Wilson's School - Old Boys

Old Boys

See also: Category:People educated at Wilson's School, Wallington

Class lists from 1615 to 1843 have been lost, making it impossible to record with absolute certainty those who rose to fame in that period. However, A Short History notes that James Tyrrell, grandson of Archbishop Usher and author of A General History of England and other works, is known to have been a pupil in the middle of the seventeenth century.

Noted Old Boys include:

Entertainment and Sport

• Sir Michael Caine (Maurice Joseph Micklewhite), actor. Caine wrote of his dislike of his time at Wilson's, which was still in Camberwell during that period, in his autobiography "What's It All About?". However, he also states that his English teacher, Eric Watson "took the trouble to guide my rebellious mind into the area of literature."
• Simon Furman, comic book writer
• Stephen Jenkins, stage name Stephen Beckett, actor with regular roles in Coronation Street and The Bill
• Andrew Kazamia, actor with a regular role in London's Burning, playwright and film-maker
• Tom Abbott, presenter and commentator for US television network The Golf Channel.
• Chris Cohen, comedy songwriter who works for ESPN and Chelsea FC TV

Arts, Humanities and Politics

• John Galliano, CBE, RDI, fashion designer
• Harry Golombek, OBE, Chess Grandmaster
• Roy Porter, historian
• Peter Walcot, Professor of Classics
• Aaron Porter, President, National Union of Students of the United Kingdom, 2010–11
• Sir Norman Reid, former director of the Tate Gallery
• Mark Stone, opera singer
• Matthew Todd, editor of Attitude Magazine and playwright
• Mayghal Vijapura, Boxes for Team GB in the Olympics
• Kibwe Tavares, Cofounder Factory Fifteen, winner of Sundance Special Jury Award for Animation Direction
• Tim Rayment, writer, the Sunday Times Magazine
• Ben Webster, writer, The Times
• Ben Ashford, writer, The Sun
• Dom Foulsham, writer, Music Week, Record Mirror, The Times, and writer/producer, BBC and Channel 4
• Colin Butts, writer, Is Harry on the Boat?

Military

• Capt. Harold Auten, VC, DSC, RD, "Q-Ship" commander in the First World War, author of ""Q" Boat Adventures" and later executive Vice-President of the Rank Organisation
• Sir Alan Cobham, KBE, AFC, pioneer aviator (first flight from Britain to Australia in 1926 and pioneer of air-to-air refuelling). Curiously, his flight to Australia was from Croydon Airport, the site of which is the present location of the School.

Science

• Sir Lewis Fermor, OBE DSc FRS
• Sir James Jeans, OM MA DSc ScD, astronomer
• George Barker Jeffery, mathematician
• John Stevens Henslow. botanist and geologist
• Stephen Barker, MB BS BSc MS FRCS. Senior Lecturer in Surgery and Consultant Vascular Surgeon, University College London

Industry and Government

• Roger Lambart, 13th Earl of Cavan
• Ernest Partridge, MP and industrialist

Church

• The Very Revd. Dr Walter Robert Matthews, CH, KCVO, DD, DLitt, former Dean of St Paul's Cathedral
• The Rt. Revd. H. A. Wilson, CBE, DD, former Bishop of Chelmsford