The earliest named Headington people are probably Tamesubugus, who signed his name on a piece of pottery made at the Roman kiln on the site of the Churchill Hospital, and Hedena (or Headan), after whom Headington was named; they do not have biographies here, however, as nothing else is known about them
= Blue plaque on their house in Headington
* = Has a road in Headington named after him/her.
† = Also has a full entry
in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Other Headington people in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ODNB contains numerous other people who were associated with Headington, who do not have individual biographies on this site. The biographies are available free to many public library users, including those in Oxfordshire: to view the following biographies, go to the ODNB online and enter L followed immediately by your library ticket number in the “Library Card Login” box:
- Evelyn ABBOTT (1843–1901), Classical Scholar
Lived at Pullens Cottage in Pullens Lane from 1890 to 1901 - John Norman Leonard BAKER (1893–1971), Geographer
Lived at Stone Rise, 11/13 New High Street, from 1928 to 1952 - Henry BALFOUR (1863–1939), Museum curator
Lived at Langley Lodge in Pullens Lane from 1909 to 1939 - John Hugh Marshall BEATTIE (1915–1990), Social anthropologist
Lived at The Cottage at the top of Headington Hill from 1956 to 1973 - Stuart Highworth BLANCH (1918–1994), Archbishop of York
Curate of All Saints Church, Lime Walk from 1949 to 1952 - James Leslie BRIERLY (1881–1955), International lawyer
Lived Greensward, Harberton Mead from 1926 to 1947 and at 6 Brookside from 1949 to 1955 - Alice BRUCE (1867–1951), educationist
Lived at White Gables, 14 Sandfield Road by 1935 to 1951 - Sir George Norman CLARK (1890–1979), historian, Provost of Oriel
Lived at 20 Horwood Close from 1967 to 1970, then at 7 Ethelred Court from 1972 to 1979 - George Albert COOKE (1865–1939), Biblical scholar
Curate of St Andrew’s Church, Headington from 1889 - Richard Lynch COTTON (1794–1880), Provost of Worcester
Instrumental in the building of Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry - Rosamond DAVENPORT-HILL (1825–1902), Social reformer
Lived at Hillstow (later renamed Dorset House) on the London Road from 1897 to 1902 - William Harbutt DAWSON (1860–1948), Journalist
Lived at 23 Latimer Road in the 1930s - Vigo Auguste DEMANT (1893–1983), Theologian and social commentator
Lived at 31 St Andrew’s Road from 1971 - Sir Henry HARNESS (1804–1883), Army officer
Built Barton End in c.1880 - Francis John HAVERFIELD (1860–1919), Historian and archaeologist
Built Winshields in Pullens Lane and lived there until 1919 - Charles HERFORD (1853–1931), Literary scholar
Lived at 80 Old Road (then numbered 24) until 1931 - Thomas Lionel HODGKIN (1910–1982), Historian
Born in 1910 at Mendip House, Pullens Lane - William HUME-ROTHERY (1899–1968), Chemist and metallurgist
Lived at 54 Sandfield Road in the 1930s - John MASSIE (1842–1925), Biblical scholar and politician
Lived in the Rookery (now Ruskin Hall) from 1910 to 1925 - Hope MIRRLEES (1887–1978), Writer and poet
Lived in The Firs at the top of Headington Hill from 1963 to 1978 - Henry Whitehead MOSS (1841–1917), Headmaster of Shrewsbury School
Lived at Highfield Park (now the Park Hospital) from 1909 - Simon Harcourt NOWELL-SMITH (1909–1996), Book collector
Lived at 7 Beaumont Road, Headington Quarry from 1965 - Alexander Duncan Campbell PETERSON (1908–1988), Educational reformer
Lived at 33 St Andrew’s Road (before it became the vicarage) from 1967 to 1970
- Sir Alan PIM (1871–1958), Administrator in India and colonial adviser
Lived at Ridgeway, 3 Harberton Mead from at least 1935 to 1958 - Henry Habberley PRICE (1899–1984), Philosopher
Lived at Hillside, 69 Jack Straw’s Lane from his birth in 1899 until 1984 - Ian RAMSEY (1917–1972), Bishop of Durham
Curate of Headington Quarry in the 1940s - James Edwin Thorold ROGERS (1823–1890), Political economist and politician
Acted voluntarily as assistant curate at Headington from 1854 to 1858 - (William) Ritchie RUSSELL (1903–1980), Neurologist
Worked at Headington Hill Hall rehabilitation centre and studied brain wounds sustained in World War II - Sir Michael Ernest SADLER (1861–1943), Educationist, his second wife Eva Margaret GILPIN (1868–1940),
Headmistress and educationist, and his son by his first wife Michael Thomas Harvey Sadleir [sic] (1888–1957),
Bibliographer and novelist
Lived at the Rookery (now Ruskin Hall) from 1934 to 1943 - Percy SIMPSON (1865–1962), Literary scholar
Lived at 61 Old Road from 1922 to 1960 - Gabriel TURVILLE-PETRE (1908–1978), Icelandic scholar
Lived at The Court in the Croft from 1948 to 1978 - Sydney VINES (1849–1934), Botanist
Built the Vineyard, later named Pollock House, in Pullens Lane in 1885 and lived there until 1921
Headington people who served as Mayor of Oxford (up to 1962)
- John BOYCE (1722/3, 1727/8, 1739/40)
- William BUTLER (1836)
- Robert Frank KNIGHT (1957/8)
- Sir Joseph LOCK (1813/14, 1829/30): see above for link to full biography
- Malcolm Anthony LOWER (1955/6)
- Robert PAWLING (1679/80)
- Edward TAWNEY (1722/3, 1784/5, 1797/8)
Other famous people of Headington
- Lord McCarthy of Headington (1925–2012): obituary in the Telegraph
- Lady McCarthy of Headington (1932–2018): obituary in the Oxford Mail