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List of alumni of St John's College, Cambridge

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Portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort, foundress

The following is a list of notable people educated at St John's College, Cambridge. When available, years of attendance are provided as indicated in the College Register or in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Over 1000 former members of St John's College appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[1]

Politics, military, and the civil service

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William Cecil
William Wilberforce
Lord Palmerston
Manmohan Singh

United Kingdom

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Current Members of Parliament

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Current Members of the House of Lords

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Lord High Treasurers

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Prime Ministers

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Colonial Administrators and Diplomats

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Military

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International

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Prime Ministers

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Justice

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Nagendra Singh

Science, mathematics, and technology

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Paul Dirac
Abdus Salam
Roger Penrose

Nobel Prize winners

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Royal Medal winners

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Three Royal Medals, known also as the Queen's Medals, are awarded annually by the Sovereign upon the recommendation of the Council of the Royal Society, "two for the most important contributions to the advancement of Natural Knowledge (one in the physical and one in the biological sciences) and the other for distinguished contributions in the applied sciences". The first Royal Medal was awarded in 1826 and previous recipients include thirty-eight Johnians.

Name Year Rationale[4][5][6][7][8]
John Herschel 1836 For his paper on nebulae and clusters of stars, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1833
James Sylvester 1861 For his various memoirs and researches in mathematical science
John Newport Langley 1892 For his work on secreting glands, and on the nervous system
Charles Pritchard 1892 For his work on photometry and stellar parallax
Arthur Schuster 1893 For his spectroscopic inquiries, and his researches on disruptive discharge through gases and on terrestrial magnetism
Percy MacMahon 1900 For the number and range of his contributions to mathematical science
William Burnside 1904 For his researches in mathematics, particularly in the theory of groups
Augustus Love 1909 On the ground of his researches in the theory of elasticity and cognate subjects
William Mitchinson Hicks 1912 On the ground of his researches in mathematical physics
Grafton Elliot Smith 1912 No citation.
William Johnson Sollas 1914 For researches in palaeontology
Joseph Larmor 1915 On the ground of his numerous and important contributions to mathematical and physical science
William Rivers 1915 On the ground of his important contributions to ethnography and ethnology
William Bateson 1920 On the ground of his contributions to biological science, and especially his studies in genetics
Frederick Blackman 1921 For his researches on the gaseous exchange in plants & on the operation of limiting factors
Albert Seward 1925 For his researches on the palaeobotany of Gondwanaland
John Edward Marr 1930 For his pioneer work in the accurate zoning of the palaeozoic rocks
Patrick Laidlaw 1933 For his work on diseases due to viruses, including that on the cause and prevention of distemper in dogs.
Alfred Harker 1935 In recognition of his distinguished work and influence as a petrologist
Paul Dirac 1939 For the leading part he had taken in the development of the new quantum mechanics
William Topley 1942 For his outstanding work on experimental epidemiology and immunology
Harold Jeffreys 1948 For his distinguished work in geophysics and his important contributions to the astronomy of the solar system
Edward Appleton 1950 For his work on the ele [sic] transmission of electromagnetic waves round the earth and for his investigations of the ionic state of the upper atmosphere
Frederic Bartlett 1952 In recognition of his creation of an experimental school of psychology which has established under his leadership an outstanding position recognised internationally as without superior
Nevill Mott 1953 In recognition of his eminent work in the field of quantum theory and particularly in the theory of metals
John Cockcroft 1954 In recognition of his distinguished work on nuclear and atomic physics
W. V. D. Hodge 1957 In recognition of his distinguished work on algebraic geometry
Rudolf Peierls 1959 In recognition of his distinguished work on the theoretical foundations of high energy and nuclear physics
Raymond Lyttleton 1965 In recognition of his distinguished contributions to astronomy, particularly for his work on the dynamical stability of galaxies
Frank Yates 1966 In recognition of his profound and far-reaching contributions to the statistical methods of experimental biology
Joseph Hutchinson 1967 In recognition of his distinguished work on the genetics and evolution of crop-plants with particular reference to cotton
Charles Oatley 1969 In recognition of his distinguished work in the wartime development of radar and latterly for the design and development of a highly successful scanning electron microscope
Frederick Sanger 1969 In recognition of his pioneer work on the sequence of amino acids in proteins and of nucleotides of ribonucleic acids
Fred Hoyle 1974 In recognition of his distinguished contributions to theoretical physics and cosmology
Abdus Salam 1978 In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the physics of elementary particles with special reference to the unification of the electromagnetic and weak interactions
Roger Penrose 1985 For his fundamental contributions to the theory of gravitational collapse and to other geometric aspects of theoretical physics
Eric Denton 1987 In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the physiology of marine animals, to marine biology generally, and his leadership of UK marine science
Robert Hinde 1996 In recognition of his contributions to the field of animal behaviour and the dominant influence it achieved on the emerging field of ethology
Christopher Dobson 2009 For his outstanding contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms of protein folding and mis-folding, and the implications for disease

Arts, sports and literature

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William Wordsworth
Ben Jonson[9]
Douglas Adams

Poets

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Musicians

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Academics, philosophers, and explorers

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Thomas Hobbes obtained a BA by incorporation while tutoring his patron William Cavendish at St John's in 1608.[10]
Erasmus Darwin

Religion

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William Morgan (1564) was the first to translate the Bible into Welsh.
Saint Philip Howard

Roman Catholic cardinals, saints and martyrs

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Anglican archbishops

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Business

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References

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  1. ^ http://www.oxforddnb.com/search/quick/?quicksearch=quicksearch&docPos=1&searchTarget=fulltext&simpleName=St+John's+College,+Cambridge&imageField.x=13&imageField.y=4&imageField=Go
  2. ^ Thomson, George Malcolm. The prime ministers, from Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher. Morrow, 1981 p. 34.
  3. ^ Abrahams, Israel (1968). "Alexander, Morris". In De Kock, W. J. (ed.). Dictionary of South African Biography. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). p. 10. OCLC 85921202.
  4. ^ "The Royal Medals (recent)". The Royal Society. Retrieved 26 November 2008.
  5. ^ "Royal Medal Winners: 2007 – 1990". The Royal Society. Retrieved 26 November 2008.
  6. ^ "Royal Medal Winners:1990 – 1950". The Royal Society. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
  7. ^ "Royal Medal Winners:1949 – 1900". The Royal Society. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
  8. ^ "Royal archive winners before 1900". The Royal Society. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
  9. ^ Mullinger, James Bass (1904). "Was Ben Jonson Ever a Member of Our College?". The Eagle. St John's College, Cambridge.
  10. ^ "Hobbes, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13400. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  11. ^ Sheail, John. "Dower, John Gordon". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/94011. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  12. ^ "Hobbes, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13400. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)