The latest update of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography adds biographies of 238 people who left their mark on the UK, and who died in the year 2021.
Born at 401 Western Avenue, Llandaff, Cardiff, the daughter of an industrial economist and a drama teacher, Dame Cheryl Gillan (1952–2021) was Conservative MP for Chesham and Amersham from 1992 until her death. She was the first woman to serve as Secretary of State for Wales, an office she held from 2010 until 2012 under prime minister David Cameron (having been shadow secretary of state since 2005); she was considered a pragmatic holder of the office, willing to engage with Labour-led governments in Cardiff and working with the grain of devolution.
Born in Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire, the harpist and composer Osian Ellis (1928–2021) ‘chose the harp because we had one at home’. He won a prize at the national eisteddfod in 1943 and later served as the principal harpist for the London Symphony Orchestra. Many composers, including Benjamin Britten, Alun Hoddinott, and William Mathias, wrote music for him. He published several works on the history of the harp in Wales, on the medieval Welsh music of Robert ap Huw, on eighteenth-century composer and harpist John Parry, and on the Welsh form of improvisation-based singing, cerdd dant. In the 1990s he returned to Wales, to live at Pwllheli on the Llŷn peninsula.
Born at 4 Oak Street, Chapel of Rest, Abercarn, Monmouthshire, the rugby union player and coach John Dawes (1940–2021) made his senior début, for Newbridge against Loughborough Colleges, while still a schoolboy in 1959. After reading chemistry at University College, Aberystwyth, and moving to London, he became captain and coach of London Welsh (‘the Exiles’). Reckoned by team-mate Mervyn Davies ‘the best rugby brain ever taken onto a pitch’, he turned them into one of the most formidable teams in the country. He made his Wales début in 1964 and in 1971 led the team to a grand slam. He also captained the British Lions, who defeated the New Zealand All Blacks in a test series the same year. From 1980 to 1990 he was Welsh Rugby Union coaching organizer. He lived for many years in Llandaff and died in Penarth.
Although born on the Wirral, Joan Carlyle (1931–2021) was brought up in Denbighshire, where her parents ran the Plas Draw hotel and country club. As a soprano she specialized in traditional repertoire, emerging in the 1950s and 1960s as a celebrated member of the Covent Garden company, and performing under the baton of Sir Georg Solti and with such stars as Maria Callas. She retired from singing in 1980 to take over the running of her parents’ hotel.
Born and raised in Bangor (his family lived at 272 Caernavon Road), Richard Parry-Jones (1951–2021) was an automotive engineer at Ford widely admired for a design philosophy focused on the driver and an emphasis on environmentally sustainable manufacturing practices. As head of engineering for Ford of Europe he oversaw the introduction of new models including the Mondeo and the Focus. He retired from Ford as head of global product development, and bought the Clock House, Barmouth, which he and his wife Sara converted into an environmentally friendly luxury spa hotel, Coes Faen Spa Lodge.
Born at 37 Woodfield Road, Panteg, Pontypool, the son of a railway locomotive fireman, Sir Michael Peckham (1935–2021) won a scholarship from Monmouth Grammar School to Cambridge, this beginning a career as a distinguished oncologist whose multidisciplinary treatment programmes improved survival rates and led to the wider acceptance of holistic care models for cancer patients. A strong believer in the application of evidence-based medicine, he was the first NHS director of research and development.
Born in Silloth, Cumberland, but brought up in Flintshire and trained at Bangor, Sir David (Dai) Rees (1936–2021) was a biochemist who concentrated on complex carbohydrate structures, known as polysaccharides, which are critical to biological organization. Rees was also a skilled administrator, responsible, first as director of the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, then as chief executive of the Medical Research Council, for guiding British science policy through turbulent funding landscapes.
In the field of clinical genetics, Sir Peter Harper (1939–2021) documented inheritance patterns amongst patients with muscular dystrophies and Huntingdon’s disease and advocated for patients’ rights. In 1971 he was recruited to set up a clinical genetics department from scratch at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, and in 1987 a purpose-built Institute of Medical Genetics was opened at the University Hospital for Wales. In retirement on Station Road, Llanishen, Cardiff, he worked on the history of medical genetics.
Born at 1 Ynystaf, off Merthyr Vale train station, the son of a miner, chemist Sir Ronald Mason (1930–2021) developed innovative electronic spectroscopy techniques that exposed previously invisible reaction mechanisms at the molecular level. Moving into science policy, he served as a chief scientific adviser at the Ministry of Defence, where his scientific diplomacy strengthened international research collaborations during the Cold War, and later advised on arms control.
Born at 42 Francis Terrace, Carmarthen, the daughter of two headteachers, Dame Margaret Weston (1926–2021), trained and worked as an electrical engineer before joining the Science Museum in London, where she enjoyed a thirteen-year tenure as director (and the first female director of a national museum) from 1973 to 1986. Determined to expand the reach of the Science Museum beyond the capital, she oversaw the establishment of many cultural building blocks, such as the National Railway Museum in York, that would eventually become the Science Museum Group.
Born in Liverpool, disc jockey and broadcaster Janice Long (1955–2021) was the first woman to present a daily music show on BBC Radio 1, and the first regular female presenter on Top of the Pops. From 2017 she presented her own Monday to Thursday evening show on Radio Wales.
Other prominent figures in the new edition include Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021), the husband and consort of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch (whose own entry will be published next year); politicians Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby (1930-2021), Austin Mitchell (1934-2021), and Sir David Amess (1952-2021); entrepreneurs Sir Clive Sinclair (1940-2021) and Sir David Barclay (1934-2021); Nobel prize-winner Antony Hewish (1924-2021); actors Sir Antony Sher (1949-2021) and Helen McCrory (1968-2021); footballers Jimmy Greaves (1940-2021) and Ian St John (1938-2021); journalist Katharine Whitehorn (1928-2021); anti-deportation activist Anwar Ditta (1953-2021); and charity fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore (1920-2021).
A full list of new subjects is available from the dictionary.
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