Notable alumni of King's College, Cambridge include prime ministers, archbishops, presidents, and academics.
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 Dame Eleanor Sharpston, former Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union
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 Phil Wang, comedian Judith Weir composer (Master of the Queen's Music) John Whitworth, countertenor Garry Humphreys, John Whitworth: Celebrated countertenor, in The Independent, 15 September 2013, accessed 20 June 2020 Tim Mead, countertenor
Scientists and academics Benedict Anderson, historian Edgar Anstey, psychologist Charles Glover Barkla, physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917 Henry Widdowson, linguist
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 in 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 Jason James, director and expert on UK/Japan relations
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