – engineer Sir Christopher Cockerell – inventor of the hovercraft Nicholas Day - statistician and epidemiologist James Durrant - FRS Professor of Photochemistry, Imperial College C. H. Gimingham – botanist Dr Hildebrand Hervey FRS – marine biologist Sir John Hammond – agricultural research scientist Ian Hepburn, botanist and schoolteacher Harry Hodson – economist G. Evelyn Hutchinson – zoologist Bryan Keith-Lucas – political scientist David Keith-Lucas – aeronautical engineer David Lack – evolutionary biologist David Layton – economist and industrial relations specialistAlastair Hatchett, David Layton obituary in The Guardian dated 29 September 2009 Dr Colin Leakey – botanist Maurice Lister – chemist Jonathan Partington – mathematician Frank Perkins – engineer Henry Snaith - FRS Professor of Physics, Oxford University Christopher Strachey – computer scientist Sir Owen Wansbrough-Jones – chemist, weapons research scientist Sir Martin Wood – engineer

Writers

Poets

W. H. Auden – poet John Henry Colls, 18th century poetChambers, John, ed., A General History of the County of Norfolk Volume II (Norwich & London, 1829) pp. 781-782 Andrew Jefford – poet and wine writerAndrew Jefford CV at andrewjefford.com (accessed 15 October 2007) Michael Laskey – poetBiography of Michael Laskey at michael-laskey.co.uk (accessed 9 September 2007) John Pudney – poet and novelist Sir Stephen Spender – poet

Novelists

John Lanchester – novelist Sabin Willett – novelist

Journalists

Matt Arnold – journalist and television presenter Bruce Belfrage - BBC Radio newsreader and actor Cedric Belfrage – journalist and author Mark Brayne – BBC foreign correspondent and psychotherapistDebrett's People of Today 2011, p. 189 Rupert Hamer – journalist killed in Afghanistan Alastair Hetherington – journalist, editor of The Guardian