In the first half of the 20th Century the College became associated with some of the greatest names in 20th Century culture:

• Gustav Holst was the college’s musical director from 1907 to 1924
• Ralph Vaughan Williams the notable composer taught there.
• Michael Tippett was musical director from 1940 to 1950.
• From 1905 to 1907 Virginia Woolf (pictured) taught composition, history and literature
• EM Forster, the novelist who modelled some of his characters in Howard’s End on Morley students.