Preface to the online release, January 2009

By Lawrence Goldman

• Political lives
• Professional and business life
• Literature, scholarship, and the arts
• Comedy, film, and sport
• Our next online update

New online contents, January 2009

Welcome to the thirteenth update of the Oxford DNB, in which, as every January, we extend the dictionary's coverage further into the twenty-first century. Our latest update adds biographies of 215 men and women who died in 2005, as well as one individual who died before this date, included within a new article. A selection of biographies is freely available along with a full list of the new lives.

Of the 215 new subjects who died in 2005, 45 are women, 67 were born before the outbreak of the First World War, and 8 were born after the conclusion of the Second World War. The oldest subject is Alfred Anderson, who was born in 1896 and was the last living member of the pre-1914 Territorial Army, and the last survivor of those who went to war in autumn 1914 and of the famous Christmas truce on the western front. He is joined in this release by Harold Lawton, born in 1899, a noted French scholar and the last surviving prisoner of war from that conflict. The youngest subject in this release is the rally driver Richard Burns, who was born in 1971.

Political lives

January's update includes two prime ministers from the 1970s, Edward Heath and James Callaghan, and several other notable politicians from that era. Taken together, the lives of the politicians now added to the dictionary provide an overview of the history of the preceding generation. Ted Heath, whose biography has been written by his former private and political secretary Douglas Hurd, emerges as a contradictory figure whose achievements—notably taking Britain into the European Economic Community—have to be balanced against failures of political judgement and a personal style that often alienated his aides and ministerial colleagues. As Lord Hurd makes clear, as prime minister Heath presided over a sudden volte face in economic policy in 1972 and over an unsustainable financial boom that in turn led to recession and the infamous 'three-day week' as production was cut in many industries. His government failed in its efforts to curb trade-union power and was eventually brought down in a confrontation with the National Union of Mineworkers in early 1974 that led Heath to call an early and ill-advised general election.

James Callaghan, whose biography has been written by his former cabinet colleague Roy Hattersley, was a senior member of the Labour administrations before and after Heath's government and became prime minister in 1976 following the resignation of Harold Wilson. In manner and career Jim Callaghan (or Sunny Jim as he was known) provides a contrast with Heath. Unlike Heath, Callaghan had held the highest offices of state as chancellor of the exchequer and foreign and home secretary before entering 10 Downing Street. Whereas Heath tried to confront the trade-union movement, in 1969—and at a crucial moment in the history of the Labour Party—Callaghan had defended the unions from those ministers, notably Barbara Castle, who would have reformed British industrial relations. And as prime minister Callaghan had the task of stabilizing the British economy after the excesses of the early 1970s, an undertaking that began badly when his administration was forced to seek emergency support from the International Monetary Fund. While Heath was reserved with colleagues and uncomfortable in public, Callaghan's style was relaxed and avuncular, though he did not lack political guile. But he too made the wrong call over a general election: it is widely believed that had he gone to the country in autumn 1978 he might have won. In the event, the 'winter of discontent' that followed put paid to his administration in the election of May 1979, and also brought to a close the distinctive era of British politics of the 1960s and 1970s.

The addition to the dictionary of Gerry Fitt, leader of Northern Ireland's Social and Democratic Labour Party, is a reminder of the febrile events of 1978-9 and of the end of this era, for it was Fitt's decision to abstain in the vote of no confidence in the House of Commons in the spring of 1979 that led to Labour's defeat at the polls and the election of Margaret Thatcher's first administration. Gwynfor Evans, leader of Plaid Cymru during this period, is also included among those who died in 2005. This update contains in addition the life of the most prominent British fascist of the era, John Tyndall of the National Front and then the British National Party, whose cause briefly prospered during the economic downturn of the mid- and late 1970s.

Ted Heath is joined by his ill-fated chancellor Anthony Barber, forever remembered for the 'Barber boom' of the early 1970s, and by Gordon Campbell, secretary of state for Scotland in that Conservative administration. Two other notable Conservative politicians are Sir Nicholas Scott, a 'one nation' Tory, once tipped as a future leader of the party, and Baroness Blatch, an important figure in local government in Cambridgeshire and one of John Major's so-called fenland mafia, who was a junior education minister between 1992 and 1994. From the other side of the political spectrum January's update includes the Labour left-winger Stan Orme, who was briefly a member of Callaghan's cabinet, and Ron Todd, whose leadership of the Transport and General Workers' Union was characterized by conflict with Neil Kinnock, leader of the Labour Party, as well as with Margaret Thatcher. A staunch monarchist, Todd took the unusual step of making the queen mother an honorary member of the TGWU.

The history of the Labour Party after 1979 is captured in the biography of Robin Cook, who emerged as a leading figure in his party during the 1980s. Cook brought together a sharp intellect, brilliance in debate, a strong moral sense, a fondness for horse racing, and later a complex private life. His eloquence in the House of Commons gave heart to the Labour benches in the party's long period out of power between 1979 and 1997. But his temperament and appearance—he was often unkindly compared to a gnome—did not fit him for leadership. He looked and evidently felt out of place as foreign secretary in Tony Blair's first administration, and he subsequently resigned ministerial office when the United Kingdom joined the United States in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. His untimely death was mourned by many Labour activists. Cook is joined by Mo Mowlam—another popular Labour minister, though one latterly more favoured by the public than by the leadership of her party. Mowlam's role in the Northern Ireland peace process at the end of the 1990s and her personal struggle against debilitating illness made her a well-loved and admired figure. Her fall from political favour was met with loud complaints from the press and public alike. Other Labour politicians now added to the dictionary include Phillip Whitehead, a talented MP and television producer, who pushed through parliament a 'right to know' law for adopted children who might otherwise never discover their parentage, and Donald Bruce, a left-wing MP and fierce opponent of the European Union.

Among figures notable in public life as campaigners and lobbyists several names stand out in this update. Peter Benenson, the founder of Amnesty International in the early 1960s, is included alongside the nuclear physicist, anti-nuclear campaigner, and leading figure in the Pugwash movement of scientists Sir Joseph Rotblat. Amnesty International corporately in 1977 and Rotblat personally (though jointly with Pugwash) in 1995 were awarded the Nobel peace prize. Arthur Seldon was a key figure in the Institute of Economic Affairs and a major intellectual influence on Margaret Thatcher, while Richard Sandbrook and Sir Peter Large were early advocates of, respectively, sustainable development and disability rights. Sir Frederick Bishop began his career as a civil servant and then oversaw the National Trust's massive expansion of membership, activities, and influence. Eric Roll enters the dictionary for a host of different achievements: as an economist, economic historian, and civil servant, and as a diplomat involved in many of the key negotiations of the post-war era, from the Marshall plan to Britain's first application to join the EEC in the 1960s. Lord Roll was described by the American economist J. K. Galbraith as the most accomplished negotiator of his generation.

Professional and business life

Among notable entrants from the professions the pioneering career of Dame Rose Heilbron stands out. With Helen Normanton she was the first female king's counsel (KC) in England and Wales, as well as the first woman judge, the first woman to lead a circuit, and the first female treasurer of an inn of court. She is joined by Mary Marre, who chaired the committee on the future of the legal profession that opened the way to solicitors being able to act and plead for their clients in the courts. Between 1982 and 1992 the judge John Donaldson served as master of the rolls. His work returns us to the political themes covered in this update through his role as president of the ill-fated National Industrial Relations Court (1971-4) established by the Heath government, the cause rather than the resolver of industrial conflict. Geoffrey Lane, lord chief justice between 1980 and 1992, is another notable legal subject added in this release, alongside Sir Jean-Pierre Warner, the first British advocate-general at the European Court of Justice, and Bob Alexander, a leading barrister described by Lord Denning as 'the best advocate of his generation'.

January's update is also notable for a number of women remembered for their work in scientific and medical fields. Dame Cicely Saunders, the pioneer of the hospice movement in Britain, was drawn to working with the terminally ill during the 1940s, and in 1967 she opened St Christopher's Hospice, where more than 50,000 healthcare professionals had been trained by the time of her death. The entomologist and naturalist Dame Miriam Rothschild was a leading authority on fleas and undertook pioneering work on ecological biochemistry, including the mechanisms of warning colouration. They are joined by, among others, the botanist Joyce Lambert, who established that the Norfolk broads were man-made; the biochemist Helen Muir, who specialized in degenerative diseases of the joints; and the cytologist Betty Macgregor, who initiated the first successful programme of cervical cancer screening.

The themes of medical and scientific research are continued in the biographies of Sir Richard Southwood—an entomologist who led public health enquiries into lead in petrol and BSE—and of Sir Richard Doll, who enjoyed international fame and commendation for his epidemiological studies in the 1950s and 1960s that established the link between smoking and lung cancer, and so helped to change public attitudes to tobacco. Other leading figures in medical science include Bill Inman, the pharmaco-epidemiologist who devised the 'yellow card' system of alerting to problems with drug safety; Bill Cleland, a pioneer of open-heart surgery using extra-corporeal circulation; and Sir John Dacie, a leading haematologist and expert on leukaemias. The mathematician and physicist Sir Hermann Bondi now joins Sir Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold in the Oxford DNB: together they propounded the now discredited 'steady state' theory of the universe. Another mathematician, Sir Harry Pitt, noted for his seminal work on Tauberian theorems, went on to a career in university administration. Richard Fitter was a prolific ornithologist and naturalist, and the author of many standard field guides; Tony Fogg was an expert on marine ecology, especially the roles of algae and plankton.

It is claimed that the great fast bowler Fred Trueman said of David Sheppard—in the days when the future bishop opened the batting for England but was not always a secure slip fielder—'It's a pity t' Rev doesn't put his hands together more in t' field'. Sheppard was briefly captain of the England cricket team. He was also, and for much longer and with more lasting social impact, the bishop of Liverpool, and he heads our group of religious lives in this update. Sheppard gave spiritual solace and civic leadership at a time when Liverpool was in economic and social decline, in the 1980s and 1990s, and formed one half of a notable Christian partnership with the Roman Catholic archbishop of Liverpool, Derek Worlock. Sheppard became one of the most respected and well-loved churchmen of the age. He is joined by Hugh Montefiore of Birmingham, another notable and sometimes controversial bishop, and by James Whyte, the moderator of the Church of Scotland who preached famous sermons after the tragedies at Lockerbie in 1988 and Dunblane in 1996. Maurice Wiles was a leading academic theologian and a man of unorthodox views (and the father of the mathematician Sir Andrew Wiles, who proved Fermat's last theorem). John Rayner was a leading rabbi and liturgist in the Liberal Jewish tradition in Britain, while Geoffrey Parrinder was a respected scholar of comparative religion.

The presence of figures from business, engineering, and design has been a noted feature of recent January updates and in this release we add further biographies of individuals from these and related fields. The civil engineer William Brown devised the multi-box form of bridge deck, while his contemporary, the architect Povl Ahm of the Arup practice, worked on such iconic post-war buildings as Coventry Cathedral, the Sydney Opera House, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Four lives are associated with automotive engineering and car manufacture: Keith Duckworth of Cosworth Engineering revolutionized the design of racing car engines in the 1970s and 1980s; Sir Kenneth Corley of Lucas led a company that made electrical components for the motor and aviation industries; Alexander Trotman was chairman and chief executive officer of the car company Ford UK; and John DeLorean—one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs and crooks of the 1970s—headed a company, based in Northern Ireland, that took millions in public subsidy to produce the eponymous 'gull-wing' car. We can add a fifth life connected with cars, though in this case we are dealing with miniature models and the biography of Leslie Smith, the industrialist associated with Matchbox cars, the gift of first choice to boys in the 1960s.

John King, the ebullient chairman of British Airways and a leading exemplar of 'Thatcherite' businessmen in the 1980s, represents the aviation industries alongside Sir Frederick Page, a leading aircraft designer and executive, and the first chairman of British Aerospace. Sir Kenneth Durham was the scientist who restructured Unilever and ensured its viability, while the inventor Jeremy Fry was also mentor to the entrepreneur James Dyson. The life of Sir Nigel Mobbs of Slough Estates, worth nearly £2 billion at his retirement, shows the sums that could be made by riding Britain's post-war property booms. Ken Swan, the founder of Swan Hellenic, showed likewise that in an age of affluence the 'grey pound' was worth chasing: there was money to be made out of travel and services for the retired. Sir Leslie Porter, husband of Dame Shirley Porter, married into the Cohen family—founders of the Tesco supermarket chain—and prospered in the days when Tesco literally 'piled 'em high and sold 'em cheap'. Janet Reger made her name in lingerie design and sales, and knew that she had arrived when Tom Stoppard included the line 'Don't get your Janet Regers in a twist' in his play Night and Day. From knickers to bridges and from boom to bust, the highs and lows of British business are included in this release.

Literature, scholarship, and the arts

Of the literary figures included in this update perhaps the most notable is the novelist John Fowles, famous for The Collector, The Magus, and The French Lieutenant's Woman and also a notable amateur geologist and curator of the local museum in Lyme Regis. Other novelists include David Hughes, whose most successful work, The Pork Butcher (1984), told the story of a German soldier's return to the scene of a wartime massacre, and the Cuban exile Guillermo Cabrera Infante, who is best known for his celebration of pre-revolutionary Havana, Tres tristes tigres. Among dramatists, Christopher Fry, author of The Lady's Not For Burning, may be contrasted with Willis Hall, who, with his longtime co-writer Keith Waterhouse (who has written his entry), wrote many plays and television dramas, including Billy Liar. Another comic and satirist included here is Willie Donaldson, whose Henry Root Letters exposed the vanities of many public figures during the late 1970s. In the field of children's literature Helen Cresswell is joined by the book editor Miriam Hodgson, who worked with many of the most notable writers of young fiction of her day. Julia Darling, the poet, playwright, and novelist known for the novel Crocodile Soup, is included, as is Anna Haycraft on two counts: for her role as a publisher of authors including Beryl Bainbridge and in her own right as a novelist publishing under the name of Alice Thomas Ellis, in which guise she was famous for The Sin Eaters among other books. These creative writers of different types are complemented by several notable literary critics. David Daiches was a prolific writer of many books on literature, especially Scottish literature, as befitted a native of Glasgow. Philip Hobsbaum was both a critic and a poet whose literary discussion groups in London, Belfast, and Glasgow were credited with assisting the careers of many writers including Seamus Heaney, while Robert Woof was a literary scholar and successful director of the Wordsworth Trust. George Painter is remembered for his biography of Marcel Proust and Victor Selwyn as founder of the Oasis Salamander Trust, which set about collecting and publishing the otherwise neglected and forgotten poetry of the Second World War.

Many of the historians added in January's update were public figures in their own right, notable not only for their scholarship but for the wider roles they played. Sir Glanmor Williams and Sir Rees Davies were both very distinguished Welsh historians of their homeland. Sir Bill Deakin was not only the founding warden of St Antony's College, Oxford, but Churchill's indispensable literary assistant and adviser and a wartime SOE officer who worked with Tito and his partisans in Yugoslavia. Maurice Cowling of Peterhouse, Cambridge, known for his work on Victorian political history, was reputed to have had influence over Margaret Thatcher and some Thatcherite MPs of the 1980s, several of whom had been his pupils. As our article makes clear, however, this influence has been exaggerated. Douglas Johnson, a historian of modern France, was also an interpreter of the French to the British. He is joined by Monica Charlot, the British-born pioneer of 'British studies' in France and by Maurice Beresford, who studied Britain's deserted medieval villages. The sociologist Joe Banks was an expert on the history of the Victorian family and the advent of family planning in that era. Classicists added to the dictionary include the admired eccentric David Shackleton Bailey and the expert on Roman demographics and stoicism Peter Brunt. Also included is Martin Lings, scholar of Islam and author of an acclaimed Life of Muhammad, and three leading educationists: Michael McCrum, headmaster of Eton and then master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, who was one of the leading public school headmasters of the era; Ted Wragg, the critic in equal measure of both Conservative and New Labour education policies; and Sybil Marshall, the pioneer of the 'symphonic' method of teaching.

The mix of individuals drawn from broadcasting and journalism reflects the wide influence and broadening genres in both fields in the late twentieth century. Michael Davie and Kenneth Harris were journalists on The Observer in its golden age. Harris, graduating to the role of executive, both 'saved' The Observer in 1976 and then encouraged its sale to the controversial entrepreneur Tiny Rowland in 1981. Patrick Keatley was a leading foreign and Commonwealth correspondent and commentator, working for much of his career on The Guardian. In television Michael Gill was a gifted documentary film-maker responsible for Kenneth Clark's Civilization, and Johnnie Stewart the innovative producer of Top of the Pops in the shows heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. From radio, Leonard Miall was the BBC broadcaster who broke news of the Marshall plan and went on to a career in management in the corporation, while John Timpson's reassuring Norfolk burr was to be heard on a range of programmes in the 1980s and 1990s, including Today and Any Questions? Another voice heard frequently in these years—a slow mid-Atlantic-meets-aristocratic drawl—belonged to the self-appointed authority on the royal family and the landed families of England, Harold Brooks-Baker, the American publisher of Burke's Peerage and Debrett's. Humphrey Carpenter, a biographer, jazz player, and witty broadcaster in quite a different style is also included in this update.

A similar diversity is to be found in the lives drawn from the visual arts. Painters range from Conroy Maddox, the leading English surrealist, to the 'pop' artist Patrick Caulfield, and Karl Weschke, a former Nazi paratrooper settled in England, whose sombre and threatening scenes may have reflected in some oblique way his earlier experiences. Two sculptors are also included: Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, the surrealist-influenced modernist, and Bernard Meadows, at one stage assistant to Henry Moore and part of the 1952 Geometry of Fear exhibition. Among photographers are Fay Godwin, noted for her landscapes reflecting environmental concerns, Humphrey Spender, whose documentary work was a feature of Mass-Observation records, and Patrick Lichfield, the aristocratic photographer who recorded the rich and stylish. From among the patrons and administrators of arts the Oxford DNB has chosen Margaret Gardiner, who created and endowed the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, Joan Crossley-Holland, who played a key role in the modern revival of 'arts and crafts' through the Oxford Gallery on that city's High Street, and Lilian Browse, the art dealer known as the Duchess of Cork Street who was an expert on Walter Sickert.

Musical lives are largely drawn from the classical world and include Norbert Brainin, a member of the Amadeus Quartet, which was originally known as the Brainin Quartet. Other players and singers include Dame Moura Lympany, the pianist and acclaimed interpreter of Rachmaninov, June Bronhill, the Australian singer famous for light opera roles, Eleanor Warren, a cellist who became head of music programmes at the BBC and initiated Monday lunchtime concerts at St John's, Smith Square, in London, and the conductor Meredith Davies. Stanley Sadie, expert on Mozart and editor of the Grove Dictionary of Music, is also included alongside Robert Farnon, a notable composer of film and television scores, representing the world of light orchestral music. Derek Bailey, in contrast, left his mark as a leading theorist and practitioner of improvised music. Aspects of pop music history are represented by Laurel Aitken, the so-called 'godfather of ska', and Jamaica's first genuine recording star, whose influence spread widely in Britain, and by the guitarist and blues singer Long John Baldry. Baldry toured in the 1960s with the Rolling Stones, helped Elton John at the start of his career, and discovered the young Rod Stewart playing harmonica on the platform at Twickenham station.

Comedy, film, and sport

Dave Allen and Ronnie Barker, two great comedians of contrasting styles, head our coverage of entertainment, theatre, and film in this release. Allen, the original bar-stool raconteur, was a laconic mixture of gentle and scabrous humour, poking fun at his Irish background and Catholic upbringing. Barker, perhaps the nation's favourite comic, was a master of characterization as Fletcher in the prison comedy Porridge or as the grocer Arkwright in the gentle Open All Hours. He had come to attention alongside John Cleese and Ronnie Corbett in The Frost Report; soon after he made his lasting impression partnering Corbett in The Two Ronnies, which won fans young and old over its fifteen-year history. Other comic figures include Cyril Fletcher, whose 'odd odes' were a feature of the 1970s television programme That's Life, Jack Tripp, who made his career as a pantomime dame, and Malcolm Hardee, an influential promoter of alternative comedy during the 1980s. The actor David Kossoff could play comic roles, notably as radio's Alf Larkin, but was better known as a broadcaster who specialized in moral themes and in the telling of Bible stories.

Among a clutch of actors Sir John Mills stands out as the most notable. He was described as 'a new sort of Everyman hero', the epitome of the cheerful Tommy and reliable Englishman in many films; his versatility allowed him to play numerous roles, including a memorable Pip in David Lean's version of Great Expectations and Captain Anson in Ice Cold in Alex. David Lean is also recalled by the inclusion of two of his colleagues—Guy Green, the cinematographer who won an Oscar for his work on Great Expectations, and the film production designer John Box, winner of a remarkable four Oscars—and of his wife, the film actress Kay Walsh, who did some of her finest screen work in films he directed. The January update also includes another notable post-war cinematographer, Erwin Hillier, who worked on The Dam Busters, and John Brabourne, film producer and pioneer of 'pay-TV' cable television. Constance Cummings, born in America, enjoyed a seventy-year career on stage and screen; and Sheila Gish was an actress especially associated with roles in plays by the American playwright Tennessee Williams. Mary Wimbush had a varied career but was best known in later life for playing Julia Pargetter in the radio serial The Archers.

If anyone may be said to sum up the age this release chronicles it is surely George Best, often claimed as the finest footballer who ever pulled on a professional shirt in these islands. Born in Belfast and brought to Manchester United as a teenager, Best's outrageous talent on the wing charmed the crowds and bamboozled full backs in equal measure. He was, as his biographer Michael Crick maintains, the complete footballer, whose remarkable speed and control of the ball allowed him to go past defenders with ease. Best was fortunate to play in a club team including talents like Dennis Law and Bobby Charlton, but at international level with Northern Ireland he never had the opportunity to grace a major international tournament. He was child of the swinging sixties, and his boyish good looks and taste for the high life were his downfall in the 1970s. There were occasions when Best lived up to his name, but he was more of a celebrity off the field than on it in his later years as a player. His descent into alcoholism and early death were part of national life for two decades but when he died the people of his native city paid tribute in their thousands to a man who had entertained so many. Best is joined by another celebrated footballer of a slightly earlier period, Johnny Haynes of Fulham—captain of England and the first player to earn £100 a week—who is remembered as a brilliant passer of the ball. After winning the 1951 open golf championship Max Faulkner enjoyed a long career as a writer and commentator on his sport, in contrast to the world champion rally driver Richard Burns, whose life was ended prematurely by illness. Prominent sportswomen in this update include Kay Stammers, Wimbledon ladies' doubles champion (with Freda James) in 1935 and 1936, and Audrey Court, who won a silver medal in the women's relay at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, where her brother Godfrey Brown (who is already in the dictionary) won gold. They are joined by Margaret Hughes, the first woman to write and be published on cricket.

Alongside these successful representatives of their country are others whose dedication and bravery require recognition. Arthur Bywater, for example, a manager and administrator of munitions factories in the Second World War, was awarded both the George Medal and the George Cross for his remarkable bravery on two occasions when explosions threatened numerous casualties. Malcolm Fewtrell of Buckinghamshire CID was jointly in charge of the investigation into the great train robbery of 1963 and was in large part responsible for solving that sensational crime. But there is also Melita Norwood, dubbed the spy who came in from the Co-op, who lived an apparently blameless life in a London suburb until unmasked in her old age as a post-war spy for the Soviet Union who never lost her commitment to the cause of Soviet communism.

Our next online update

Our next online update will be published in May 2009 and will include men and women active from the 'earliest times' to the late twentieth century. May's update will complete our series on British gardeners and horticulturists, as well as continuing long-term projects on the pre-Reformation episcopacy and shapers of the British empire and early Commonwealth. It will also feature Victorian naturalists, some familiar names in domestic engineering, and the next set of group articles—from the Elizabethan sea dogs to the 'angry young men'.

Lawrence Goldman, editor

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