List of Old Gregorians

An Old Gregorian (usually abbreviated OG) is a former member of Downside School, situated near Bath, Somerset, in the United Kingdom.

Alumni are so-named of St Gregory the Great who is the patron saint of the Downside monastic community, that used to run and own the school.

Old Gregorians

A

Sir Rudolph Agnew – former chairman of Consolidated Goldfields

Michael J. Alexander – academic and poet

Sir Mark Allen – United Kingdom spy, turned businessman and academic lecturer

Rupert Allason – author (under the pen-name Nigel West) and former Conservative MP

Antony Nicholas Allott – English academic, Professor of African Law at the University of London

Alistair Asprey – Secretary for Security for Hong Kong Government, Commanding Officer of Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force

B

Alex Barrow- cricketer

Tom Bethell – editor of the American Spectator

Robin Bennett - author and entrepreneur

Fergus Blackie - Justice of The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe and Rhodesian Front MP

Don Brennan – English cricketer

Andrew Bonaparte-Wyse - Irish civil servant

Sir Rowland Blennerhasset, 4th Baronet - Liberal Party politician

Edward Cuthbert Butler - historian

Norman Butler - polo player and thoroughbred owner

C

Mark Canning- British diplomat and Former British Ambassador to Indonesia

William Cash – author and journalist

Denis Caulfield Heron - Irish lawyer and politician

Jeremy Campbell-Lamerton - Scottish Rugby Union player

Max Emanuel Cenčić - countertenor

Alex Chisholm – Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service

Desmond Chute – poet and artist

John Clibborn – British Intelligence Officer, served as MI6 head of station in Washington D.C

Ralph Clutton – cricketer

George Cooper – British Army officer, served as Adjutant-General to the Forces

Brian Cotter – former Liberal Democrat MP

Archie Cotterell – cricketer and novelist

Archbishop Maurice Noël Léon Couve de Murville – former Archbishop of Birmingham

Thomas Clifford, 14th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh

William Craven, 6th Earl of Craven

Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre – British Conservative Party Politician

D

John Charles Day – amongst the first Catholic judges in England to be appointed after the English Reformation

Pete de Freitas – musician, member of Echo & The Bunnymen

Christian Louis de Massay – Monegasque royalty

Arthur Denaro – County Donegal-raised Commanding Officer of the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars and later Commandant of Sandhurst

Henry Eric Dolan – World War I flying ace

John Drummond, 17th Earl of Perth – Minister for Colonial Affairs

Neil Dexter – former captain of Middlesex County Cricket Club

E

Dominick Elwes – portrait painter

Barry England – novelist and playwright

Sir Osmond Esmonde, 12th Baronet - Teachta Dála for Fine Gael

Peter Evans-Freke, 11th Baron Carbery - Anglo Irish Peer

Michael Evans-Freke, 12th Baron Carbery - Anglo Irish Peer

F

Rocco Forte – British hotelier and entrepreneur

Edward Fitzgerald KC

James Percy FitzPatrick – South African author, mining financier and pioneer of the fruit industry. Responsible for the two-minute silence observed on Armistice Day

Nicolás Franco – nephew of Francisco Franco

William Anthony Furness, 2nd Viscount Furness (1929–1995)

Gerard Fairlie – writer, scriptwriter and Winter Olympian

G

Joseph Gaggero – Gibraltarian businessman

Francis Aidan Gasquet – Cardinal, Vatican librarian

Jan Gawroński - Polish diplomat

Carlos Gereda y de Borbón – Spanish aristocrat, engineering entrepreneur and philanthropist

J. G. Greig – first-class cricketer, soldier, and Catholic priest

Brion Gysin – author and artist

H

Denis Hanley – electrical engineer and Conservative Party politician

Jared Harris – actor

Damian Harris – film director and screenwriter

Jamie Harris – actor

Simon Halliday – former England rugby player

David Hawkins – Royal Air Force officer

Steve Henderson – cricketer

Bobby Henrey – child actor, star of 'The Fallen Idol'

Denis Caulfield Heron - first Catholic Scholar at Trinity College, Dublin and MP for Tipperary

Tristram Hillier – surrealist painter

Patrick Holcroft – Lord-Lieutenant of Worcestershire

Richard Holmes – biographer

Henry Howard – first formal British envoy to the Vatican for over 300 hundred years

Hubert Howard – intelligence officer

Lord Hunt of Tanworth

I

Andrew Ibrahim - terrorist

J

Christopher Jamison – Abbot of Worth

Philip Jebb – architect and Liberal Party politician

K

Chris Kelly – TV presenter and producer

Norbert Keenan - Irish barrister and Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly

Ivone Kirkpatrick - Irish born Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, British High Commissioner at Allied High Commission and Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Holy See

David Knowles - Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge

Halik Kochanski - historian and writer

William Keatinge - military chaplain and bishop

L

Sir John Leslie, 4th Baronet - Anglo-Irish baronet, soldier, and television presenter

Dominic Lieven - professor at Cambridge University and Fellow of the British Academy

John Lytton, 5th Earl of Lytton - British chartered surveyor, peer, and Member of the House of Lords

M

Seán MacBride - Teachta Dála, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chief of Staff of the IRA and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Frank MacDermot - Teachta Dála and founder of Fine Gael

Guy Malet - artist

Alex Mapelli-Mozzi – alpine skier

Patrick Marnham – writer, journalist and biographer

Pierce McCan- Teachta Dála and Easter Rising Veteran

Pierre Maréchal- racing driver who died during 24 Hours of Le Mans

Patrick Mason- Director of the Abbey Theatre

Alexander McDonnell, 9th Earl of Antrim

Nicholas Mander – baronet, historian and businessman

Gerald Maxwell MC – First World War flying ace

Prince Emmanuel de Merode – Director of the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Midland - DJ and Producer

James Miller – journalist and film-maker

David Mlinaric – interior designer

Joseph Molony - Chairman of the General Council of the Bar

Richard More O'Ferrall - Governor of Malta and high level politician, of the prominent More O'Ferrall family.

Peter Morgan – Oscar nominated scriptwriter

John Mullan – professor of English and writer

Helenus Milmo – Irish lawyer and High Court Judge

N

Albert Nelson, 6th Earl Nelson

Henry Nelson, 7th Earl Nelson

Martin Newland – former editor of The Daily Telegraph

Barry Nicholas – classicist, former Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford

William Nicholson – playwright and Oscar winner

Marek Niedużak - lawyer

Patrick Nixon – diplomat

Michael Noakes – artist

John Norman – first-class cricketer

Stafford Northcote, 4th Earl of Iddesleigh

O

Sir Tim O'Brien, 3rd Baronet- England Cricket Team player

John O'Brien- Ireland Cricket Team player

Daniel O'Connell - leader of the movement for Catholic emancipation, Irish Nationalist and MP

Charles Owen O'Conor, O'Conor Don - Liberal MP for Roscommon and President of Gaelic League

Denis Charles Joseph O'Conor - hereditary Chief of the Name O'Conor

Denis Maurice O'Conor - Liberal MP for Sligo County

Denis Armar O'Conor, O'Conor Don - Irish nobleman

Denis Maurice O'Conor - former Lord Justice of Appeal

Mervyn O'Gorman- British electrical and aircraft engineer

Denis Ormerod- first Roman Catholic commander of the Ulster Defence Regiment

P

Anthony Palliser – artist

Tony Pearson – cricketer

Nigel Poett – British Army Officer, commanded the 5th Parachute Brigade during the second world war

John Bede Polding – first Archbishop of Sydney

Francis Pollen – architect, worked on buildings at the Abbey and school

Philip Pope – actor and composer

James Pope-Hennessy – biographer and travel writer

John Pope-Hennessy – former director of the British Museum

Nicholas Preston, 17th Viscount Gormanston – art connoisseur and aristocrat

Jonathan Pugh – cartoonist

Edmund Purdom – film actor

R

Timothy Radcliffe – Master of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) from 1992 to 2001

Peter Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell – Solicitor General and Attorney General

George William Rendel – diplomat

Dan Riddiford – New Zealand politician of the National Party

Michael Richey – navigator and author

Paul Richey – flying ace of the Second World War and author

Michael Robinson – flying ace of the Second World War

Jerome Roche – musicologist

Tremayne Rodd, 3rd Baron Rennell – Conservative peer - Scottish rugby international

Nicholas Rossiter – TV producer

S

John de Salis, 9th Count de Salis-Soglio – ICRC delegate and envoy

Hilary St George Saunders – author

Wilfrid Sheed – novelist and essayist

Todd Sharpville – musician

Arthur Sidgreaves – businessman, head of Rolls-Royce during the Second World War

Eugene Simon – actor

Sir John Smythe, 8th Baronet – cricketer

Sir Robert Stapylton – courtier, dramatic poet and translator

Richard Stokes – former Lord Privy Seal

Christopher Sykes – author

John Sweetman - founder of Sinn Féin

Roger Sweetman - Teachta Dála for Sinn Féin and abstentionist MP

T

Artur Tarnowski - politician

Edd Thrower – former professional rugby player

Simon Tolkien – author and novelist

Rudolph de Trafford – aristocrat and banker

Maurice Turnbull – Welsh rugby international and Test cricketer

Bernard Turnbull – former captain of Wales Rugby Team

Paolo Tullio – writer, radio/TV personality and Michelin star-winning chef

U

James Underwood – pathologist

William Bernard Ullathorne – English prelate

V

John Varley – former CEO of Barclays

Hugh Vyvyan – captain of Saracens Rugby

W

Auberon Waugh – journalist

Robert Walker, Baron Walker of Gestingthorpe – former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Patrick Wall – Royal Marines officer and Conservative politician

Charles Walmesley – Procurator General, astronomer and mathematician

Dennis Walters – Conservative Party politician

Charles Wegg-Prosser – politician and solicitor

Bob Wellings – broadcaster

Sir Christopher White - art historian and museum director

Arthur B. Woods – film director

Douglas Woodruff – editor of the Tablet

Z

Adam Zamoyski – historian

References

Bibliography

List of Boys at St Gregory's, Downside Abbey, Bath, 1972: covers 1614–1972.

List of Boys at St Gregory's: First Supplement, Downside Abbey, Bath, 1983: covers 1967–1982 and lists corrections to the 1972 publication.