Alumni and other Notable Pembrokians
From the outset Pembroke College produced men of great distinction: Sir Thomas Browne, a student at Broadgates when it became Pembroke in 1624, gave one of the orations at the Foundation Ceremony. In the Eighteenth century, there were the literary figures of Samuel Johnson and William Shenstone, while the evangelist, George Whitefield, and the lawyer, Sir William Blackstone, made major contributions to the life of the nascent USA, as, later, did James Smithson, whose bequest founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
In recent times, Pembroke has produced its share of politicians, most notably Michael Heseltine, former Deputy Prime Minister, and in the USA, Senators Fulbright and Lugar. Alumni also include distinguished Judges Lord Abernethy MA, QC; the Rt. Hon. the Lord. Carswell, Kt, PC, MA (JD Chicago); Lord Justice Mummery Kt, PC, MA, BCL, as well as the bailiff of Jersey, Sir Philip Bailhache Kt, MA. Individuals such as Jonathan Aisbitt, Andrew Buxton, Sir Robert Clarke, John Govett LVO, and Sir Rocco Forte reflect industry and commerce.
Johnson
Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) was born in Lichfield and came to Pembroke College in 1728 but was forced to leave just over a year later when he ran out of money. He never finished his studies at Oxford but the University subsequently awarded him with an honorary degree in 1775.
In addition to his famous Dictionary, Johnson wrote other books, including The Life of Shenstone, a biography of poet and fellow Pembrokian, William Shenstone. In 1756, Johnson also produced a biography of Sir Thomas Browne, one of the first graduates of Pembroke College, as a preface to an edition of Browne’s Christian Morals: “the first man of eminence graduated from the new college, to which the zeal or gratitude of those that love it most, can wish little better, than that it may long proceed as it began”.
Pembroke College holds a number of Dr. Johnson’s documents and artefacts including his mug.
Whitefield
George Whitefield (1714 – 1770) was born in Gloucester and came to Pembroke in 1732 as a servitor, obtaining his B.A. in 1736. While at Pembroke, Whitefield met John and Charles Wesley, who were also at Oxford University, and became a member of the University’s ‘Holy Club’. He was the founder of the Calvanistic Methodists and chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon.
Blackstone
William Blackstone (1723 – 1780) was born in London and came to Pembroke in 1738, progressing to a Fellowship at All Souls College in 1745. After a short period in Parliament, he was named one of the justices of Common Pleas and spent the rest of his life as a judge. Since 1976, Pembroke College has organised an annual Blackstone Lecture, to celebrate Sir William Blackstone’s position as one of Pembroke’s most distinguished students and one of this country’s finest jurists. In Spring 2003, the Boat Club also named their new boat after him.
Smithson
James Smithson (1764 – 1829) was born Jacques Louis Macie in Paris in early 1764, the illegitimate son of Hugh Percy (formerly Smithson), second earl and later first duke of Northumberland. Smithson came to Pembroke in 1782, obtaining his M.A. in 1786. During this time, he was known as James Lewis Macie, having taken his mother’s surname which he continued to use until she died in 1800, when he changed it to Smithson. Although he never visited the States, Smithson stipulated in his will that, should his heir die without issue, the Smithson estate would go to establish an Institution in Washington, D. C. This benefaction resulted in the establishment of The Smithsonian Institute.
Fulbright
Senator Fulbright, whose interest in international relations is perpetuated in the Fulbright Scholarships, was a Rhodes Scholar at Pembroke in the 1920s.
Ronald McCallum, Master of Pembroke, was quoted in the Saturday Evening Post, 23 March 1963, as saying:
“Fulbright is responsible for the greatest movement of scholars across the face of the earth since the fall of Constantinople in 1453”.
Hill
George Birkbeck Norman Hill (1835 – 1903) was born at Tottenham, Middlesex, and entered Pembroke College in 1855, graduating in 1858 with an ‘honorary’ fourth-class degree in literae humaniores. Originally a schoolmaster, Hill turned to writing in 1869 and developed an interest in the life and work of Samuel Johnson. He published Dr. Johnson, his Friends and his Critics (1878), his edited editions of Boswell’s Life of Johnson (first published in 1791) (1887), Johnson's Letters (1892, 2 vols.), Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897, 2 vols.), and Johnson's Lives of the English Poets (1905, 3 vols.), published posthumously. In recognition of his work on Johnson he was elected a member of the Johnson Club of London in 1888 and was twice chosen as ‘prior’ of the society in 1891–2. He was especially gratified when Pembroke College made him an honorary fellow in November 1892. Hill died in February 1903, bequeathing his Johnsonian library to the College.
Moore
John Moore (bap. 1730, d. 1805), was baptized in Gloucester and he matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, with a Townsend scholarship in 1745. He graduated BA in October 1748 and proceeded MA in June 1751. Early patronage by the Duke of Marlborough and his family furthered his career and he ultimately became Archbishop of Canterbury on 26 April 1783.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Possibly the most well-known Pembroke Fellow of the last century is J. R. R. Tolkien. He was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor in Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke from 1926 until 1945, before becoming Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College.
The Pembroke College Record of 1937-8 notes that:
“During the past year Professor J. R. R. Tolkien published a work, not indeed academic in its nature, but one which perhaps only an academic man could have written. We refer to that remarkable children’s tale, The Hobbit. But it is one of those children’s tales which can be read with profit and amusement even by the most mature.”
R.G. Collingwood
Robin George Collingwood (1889 – 1943) was born at Cartmel Fell, Lancashire, and was a Fellow of Pembroke College from 1912 to 1935. He was tutor in philosophy and left for the Waynflete Chair of Metaphysical Philosophy at Magdalen. He made a reputation as one of the most original of the English philosophers of his generation and at the same time became the leading authority on the history of Roman Britain.
The Church
Richard Durnford (Bishop of Chichester, m.1820)
Timothy Hall (Bishop of Oxford, m.1654)
John Jackson (Bishop of London, m.1829)
William Corbet LeBreton (Dean of Jersey, m.1831)
Henry Mackenzie (Bishop-suffragan of Nottingham, m.1830)
Science
Thomas Beddoes (chemist and physician, m.1775)
Nathaniel Bliss (astronomer, m.1716)
William Maxwell Cowan (neurobiologist, Fellow 1958 – 1966)
George Rolleston (physician and physiologist, m.1846)
Frederick John Smith (physicist, m.1868)
History, Literature and Scholarship
Thomas Lovell Beddoes (poet, m.1820)
Richard Watson Dixon (ecclesiastical historian and poet, m.1852)
Richard Graves (writer and translator, m.1732)
Philip Nicholas Seton Mansergh (historian, m.1929)
Sir Peter Le Page Renouf (egyptologist and religious writer, m.1840)
William Shenstone (poet, m.1732)
Burnett Hillman Streeter (biblical scholar, Fellow 1899 – 1905)
The Law and Politics
Sir Julian Michael Gordon Critchley (politician, m.1951)
Simon Harcourt (first Viscount Harcourt) (lawyer and politician, m.1677)
William Albert Samuel Hewins (economist and politician, m.1884)
Sir Erasmus and Sir John Philipps (politicians, m.1720)
Sir William Scroggs (judge, m.1640)