The school maintains a Former Pupils Club, which organises social events throughout the year. There are branches throughout the UK and abroad.
Academia and science •
Thomas David Anderson (1853–1952) – astronomer who discovered many temporary and variable stars (
novae) • Professor
James Barr (1924–2006) – a radical theologian who was professor at Montreal, Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford, Princeton and Vanderbilt. •
James Bertram (Carnegie secretary) (1872–1934) •
Erskine Beveridge (1851–1920) – textile manufacturer, historian and antiquary • Professor
Henry Calderwood (1830–1897) – Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University and Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh •
James Ireland Craig (1868–1952) – meteorologist (dux 1885) • Professor
Maurice Ewing (1912–1999) – First professor of surgery at Melbourne University, Australia • Sir
William Tennant Gairdner (1824–1907) – Professor of Medicine at the
University of Glasgow and President of the
British Medical Association •
William Aitcheson Haswell (1854–1925) – Scottish-Australian zoologist specialising in crustaceans, winner of the 1915
Clarke Medal •
Andrew John Herbertson (1865–1915) – geographer and Professor in Geography at Oxford University • Sir
James Charles Inglis (1851–1911) – British civil engineer, President of the
Institution of Civil Engineers and General Manager of the
Great Western Railway • Professor
Tom W. B. Kibble (1932–2016) – theoretical physicist, co-discovery of the
Higgs mechanism and
Higgs boson. • Professor
Arnold Maran (1936–2017) – surgeon,
President of the
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. • Sir Peter Redford Scott Lang – Regius Professor of Mathematics at St Andrews University. •
George McGavin (born 1954) – entomologist •
John Smith (1825–1910) – dentist who founded the
Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh and was Surgeon Dentist to Queen Victoria. • Sir
Fraser Stoddart (1942–2024) – chemist,
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016, Professor of chemistry at
Northwestern University, USA (
supramolecular chemistry and
nanotechnology), awarded
Albert Einstein World Award of Science. • Sir
John Thomson-Walker (1871–1937) – Hunterian Professor of Surgery at the
Royal College of Surgeons of England and leading surgeon in the field of
urology •
Ramsay Traquair (1840–1912) – naturalist and palaeontologist, leading expert on fossil fish, awarded the
Royal Medal by the
Royal Society and the
Lyell Medal Media and arts •
Ian Stuart Black (1915–1997) – novelist, playwright and screenwriter •
Michael Boyd (director) (born 1955) – Artistic Director of the
Royal Shakespeare Company. • Sir
William Russell Flint (1880–1969) – watercolour painter and president of the
Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours •
Philip Kerr (1956–2018) – writer. •
Alexander Moffat (born 1943) – artist, Head of Painting, Glasgow School of Art.
Law and politics •
Lord Brailsford (S. Neil Brailsford) (born 1954) –
Senator of the College of Justice and
Supreme Courts Judge • Sir
Martin Chamberlain (born 1973), a
High Court Judge of England and Wales • Sir
William Young Darling (1885–1962) – Member of Parliament for
South Edinburgh and
Lord Provost of Edinburgh • Sir
Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser (1848–1919) –
Lieutenant Governor of Bengal between 1903 and 1908 •
Sir James Gibson, 1st Baronet (1849–1912) Lord Provost of Edinburgh and Member of Parliament for
Edinburgh East •
Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford (1820–1887) – Scottish Advocate and Judge •
Robert McIntyre (1913–1998) – politician, leader of the
Scottish National Party (SNP) and the SNP's first elected Member of Parliament. •
J P Mackintosh (1929–1978) – academic and British Labour politician of the 1960s and 70s. Leading advocate of Scottish devolution. • Sir
Thomas Brash Morison (1868–1945) – Liberal Member of Parliament for
Inverness,
Solicitor General for Scotland,
Privy Counsellor and
Lord Advocate • Sir
George Touche 1st Baronet (1861–1935) – Conservative Member of Parliament and founder of one of the firms that created
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu • Sir
James Wilson (1849–1929) New Zealand Politician •
Paul Wheelhouse (born 1970) – SNP
MSP for
South Scotland,
Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy in the
Scottish Government •
Daniel Johnson (born 1977) – Entrepreneur and
Labour MSP for
Edinburgh Southern.
Sports •
Finlay Calder (born 1957) – international rugby player and
British and Irish Lions captain who appeared 34 times for Scotland. •
Jim Calder (born 1957) – Scottish and British Lions rugby player who appeared 27 times for Scotland •
Dario Franchitti (born 1973) – professional racing-car driver who won the
Indianapolis 500 race three times. •
Arthur Plowright (1913–1992) – first-class cricketer •
Charles Scobie (1895–1965) – first-class cricketer •
Jamie Stevenson (born 1975) – world champion orienteer. •
William Turnbull (1879–1959) – first-class cricketer •
Grant Weatherstone (1931–2020) – international rugby player who was played 16 times for Scotland. •
Doddie Weir (1970–2022) – Scottish and British Lions international rugby player who played 61 times for Scotland. Charity fundraiser for MND research. •
Jake Wightman (born 1994) – International athlete. Gold medallist 1500 metres
2022 World Athletics Championships. •
David Wilkie (1954–2024) – only person to have been swimming champion at British, American, Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic levels at the same time
Military •
Sir Robert Neil Campbell (1854–1928), a physician who commanded the
Bengal Medical Service • Lieutenant General Sir
James Hills-Johnes VC (1833–1919) – was awarded the
Victoria Cross for action in Delhi in the Indian mutiny in 1857 •
John Alexander Cruickshank VC (born 1920) – recipient of the
Victoria Cross in the Second World War. • Major-General
Mungo Melvin (born 1955)
Religion • The Right Reverend
James A. Whyte (1920–2005) – leading theologian, Professor at St. Andrews University and
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland • The Right Reverend
Ronnie Selby Wright (1908–1995) – chaplain to the Queen, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
Other •
Sir Ivison Macadam (1894–1974) – Director General of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (
Chatham House) and founding president of the
National Union of Students • Sir
Robert Hogg Matthew (1906–1975) – acclaimed architect and a leading proponent of modernism ==References==