Founded in 1919, the OLC is the oldest student Labour Club with a long history of promoting democratic socialism at the University of Oxford.
In addition to the Co-Chairs listed below, our alumni includes former Labour Cabinet ministers Barbara Castle, Hugh Gaitskell, Tony Benn, Richard Crossman, Tony Greenwood and more.
If you are aware of any more Co-Chairs, please let us know!
| Year | MT | HT | TT |
| 1918-1919 | |||
| 1919-1920 | |||
| 1920-1921 | M Lindsay | ||
| 1921-1922 | H Tetley (Keble) | ||
| 1922-1923 | R de Conores Matthews | ||
| 1923-1924 | |||
| 1924-1925 | |||
| 1925-1926 | Frank Lee | ||
| 1926-1927 | |||
| 1927-1928 | |||
| 1928-1929 | |||
| 1929-1930 | Michael Stewart (St John’s) | ||
| 1930-1931 | Geoffrey Wilson | Owen Papineau | |
| 1931-1932 | |||
| 1932-1933 | |||
| 1933-1934 | David Lewis (Lincoln) | ||
| 1934-1935 | H D “Billy” Hughes (Balliol) | ||
| 1935-1936 | Charles Smith | ||
| 1936-1937 | Dennis Winnard | Philip Toynbee (Christ Church) | |
| 1937-1938 | |||
| 1938-1939 | |||
| 1939-1940 | |||
| 1940-1941 | |||
| 1941-1942 | |||
| 1942-1943 | |||
| 1943-1944 | |||
| 1944-1945 | |||
| 1945-1946 | |||
| 1946-1947 | D B F McNeill (Merton) | ||
| 1947-1948 | J R Morris (Oriel) | B W E Pearson (Lincoln) | J I C McKean (Balliol) |
| 1948-1949 | Peter Parker (Lincoln) | W N A Camp (Oriel) | |
| 1949-1950 | Dick Taverne (Balliol) | Michael Summerskill (Merton) | |
| 1950-1951 | Shirley Brittain-Catlin (Somerville)- first woman! | M W Smart (Magdalen) | |
| 1951-1952 | H Near (New) | Oleg Kerensky (Christ Church) | |
| 1952-1953 | M H Jones (Pembroke) | ||
| 1953-1954 | H Middleton (Braesnose) | Jeremy Isaacs (Merton) | |
| 1954-1955 | Anthony Howard (Christ Church) | Ruth Finnegan (Somerville) | |
| 1955-1956 | |||
| 1956-1957 | |||
| 1957-1958 | John Horsfield | ||
| 1959-1960 | Dennis Potter (New) | ||
| 1960-1961 | |||
| 1961-1962 | Tyronne Fernando (Keble) | Lydia Howard (Somerville) | |
| 1962-1963 | David Soskice (Nuffield and Trinity) | ||
| 1963-1964 | |||
| 1964-1965 | |||
| 1965-1966 | |||
| 1966-1967 | |||
| 1967-1968 | |||
| 1968-1969 | |||
| 1969-1970 | |||
| 1970-1971 | |||
| 1971-1972 | |||
| 1972-1973 | |||
| 1973-1974 | Roger Undy (Wadham) | ||
| 1974-1975 | |||
| 1975-1976 | |||
| 1976-1977 | |||
| 1977-1978 | |||
| 1978-1979 | |||
| 1979-1980 | |||
| 1980-1981 | |||
| 1981-1982 | |||
| 1982-1983 | |||
| 1983-1984 | |||
| 1984-1985 | |||
| 1985-1986 | |||
| 1986-1987 | Felicity Spector | ||
| 1987-1988 | |||
| 1988-1989 | |||
| 1989-1990 | |||
| 1990-1991 | |||
| 1991-1992 | |||
| 1992-1993 | |||
| 1993-1994 | |||
| 1994-1995 | |||
| 1995-1996 | |||
| 1996-1997 | Jessica Spearman (Worcester) | ||
| 1997-1998 | Sarah Atkinson (Corpus Christi) | ||
| 1998-1999 | |||
| 1999-2000 | John Craig (New) | ||
| 2000-2001 | Anneliese Dodds (St Hilda’s) Daniel Paskins (Magdalen) | Ellie Reeves (St Catherine’s) | Ben Harris Kat Overton |
| 2001-2002 | Karim Palant (New) | Julian Hudson (St Hugh’s) Sophia Woodley (St Hilda’s) | Mark Goodsell (Hertford) Andrew Thomas (St Anne’s) |
| 2002-2003 | Nicky Ellis (Queen’s) Peter Morton (Somerville) | Oliver Kempton (St Anne’s) Heather Pipe (Magdalen) | James Cloyne (Keble) |
| 2003-2004 | Rebecca Wilkinson (St Edmund’s) | Bridget Phillipson (Hertford) Greg Hilditch (Hertford) | Tim Flatman Joe Taylor |
| 2004-2005 | Max Schmid Dan Simpson | Stephen Longden (Merton) | Alex Brodkin (LMH) |
| 2005-2006 | Jack Graves (Wadham) Martin McCluskey (St Hugh’s) | Niklas Albin Svensson (Univ) | Nicky Blair (LMH) Phil Patterson (LMH) |
| 2006-2007 | Simon Latham (Christ Church) Emily Richards (LMH) | Georgia Gould (St Catherine’s) Thom Greenwood | Mark Baker Luke Sherlock |
| 2007-2008 | Kieran Hutchinson Harriet Myles | Alice Taylor Stuart Tooley | Dave Green Sarah Hutchinson |
| 2008-2009 | Vincent Romanelli Daniel Wilson | Scott Seamons (Jesus) | Jamie Susskind (Magdalen) Jacob Turner (Worcester) |
| 2009-2010 | Ayo Ajanaku Ben Lyons | Charlotte Carnegie Hannah Cusworth | Sam Burt Alastair Strathearn |
| 2010-2011 | Stephen Bush (Balliol) Keiran Cunningham | Jack Evans Kat Shields | Lincoln Hill (St Catherine’s) |
| 2011-2012 | Colin S Jackson (LMH) Nicola Sugden (Balliol) | Thomas Adams (Jesus) David Butler (Jesus) | Anthony Breach (St Hugh’s) Kevin Feeney (Trinity) |
| 2012-2013 | Grace Pollard (St Hugh’s) Claire Smith (St Hugh’s) | Joe Collin (St Anne’s) Adam Whiley (St Anne’s) | Alex Graham (LMH) Jonathan Metzer (Worcester) |
| 2013-2014 | Helena Dollimore (St Hilda’s) Aled Jones (Corpus Christi) | Daniel Turner (Balliol) Henry Zefferman (Braesnose) | Felix Light (St Hugh’s) Orla Oakey (Balliol) |
| 2014-2015 | Charlie Atkins (Merton) Nikhil Venkatesh (Corpus Christi) | David Cesar-Heymann (St John’s) Hannah Lovell (St Anne’s) | Madalena Leao (Hertford) Loughlan O’Doherty (Corpus Christi) |
| 2015-2016 | David Klemperer (St John’s) Kate Welsh (Oriel) | Alex Chalmers (Oriel) Noni Csogor (Corpus Christi) | Eleanor Ormsby (Balliol) David Parton (St Hilda’s) |
| 2016-2017 | Tom Turner (St Catherine’s) Tom Wadsworth (St John’s) | Lucas Bertholdi-Saad (Wadham) Katie Oldham (Wadham) | Hannah Taylor (St Hugh’s) Tom Zagoria (Wadham) |
| 2017-2018 | Zoe Hodge (Mansfield) Iris Kaye-Smith (Pembroke) | Lizzy Diggins (Wadham) Keir Mather (Wadham) | Anisha Faruk (Queen’s) Ray Williams (Wadham) |
| 2018-2019 | Charlotte Austin (Jesus) Francesca Best (Wadham) | Rosie Sourbut (Somerville) Owen Winter (Jesus) | Grace Davies (Hertford) Arya Tandon (Hertford) |
| 2019-2020 | Megan Howells (Queen’s) Jay Staker (Queen’s) | Euan Huey (Univ) Lottie Sellers (Mansfield) | Ali Al-Zubaidi (Univ) Connie Bostock (Univ) |
| 2020-2021 | Sophia Heath (Balliol) Matthew Kayanja (Worcester) | Sofia Cotterill (Braesnose) Zed Nott (Braesnose) | Danial Hussain (LMH) Laura Ennis (Univ) |
| 2021-2022 | Anjali Kawa (Univ) Olly Boyland (Univ) | Danny Leach (Pembroke) Amy Field (Balliol) | Maia Hamilton (New) Hari Bravery (Univ) |
| 2022-2023 | Madelaine Cooke (Keble) Isabella Simpson (Oriel) | Ella Staddon (Merton) | Ali Khosravi (Balliol) Nidhi Madhani (Univ) |
Known Co-Chairs with unknown terms!
A L Rowse (Christ Church)- sometime in 1924
John Parker (St John’s)- at some point between 1925-1927
Henry Fowler (Worcester)- sometime between 1937-1938
Ashley Bramall (Christ Church)- sometime in 1938
Peter William Lowell (Magdalen)- either TT1949 or HT1950
John Spellar (St Edmund’s)- sometime in 1967
Julian Priestly (Balliol)- sometime between 1970-72
Possible Co-Chairs
Hugh Gaitskell (New)- MT 1926 (Gaitskell reportedly led OLC’s response to the General Strike in 1926, so we presume he was Chair?!)
Tony Benn (New)- HT 1942 (there is a letter written by Benn on behalf of the OLC during HT 1942 included in his book Years of Hope: Diaries, Letters and Papers, 1940-1962 (1994), and he was reportedly a Chair, so we presume it must be this term?!)
Oxford Labour Club 