Prince George is set to join Eton College in September, adding his name to a roster that includes former British Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and David Cameron, as well as novelist George Orwell.

The future king, 12, will follow in his father, Prince William's, footsteps by attending the $85,000-a-year boarding school in Berkshire, near his family home, Forest Lodge, in Windsor.

The experience can be daunting even for royals. Prince Harry described it as "a profound shock" in his book Spare, but those same corridors have also been walked by some of the most famous names in nearly every sphere of British public life.

Politics and Power

Eton’s imprint on British politics is perhaps its most visible legacy. The school has produced 20 prime ministers, including Conservatives Cameron and Johnson, who helped define modern British politics in different ways.

After winning the 2010 election, Cameron introduced austerity policies that brought sweeping and controversial cuts to public services before calling a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. His Remain campaign lost to Johnson's pro-Brexit campaign, triggering the country's departure from the union and Cameron's resignation.

Johnson then negotiated Britain's deal to leave during his years in power, from 2019 to 2022, before resigning in the aftermath of the "Partygate" scandal over lockdown rule-breaking in the corridors of power.

Earlier prime ministers who attended Eton include Anthony Eden, famous for his ill-judged invasion of Egypt alongside Israel and France in 1956 to prevent the nationalization of the Suez Canal, and Harold Macmillan, another central player in Britain’s postwar political landscape. Numerous cabinet ministers, diplomats and senior civil servants have also been educated at the school.

This concentration has long fueled criticism that political power in Britain can cluster around shared educational backgrounds, creating overlapping circles of influence that extend from school days into Westminster.

Famous Actors

Eton’s influence extends to film, television and theater, with a number of internationally recognized actors among its alumni.

Hugh Laurie, best known for his role in House, is one of the school’s most prominent graduates and is a household name on both sides of the Atlantic. Damian Lewis earned critical acclaim with performances in Band of Brothers, Homeland and Billions, while Tom Hiddleston played Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as starring in The Night Manager.

Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne, who took home the Academy Award for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, further underscores the reach of Eton’s alumni network into the highest levels of the film industry.

They are joined on the list of alums by Dominic West, who starred as Jimmy McNulty in HBO's The Wire before going on to play Prince Charles in the last two seasons of Netflix series The Crown, set during the 1990s when the now-King Charles III's marriage to Princess Diana ended in divorce.

Famous Authors

Eton’s reach is not confined to politics. Famous literary alumni include George Orwell, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm, whose dystopian depictions of authoritarianism continue to resonate today.

The school has also educated poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, as well as a range of historians, journalists and broadcasters who have shaped public debate.

Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond novels, was also educated at Eton, as was Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World.

These figures highlight a different strand of Eton’s influence: not direct political power, but cultural authority. Through literature, journalism and commentary, Eton-educated voices have helped frame how Britain understands itself.

Business, Science and Industry

John Maynard Keynes attended Eton between 1897 and 1902 before pioneering a school of thought known as Keynesian economics, which focuses on government intervention to stimulate demand.

Nobel Prize winner John Gurdon’s pioneering work in the late 1950s and early 1960s laid the foundation for modern cloning by showing that DNA from a specialized cell could be used to generate an entire organism.

Physicist John William Strutt, known as Lord Rayleigh, made foundational contributions to physics and helped discover argon, for which he received the Nobel Prize.

Royal Family Members

Two of the most famous recent names among the Eton alumni are George's father, Prince William, and his uncle, Prince Harry, both of whom boarded there.

For Prince George, joining Eton is about far more than formal education. It represents entry into one of the most enduring and influential networks in British society, where relationships formed in adolescence can echo across decades.

There is no guarantee George’s peers will reach the heights of Eton’s most famous alumni—but nor does he need them to. A network of lifelong friends who can help him navigate the complex intersections of politics, charity, media and the arts could prove invaluable to a future monarch.