Former pupils of the school are called "Old Maidstonians" and include:
Art, Music & Literature •
Dan Abnett — comic book writer •
William Alexander† — painter •
Edmund Blunden† — writer & poet •
Daniel Blythe — writer •
James Butler (artist) MBE — sculptor •
Philip Langridge† CBE — tenor •
Philip Moore — organist of
York Minster from 1983 to 2008, organist of
Guildford Cathedral from 1974 to 1983 •
Christopher Smart† — poet
Business & Commerce •
Richard (Dick) Beeching, Baron Beeching† — physicist, British Railways chairman, cause of the
Beeching cuts •
Mark F. Watts — lobbyist & former Labour MEP •
Jason Tarry - retail, Chairman John Lewis Partnership
Media, television & film • Nick Angel — film and television producer •
James Burke — science historian and TV presenter •
David Chater — television foreign correspondent and former chairman of the
Old Maidstonian Society •
Andrew Dilnot CBE — principal of
St Hugh's College, Oxford since 2002, and former presenter of
BBC Radio 4's
More or Less •
James Hillier — actor •
Paul Lewis — financial journalist and presenter of
Money Box &
Money Box Live on
BBC Radio 4 •
Kevin Loader — film and television producer •
Shaun McKenna — screenwriter •
Stuart Miles —
Blue Peter presenter from 1994 to 1999 •
Tom Riley — film and television actor
Military •
Lt-Gen Sir
Frederick Dobson Middleton CB — Commandant from 1874 to 1884 of
RMC Sandhurst • Sir
Timothy Jenner CB — Station Commander of
RAF Shawbury from 1987 to 1988 •
Giles Legood MBE QHC —
Chaplain-in-Chief of the
Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch and
Archdeacon for the Royal Air Force Politics & government • Sir
Samuel Egerton Brydges† — MP from 1812 to 1818 for
Maidstone •
Nick Gibb — Conservative Minister of State for School Standards from 2010 to 2012 and from 2015 to 2021, and MP for
Bognor Regis and Littlehampton since 1997 •
Stuart Gilbert† — director of National Saving in the 1980s •
John Pugh —
Liberal Democrat MP 2001-2017 for
Southport •
Adam Sampson —
Legal Services Ombudsman from 2009 to 2014 and chief executive from 2003 to 2009 of
Shelter •
Mark F. Watts — Labour MEP from 1994 to 1999 for
Kent East, then
South East England from 1999 to 2004 •
Phil Wynn Owen —
CB, civil servant
Religion • Rt Rev
David John Atkinson — bishop of Thetford from 2001 to 2009 •
Leo Avery† • Rt Rev
Bob Evens —
Bishop of Crediton 2004-2012 •
Henry Gould† — vicar of St Paul's Cathedral 1908–1913 •
George Harris (Unitarian)† • Very Rev
Robert William Pope OBE† •
Martin Warner (bishop) —
SSC,
Bishop of Whitby 2010–12,
Bishop of Chichester 2012-present
Science & academia •
Peter Day† —
Fullerian Professor of Chemistry from 1994 to 2008, and
Director of the Royal Institution from 1991 to 1998 •
Frank Finn† — ornithologist •
Peter Heather — academic and historian •
Geoffrey Hosking — professor of Russian history from 1984 to 2007 at
University College London •
William Morfill† — professor of Russian from 1900 to 1909 at the
University of Oxford •
John Orrell† — theatre historian •
John Pond† — Astronomer Royal 1811–1835 •
Ivan Roots† — historian, biographer of Oliver Cromwell • Bill Saunders — professor of endodontology, and dean of dentistry since 2000 at the
University of Dundee, and president from 1997 to 1998 of the
British Endodontic Society Sport •
Bill Leyland —
Hull KR rugby league footballer •
Oliver Leyland —
Warrington Wolves rugby league footballer •
David Flatman —
Bath Rugby Union player •
Tom Parsons — Kent and Hampshire county cricketer •
Frank Sando — Olympic athlete, two-time winner at the International Cross Country Championships (1955, 1957), represented Great Britain in two consecutive Summer Olympic Games •
Steven Haworth — wrestler also known as Nigel McGuinness and Desmond Wolfe
Other •
Julius Brenchley† — explorer •
Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland† — English landowner and politician • Sir
Thomas Fane† — convicted of treason for his involvement in
Wyatt's rebellion, sentenced to death, pardoned by Queen
Mary; later became
High Sheriff of Kent and was knighted for services to the crown == Notable staff ==