Balliol College

Raymond Massey was a Canadian actor best remembered for his stage-trained voice. Massey earned an Academy Award nomination under the Best Actor category for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the 1940 biographical historical drama film Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Massey has two stars on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the film and TV industries.  

Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was an Indian cricket player. Entrusted with the responsibility of captaining the Indian cricket team, at the age of 21, Pataudi went on to become one of the greatest Indian cricket captains of all time. Also known for his fielding abilities, he was described by many as the best fielder in the world during his playing career.

Historian and Yale professor Timothy D. Snyder has penned countless books, including bestsellers such as Bloodlands and On Tyranny. His themes include Marxism and Soviet and Nazi atrocities. A Harvard scholar and a Carnegie fellow, he is also part of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience.

Born to Holocaust survivors, Hungarian-born pianist Andras Schiff began learning the piano at age 5. He is now best known for his interpretations of legends such as of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. His numerous awards include a Grammy. He was also knighted for his achievements.

ITV News political editor and the host of Peston, journalist Robert Peston has also established the education non-profit Speakers for Schools. He has also worked for BBC and penned books such as WTF? and Who Runs Britain? He has also won numerous awards, including the RTS’s Journalist of the Year.

Philosopher J. L. Austin is remembered for his study on ordinary-language philosophy and is also considered a pioneer of the theory of speech acts. His lectures at Harvard were later collected in How to Do Things with Words. He died of cancer while developing a theory on sound symbolism.

Best known for his theory on universal prescriptivism, British moral philosopher R. M. Hare initially studied classics at Balliol College, Oxford. He had also been part of World War II and captured by Japan. Essays on Political Morality remains one of his most significant works.

George Carman was a British barrister best remembered for his involvement in several high profile cases during the 1980s and 1990s. He is best remembered for successfully defending Jeremy Thorpe in 1979 when the latter was accused of conspiracy to murder. George Carman's life and career inspired the 2002 BBC drama Get Carman: The Trials of George Carman QC.

Born to an MP father who was also associated with the mine workers’ union, Roy Jenkins grew up to be Labour Party member and then became the first to lead the Social Democratic Party. An Oxford alumnus, he later led his alma as its chancellor.

British jurist A. V. Dicey is best known for his Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, which forms the basis of the modern British constitution. Apart from teaching law at Oxford, he also served as the principal of the Working Men’s College of London.

Frederick Temple was an English churchman, teacher, and academic. He served successively as the Bishop of Exeter, Bishop of London, and Archbishop of Canterbury. From 1871 to 1902, he also served as the governor at Sherborne School, where his bust is currently located.

American classicist Norman O. Brown is best remembered for his translations of Hesiod’s works. A popular professor of classics at universities such as UC-Santa Cruz, he was known as Nobby by his students. He promoted concepts such as polymorphous perversity and lectured on topics such as Islam, too.

While Archibald Campbell Tait, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is best remembered for trying to mitigate the Church of England conflict during the Oxford Movement, his contributions in other fields were of no less importance. His inauguration of the Bishop of London's Fund and his work on the Royal Commission on Ritual are still remembered by one and all.

Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet, was a Scottish metaphysician and educator best remembered for his work in the field of logic. Hamilton, who made attempts to combine the views held by German philosopher Immanuel Kant with the Scottish philosophy of common sense, is credited with popularizing the works of Kant in the United Kingdom.

Hugo Young was a British columnist and journalist. He contributed immensely to the success of The Guardian, where he worked as a senior political commentator. He also played a major role in the development of The Sunday Times, where he was the chief writer from 1967 to 1977. He also served as the publication's political editor from 1973 to 1984.           

Apart from being a talented fencer, who represented Egypt in Olympics twice, Ahmed Hassanein had also held important political posts under King Fuad I and was a tutor to his son, Farouk I. An Oxford alumnus, he also went on expeditions in the Libyan desert and discovered an unknown oasis.

Initially a journalist, Peter Quennell had briefly taught in Japan, before going back to England and editing for The Cornhill Magazine. He also established the journal History Today. Knighted for his literary achievments, he was also known for his multiple biographies on Romantic poet Lord Byron.

Copley Medal-winning British horticulturalist Thomas Andrew Knight is best remembered for his study of the movement of sap in plants and the impact of gravity on the growth of plants. He was also the Royal Horticultural Society’s second president. His initial works found a place in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions.