Robert Runcie was one of the undergraduates whose University career was interrupted by war. He came to Oxford in 1941 as a member of Brasenose, although with the wartime requisition of buildings the College was mostly housed in buildings in Christ Church. Runcie left to join the Scots Guards in 1942 and returned four years later to complete his Classics degree, awarded in 1948. He played hockey for the College, and was President of the Junior Common Room.
He was ordained priest in 1951, and after serving a curacy in Gosforth he became Chaplain and then Vice Principal of Westcott House, the theological college in Cambridge. He went on to become Fellow and Dean of Trinity Hall Cambridge and was Principal of Cuddesdon College and vicar of Cuddesdon 1960-1969. He became Bishop of St. Albans in 1970 and was Archbishop of Canterbury 1980-1991. He was created a life peer in 1991.
The Archbishops' Archives are held by Lambeth Palace Library.