Since the foundation of the College, many former pupils have gone on to become famous (or infamous) in very different areas of professional expertise and personal achievement. Here we have listed just a few that may intrigue anyone with an interest in the history of Methody.

Sir John Greer Dill (year of admission 1887). He was one of Churchill's Irish Generals. Field Marshall. Chief of the Imperial General Staff in the early stages of WW2. Chief of British Joint Staff Mission to the United States. Served in Boer and First World Wars. Commanded British Forces in Palestine 1936-37. Commander of 1st Army Corps 1939-40.

He died in Washington on 4 November 1944 and, through the influence of United States Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall (a close personal friend) he was buried in Arlington National Cemetry. His grave is marked by one of only two equestrian statues in the cemetry (the other belonging to Major General Philip Kearney who was killed in the American Civil War following the second battle of Bull Run. At one time Kearney was General George Custer's superior officer).

President Truman at the unveiling ceremony

Alice L Milligan (year of admission 1879). Although a Protestant she was an Irish nationalist and prominent member of the Gaelic League, and a poet. Her friends included Douglas Hyde, founder of the League, and Roger Casement who was later executed for treason. Among other prominent Protestant Irish nationalisis at the time were Parnell, Yeats and Ethna Carbery. In a recent biography of Milligan, "Alice" , the author, Sheila Turner Johnston, suggests that Milligan eventually was shattered by the difference between romantic nationalism and its reality.

Professor Ernest T S Walton (year of admission 1915). Physicist & Nobel Laureate

Attended Trinity College, Dublin. 1927 awarded Research Scholarship and went to Cambridge to work in the Cavendish Laboratory under Lord Rutherford. Worked with John Cockcroft and became the first man to split the atom. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1951. During the war years, he was invited by Sir James Chadwick to join the scientists in the United States who were engaged in the Manhattan Project.. Although he was not particularly keen on going he nevertheless consulted the Provost of Trinity College, Dublin where he was a Fellow. Permission was refused on the basis that the teaching staff in the department would be reduced to two.

Throughout his professional life he lectured widely on the relationship between science and religion, morality and ethics.

Cedric H R Thornberry (year of admission 1948). Distinguished international lawyer and former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations .

He was involved in both peacekeeping and negotiation in Cyprus, the Middle East, Namibia and Yugoslavia. In 1992-1994 he was Director of Civil Affairs in UNPROFOR, the UN protection force in the former Yugoslavia and then Deputy Chief of Mission.

He was responsible for negotiating the humanatarian relief of Sarajevo and Mostar and participated in the Vance-Owen negotiations on the future of the region.

Major Frederick Hugh Crawford (year of admission 1868). British Army Officer & Boer War Veteran. Organised the successful Larne gun-running in 1914. Appointed by the Ulster Unionist Council in 1913 to purchase secretly 20,000 rifles and 4 million rounds of amunition from Germany as Prime Minister Asquith's Home Rule crisis deepened. Crawford hatched Operation Lion, hiering two ships the "Fanny" and the "Clyde Valley". The weapons were landed and distributed throughout the North on 24 April. The mutiny of British army officers at the Curragh and the outbreak of the First World War prevented the island of Ireland becoming engulfed in a bloody civil war.

Alice Everett (year of admission 1882). Queen's College, Belfast and Girton, Cambridge. Selected with A S D Maunder (Victoria College, Belfast) to be an Assistant to the Astronomer Royal. Later went to Potsdam Observatory and afterwards to America.

Florence A Hamilton (year of admission 1882). B.A. with Honours in Mathematics. Mother of C S Lewis.

Sir Louis J Kershaw (year of admission 1881). Deputy Under-Secretary of State, India Office. Attended the Paris Peace Conference, 1919-1920.

Letitia L Walkington (year of admission 1883). Social worker, crusader against poverty and vice in Belfast. Active suffragette. First woman in UK to take the four degrees B.A., M.A., LL.B., LL.D. In charge of Skipton Street Mission, Albertbridge Road, Belfast.

Charles H Oliver (year of admission 1868). Professor of Mathematics at the Imperial College, Peking. Survived the Boxer Rising (their motto was "Protect the country, destroy the foreigner"). He was reported massacred in the London Daily Mail. The telegram describing the actual massacre became world famous. He later entered H.M. Customs at Shanghai.