Notable alumni of Fitzwilliam College include six Nobel laureates, a large number of prominent academics, public officials, businesspeople, clergy and athletes, three heads of state or government, one current UK Supreme Court Justice, and a significant number of political figures including a former Liberal Democrats leader, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and two former Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police.

This provided students who could not afford to belong to a college with a base from which to study at the university, allowing them to be admitted to degrees, sit examinations and compete for scholarships.

[7] In the second half of the 20th century, the availability of grants made Cambridge more accessible and the need for a non-collegiate body of undergraduates began to decline.

[6] Since Fitzwilliam began operating at its current site in the north-west of Cambridge, it has grown steadily and developed into one of the university's larger, more cosmopolitan colleges.

Built around a regency manor house, the college has grown by one or two buildings each decade and now consists of five interconnected courts, enclosing large, rectangular gardens.

[11] In 2008, an archaeological dig discovered on the college site the earliest clear evidence of settlement in Cambridge, the remains of a 3,500-year-old farmstead.

[15] The college's centrepiece is the Grove, a Grade II regency manor house, designed by the architect William Custance and constructed in 1813.

Although both have since been demolished, the house built by Horace Darwin, which was known as the Orchard, was donated to Murray Edwards College in 1962 and the site now serves as its primary campus.

The dinner gong, just outside the dining hall, was originally the bell of the aircraft carrier HMS Ocean, and was presented to Fitzwilliam House by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Caspar John in 1962.

[22] Like the Hall Building, Fellows' Court was part of the initial construction, designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and completed in 1963 at a cost of approximately £300,000.

Tree Court was Lasdun's first student accommodation; he would go on to design similar buildings at the University of East Anglia and Christ's College, Cambridge.

In the mid-eighties, the college expanded to the south with the construction of New Court, a three-walled residential compound, designed by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard.

[27] The building is home to a fine two-manual organ designed by Peter Collins, a Bechstein grand piano and a Goble harpsichord.

Built using a similar brick to that used for the Grove almost 200 years earlier, the building is largely below ground-level, resulting in a direct view of the surrounding landscape for audience members towards the back of the gallery.

Consisting of a large central performance area, three smaller practice rooms and an entrance hall, the auditorium is the official home of the Fitzwilliam Quartet.

[40] At a cost of £5m, the building was designed by Edward Cullinan, who had worked with Lasdun on the original college plan, and who was undertaking his first major project after receiving the Royal Gold Medal in 2008.

[41] It was built as an extension to the uncompleted east wing of Tree Court and was designed to allow maximum luminosity and energy efficiency.

Along with the name, the college's coat of arms first came into use in the 1880s when Fitzwilliam Hall needed an emblem to represent its newly formed boat club.

Between 1997 and 2006, Fitzwilliam achieved an average of 17th place, near the bottom of the second third, in the Tompkins Table which lists the university's 29 undergraduate colleges in order of their students' examination performances.

[47] Additionally, Geography students have represented a disproportionately-high presence across generations of Fitzwilliam's undergraduate cohort,[48][49] with the college hosting a unique annual taster day in reflection of this disciplinary strength.

[citation needed] Fitzwilliam has no distinct political leaning and has, in recent years, produced prominent members of all three major national parties.

Former students include composer and Master of the King's Music Sir Walford Davies, award-winning conductor David Atherton, the TV and radio presenter Humphrey Burton, music broadcasting executive Sonita Alleyne and singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who secured a record deal with a four-track demo recorded in his college room in 1968.

Other prominent music graduates include violist Martin Outram, baritone John Noble, bassist Simon H. Fell and two founding members of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, which often returns to the college to perform and hold workshops.

[57] As well as the traditional Chapel Choir, which also takes in choristers from nearby Murray Edwards,[58] the college is home to numerous singing ensembles.

Performers at the college have included the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber,[64] the DJ Annie Mac[65] and the English Touring Opera.

They made their first professional appearance a year later at the Sheffield Arts Festival and, following graduation in 1971, became the Resident Quartet at the University of York.

Just a year into their residence, they became personally acquainted with the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and gained international recognition when they were asked to premier several of his string quartets.

[citation needed] The group proceeded to record acclaimed interpretations of many other composers, notably Brahms and Haydn, and won the Grammy Award for Chamber Music in 1977.

After her first degree at Durham University, where she graduated in 1980 with a BA in geography, she went to King's College London to study for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and worked as a secondary school teacher from 1981 to 1985.

She has always been very involved in education, and since 2005 has been chair or advisor to charities serving disadvantaged young people including ARK, Ambition Institute and Frontline.