Most famous alumni

[jack]

A thread on a message board asked, if you went to a university, who was the most famous person who studied there[1]. There were similar questions for "who's the most famous person from the town you were born in"?[2]

I thought "there must be really good answers for Cambridge". And then I hesitated -- who is the most famous? Especially considering that people I consdier famous other people often have never heard of and vice versa.

Hawking? Newton? Darwin? I think Darwin is probably one of the most famous scientists

Cromwell? I'd think so, but I bet he's comparatively unknown outside Britain and Ireland.

Prince Charles? Is he more famous than Charles Darwin? He probably is in Britain, but I don't think he'd win outside if he's not King yet. There must have been other famous monarchs, but which?

Is there an obvious best answer?

What about other famous universities?

Footnotes

[1] I think you can count "taught there". But not "had a college named after them" else Jesus and Wolfson would win every time :)

[2] I think Worcester is most famous for (1) being pronounced differently to how it looks, (2) Worcester sauce and (3) the end of the british monarchy. Except no-one seemed to have heard of #3 :)

Comments

[pseudomonas]

I'm not sure going to university was standard practice for monarchs before the C20.

[jack]

OK, you're right, there doesn't need to be, but there still may be famous royal alumni from C20.

[pseudomonas]

Are there? I'd be surprised; I don't think of many monarchs as being academics.

(Oh, you said from C20, not from before C20).

[jack]

Well, there's already prince charles, who (i) went to Cambridge (ii) is royal (iii) is somewhat famous. I already admitted that I was wrong to extrapolate that back in time. But it seems a common thing for heirs to do now, not because they're academics, but because it's the done thing. I don't know how far back that goes. But when you disagree with "there may be" do you mean "it's impossible that there are any other royalty who went to university other than prince charles" or just that I'm over-estimating how many?

[pseudomonas]

I think that you're over-estimating, is all.

[jack]

Ah, sorry, I didn't see your edit. I would generally agree.