Alumnae and Alumni of Wills Hall
A number of distinguished and celebrated individuals spent some or all of their undergraduate years as residents of Wills Hall. We have identified a few here — contact us if you know of more!
The list of distinguished alumnae/alumni below is by no means exhaustive. Most of those included were undergraduate residents of Wills, but a few are former members of the Senior Common Room. This list excludes the Wardens, many of whom were or are prominent both in the academic sphere and beyond, but includes one of the WHA's Patrons. Please use the contact details below to tell us if we have missed out others who should be recorded here.
James Blunt: singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer (BSc Aerospace Engineering and Sociology, 1996, DMus 2016)
Derren Brown: illusionist, painter, author (BA Law and German in 1994) — ‘it was from his Wills Hall bedroom that he first delved into the world of hypnosis’
Henry Chilver, Baron Chilver FRS, FREng: engineer, politician and Vice-Chancellor of Cranfield University, 1970-1989 (BSc Engineering, 1947, PhD Civil Engineering, 1951, DSc, 1962, created Baron of Cranfield in the County of Bedforshire 1987) — ‘[he] actively supported the Wills Hall Association’
(Arthur) Basil Cottle, FSA: grammarian, historian, archaeologist, academic, cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park from 1943 — Sub-Warden of Wills Hall, 1947-1948
Sir Liam Donaldson FRCSE FRCP FRCPE FMedSci FRCA: 15th Chief Medical Officer for England, 1998-2010 (MB ChB Medicine, 1972, knighted 2002)
Sir Peter Estlin KStJ, BSc, FCA: accountant, banker, 691st Lord Mayor of London, 2018-2019 (BA Economics and Accounting, 1982, knighted 2020) — Summer Reunion Guest of Honour 2018
David Gibbins: author, underwater archaeologist (BA Ancient Mediterranean Studies, 1984) — Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
Stanley James Jones: geographer, Rockefeller Fellow, Professor of Geography, University of Dundee, Wills SCR 1936-1944
Bob Marshall-Andrews QC: politician, barrister, author (LLB, 1966, LLD, 2015) — Labour MP for Medway, 1997-2010, founder and trustee of the George Adamson Wildlife Trust, Tanzania
Yon Mayhew: engineer, academic (PhD, 1976), co-author of Engineering Thermodynamics, Work and Heat Transfer (1957) —Sub-Warden of Wills Hall, 1948-1957
Cecil Powell, FRS: physicist, academic, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics, 1950, Hughes Medal, 1949, Royal Medal, 19961, Lomonsov Gold Medal, 1967 — Sub-Warden of Wills Hall in the early 1930s
Alan Reynolds: academic, founding Warden of Churchill Hall, 1956-1972 (BA English, 1932, DLitt, 1977) —founding member of Wills Hall, JCR President, 1931-1932, Sub-Warden
Laura Tomlinson, MBE: international equestrian, Olympic gold-medallist for team dressage, as Laura Bechtolsheimer, 2012 (BSc Philosophy and Politics, 2007, LLD, 2013)
Georgie Twigg, MBE: lawyer, international field hockey player, Olympic gold-medallist for hockey, 2016 (LLB, 2012, Alumni Award for Achievement in Sport 2021)
Eboni Usoro-Brown: international netball player, initially as Eboni Beckford-Chambers, gold medal winner, team netball, Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 (LLB, 2009, LLM, 2010)
Stephen Williams: Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West, 2005-2015 (BA History, 1988)
Michael Wong Pakshong: chartered accountant, banker, financier, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, 1971-1981 (BA Economics and Accounting, 1957, LLD, 1994) — generous donor to the University and to Wills Hall