Canon Professor Anthony Thiselton
Doctor of Theology
Anthony Thiselton, Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology at the University of Nottingham and the University of Chester, is respected worldwide for his work in biblical and philosophical hermeneutics (the study of interpretation) and his work on New Testament commentaries, as well as on doctrine and theological themes.
He serves as Associate Priest at St Mary’s Church in Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, as well as Canon Theologian Emeritus of both Leicester Cathedral and of Southwell and Nottingham. Educated at the City of London School and King’s College London, Professor Thistleton was ordained in the Church of England in 1960 and over the course of his career has taught in 15 countries on four continents, and had written more than 70 papers for academic journals, as well as 17 books.
In 1963 he became Chaplain of Tyndale Hall, Bristol, and taught at the University of Bristol. In 1970 he was appointed Sir Henry Stephenson Fellow at the University of Sheffield, becoming Lecturer in Biblical Studies the next year. He gained a PhD in Theology at Sheffield in 1977, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1979, and held appointments as Examining Chaplain to the bishops of Sheffield and Leicester.
In 1985 he became Principal of St John’s College in Bramcote, Nottingham, and was appointed Principal of St John’s College, University of Durham in 1998, where he earned a Doctor of Divinity degree and was awarded an honorary professorship. In 1992 he became Professor of Christian Theology and Head of Department at Nottingham and, after retirement in 2001, served for five years as Professor of Christian Theology at the University of Chester, before returning to Nottingham as Professor from 2006 to 2011, while becoming Professor Emeritus at Chester.
A former President of the Society of Theology, he has held numerous ecclesiastical and governmental positions including with: the Board of Theological Studies of Council for National Academic Awards; the Doctrine Commission of the Church of England; the Church of England’s General Synod; the Crown Nominations Committee; the Commission for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion; the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.
He is also a Fellow of the British Academy and of King’s College London, and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Durham. In 2004, he was awarded a Lambeth Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and last year received the Vice-Chancellor’s Achievement Award from Nottingham.
Stephen Broadbent
Doctor of Fine Arts
Born in Wroughton, Wiltshire, Stephen Broadbent was educated at The Blue Coat Grammar School in Liverpool and developed an interest in art at an early age. By the time he was 17 he was informally apprenticed to Liverpool sculptor Arthur Dooley, and gained his first exhibition of small bronze works at the Aberbach Gallery in Savile Row, London, in 1982.
Influenced greatly by Dooley, he developed his creative practice outside of the mainstream art world, working with communities and encouraging active participation in a process of renewal, celebration or remembrance. He established his own studio in Liverpool in 1983, winning his first commission for Capital Bank Chester in 1988, while developing his first public art project –a three-cities project entitled Reconciliation, unveiled in Belfast, Glasgow and Liverpool in 1990.
His personal practice and studio has steadily grown, successfully completing a huge range of diverse projects throughout the UK and overseas, including the Woman at the Well in the Cloisters garden at Chester Cathedral, the River of Life memorial streetscape in Warrington, and the stone carved David Sheppard memorial in Liverpool Cathedral. His largest work, Encounter, stands at junction 11 of the M62 at Birchwood.
In 1997 Stephen established a limited company, Broadbent, creating a team of artists and designers able to respond to the increasing demands of integrated artwork commissions for the built environment. Over the past 14 years the company has successfully completed hundreds of public art projects, demonstrating a role where artists are radically engaged in the community, finding solutions, selecting and interpreting themes that enlarge enliven and enlighten our experience of the world.
Norman Goodwin CBE
Master of Arts
Born in Lanark, Scotland, Norman Goodwin’s life of work has had a huge impact on those who have been touched directly by adoption. Although the Chief Executive of Adoption Matters first studied for Bachelor of Arts at Paisley College, he went on to take a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work, followed by a qualification in Operational Management which both lead him on to a career path where he could help other people.
After graduation he began working as a Social Worker with Clwyd County Council in Wales, moving to the former Cheshire County Council four years later, where an increasing interest in and commitment to the processes of adoption led him to join the Adoption Matters charity – formerly known as the Chester Diocesan Adoption Agency – as Team Leader in 1985. He went on to be appointed Chief Executive in 1992 and in 2007 oversaw the successful merger between Adoption Matters and Blackburn Diocesan Adoption Agency. He remains Chief Executive for the organisation which now covers a broad area, spanning from Kendal to Shropshire and Staffordshire, and from North Wales across to the Kirklees area.
Since 1985, the organisation has placed more than of 1,100 children with adoptive families and provided support and advice to thousands of adults whose lives have, in one way or another, been touched by adoption. Adoption Matters won Voluntary Adoption Agency of the Year in the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) Awards 2014. His expertise has been widely sought and he is currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Expert Working Group on Adoption and a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Adoption.
He was part of the Conservative Party Review of Adoption working party, the Adoption Stakeholder Group, and is extensively involved in the work of the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption. He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the British Association Adoption and Fostering (BAAF).
He has contributed significantly to several publications including: Barriers to Adoption, Variations In The Use of Adoption By Local Authorities; When Two Become One – A Guide To Merger For Voluntary Sector Organisations Working With Children And Families and No Place Like Home: Improving Adoption Services. Norman is also a trustee of Merseyside Christian Youth Camps – which enables between 500 and 600 young people to participate in summer camps in North Wales – and chairs its Management Council.
Norman was awarded a CBE in 2015, for his 30 years at Adoption Matters and for working tirelessly to raise the profile of adoption.
Neville Chamberlain CBE
Doctor of Science
Born in 1939, he studied for a BSc in Physics at Kings College, Durham followed by an MSc by research into X Ray Crystallography. He worked at Springfield’s, a nuclear fuel production installation at Salwick, near Preston and then moved to Capenhurst, which was then a new diffusion plant.
In 1986 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of British Nuclear Fuel. He was awarded the Melchett Medal from the Institute of Energy in 1989 and was awarded CBE in the 1990 New Year’s honours list.
He was 1996 Chairman of the European Nuclear Council; Chair of the British Energy Association of the World Energy Council from 1998 to 2001; Chair of the International Nuclear Energy Academy from 2001 to 2004; Chair of the Transatlantic Nuclear Energy Forum from 2003 to 2009; Chairman of URENCO Ltd from 2002 till 2005 and Chair of the Organising Committee for the Annual Global Nuclear Energy Summit in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010 – in the alternate years the summit visits Europe. He co-founded and remains a committee member of the Supporters of Nuclear Energy.
He has contributed enormously to public service as a Member of the Council for Industry and Higher Education; as Deputy Chair of the North West Regional Assembly; Member of the National Advisory Committee for Education and Training Targets; as Chairman of the Training and Enterprise Council National Council; as Board Member of the Manchester Commonwealth Games Operator; Chair of the Asian Elephant Appeal of Chester Zoo; Board Member of the North West Regional Development Association; Member of the Council and Court of the University of Salford; Chair of the Cheshire Independent Transition Panel in relation to new unitary authorities; Chair of the Cheshire and Warrington Sub-Regional Economic Partnership; Chair of The Northern Way; Chair of The Manufacturing Institute since 2002; a Trustee of the North of England Zoological Society at Chester Zoo and Chair of Governors of the National Centre for Zoonosis Research (the inter-species transmission of infectious disease).
He is a Companion of the Institute of Management, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Institute of Energy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Freeman of the City of London (Fuellers’ Company).
The Late Professor Sir John Enderby CBE FRS
Doctor of Science
Sir John Enderby was born in Lincolnshire in 1931 before his family moved to Cheshire. After completing national service, he trained as a teacher before pursuing a part-time degree in Physics at Birkbeck, University of London before a scholarship enabled him to study full time and take a first in Physics and a PhD.
He began his academic career at Huddersfield Technical College in 1967 before moving to the University of Sheffield where he was promoted Reader; he next moved to Leicester where he became full Professor at age 35 and subsequently Head of the Physics Department. He accepted a Chair in Physics at the Bristol University in 1976.
Professor Enderby’s primary research interest has been in the structure and properties of liquid metals and semiconductors, ionic fluids, glasses and amorphous solids and he has published over 180 papers in this field. His current research work is on the role of water in biological systems and non-invasive methods of measuring glucose levels in humans. e is Chairman of Melys Diagnostics Ltd, a company whose focus is the application of optical techniques to medical physics.
Sir John was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1985 and became its Physical Secretary and Vice President in 1999. He is a past President of the Institute of Physics. A founder member of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, he has served on its Audit Committee and Chaired the Education and Training Committee. He was elected to the Academia Europaea in 1989 and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1997. He was awarded the Guthrie Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics and is a Foreign Member of the Royal Holland Academy of Science and Humanities.
His most recent appointments include Chairmanship of the 2001 Research Physics Panel for UK Universities and Editor of the Journal of the Foundation for Science and Technology. He was knighted for services to Science and Technology in 2004 and was recently appointed an Honorary Fellow of The Institute of Physics as one of only 40 such Fellows worldwide. He has chaired significant international conferences and has succeeded in determining the detailed microscopic structure of a variety of materials.
He was Vice-Chairman and later Chair of the Neutron Scattering Group on behalf of the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry; a Member of the European Commission Advisory Committee for Large Scale Facilities; Chair of the Neutron Beam Research Committee of the Science and Engineering Research Council; a Royal Society Member, a founder member of the Nuclear Physics Board of the Science and Engineering Research Council and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. He is committed to outreach in physics, to the inculcation of entrepreneurship in the developing world, and to free access for scientific publications.
Jeffery Lockett MBE DL
Doctor of Music
Jeffery was born into a musical family. His mother was Betty Bannerman, the mezzo-soprano, and his father had a music room constructed in their home, Clonterbrook House – a former manor house in the parish of Swettenham in Cheshire. He read agriculture at St John’s College, Cambridge before carrying out National Service.
Jeffery joined the Milk Marketing Board as an agricultural consultant before becoming a tenant farmer and then owner occupier of a 250 acre Dairy Farm at Swettenham Heath. He was High Sheriff of Cheshire from 1989 to 1990, is a member of the Countryside Landowners Association and the National Farmers Union and was Chairman of the Cheshire Committee of the former organisation from 1994/95.
In 2003 he was awarded Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Cheshire. After attending a cattle auction in 1974, he had been impressed by the theatrical aspect of the arena and it inspired him to hold a charity concert in one of his barns. He invited the Abbey Opera Group to bring an evening of operatic excerpts to his farm in Cheshire. A barn full of straw bales was converted for the night into an auditorium and the proceeds went to Cancer Relief. Since then Clonter Opera has become a permanent fixture. As part of Clonter Opera Theatre, the Clonter Farm Music Trust is committed to providing the highest quality training and performance opportunities for young singers. Summer productions are taken on tour to London in the Autumn with performances at the Britten Theatre at the Royal College of Music. Clonter’s Opera Prize, worth £2,000, is the only inter-conservatoire opera prize awarded in the United Kingdom. Singers are nominated by the heads of opera at the principal music colleges and then go forward to a competition at Clonter Opera Theatre, held at the beginning of each year. The mission is to ‘bridge the gap’ between conservatoire and professional work, but there is also further outreach work with 1,545 children from 29 different schools and 701 adults participating in 2010’s Education Programme.
Jeffery became a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music in 1990; Master of the Musicians’ Company from 1990 to 1991; he was made Member of the British Empire for Services to Music in 2003 and received an MEN Theatre Award in 2006.
Duncan Shaw MBE
Doctor of Science
Duncan Frederic Shaw was born in 1931 and gained a scholarship to the University of Manchester where he took a first in Chemistry in 1951 and gained a Department of Science and Industrial Research Studentship, completing his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1956, while President of the University Chemical Society.
With the experience gained in the University Air Squadron Mr Shaw was commissioned in the RAF as a Pilot Officer, completing his pilot training to Wings standard in six months, coming top of his course. He then completed the advanced flying course on jet fighters, during which time he was involved in a mid-air collision at 30,000ft (for which he was not held responsible) and parachuted into the Bristol Channel, where he was picked up by a Danish coaster.
Mr Shaw became the first National Service pilot to take the four-month flying instructors course. Gaining a Distinguished Pass, he was posted to the RAF Flying Training School where all naval pilots received basic training. By this time he had been promoted to Flying Officer and was soon re-graded as an A2 (above average) flying instructor.
In October 1953 he completed his National Service and began a research degree in organic chemistry the University of Manchester. He continued in the reserve forces, and transferred to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was formally a member of No 1831 fighter squadron but his experience as a Qualified Flying Instructor led him to become the only naval reserve pilot in the country to qualify as an Instrument Flying Examiner.
His career began in organic chemistry, with a specialism in carbohydrate chemistry and an interest in the importance of synthesis. In 1956, he became a Commonwealth Fund Fellow and went to work at UCAB with Professor Melvin Calvin in California on light impact. This was followed by a stint as Research Chemist at ICI, Billingham, before joining the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Liverpool as a Lecturer where he became Sub-Dean then Pro-Dean of the Faculty of Science, a post which he held until retirement in 1988.
He managed a £1.2 million European Community project to establish marine sciences at an Egyptian university, chaired the Irish Sea Conference, initiated, directed and chaired the Irish Sea Forum, was a member of the Nature Conservancy Council’s Committee for England and Member of the Council of English Nature. Active within the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee, he chaired the marine and coastal projects group and was a Member of the Chairman's Review Group.
In 1996 he was appointed MBE for services to nature conservation, before going on to become a member of the JNCC Marine and Fisheries Group as well as Chairman of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan Marine Targets Group. Dr Shaw served for seven years as a School Governor in Liverpool, and was Chairman of Governors 1974-76. From 1983-2004, Duncan became a Member of the Board of Governors of Chester College of Higher Education – now the University of Chester. He was Chairman of several University committees and remains Director of the University's companies, a position he has held since 2004.
Duncan also served for 23 years as a Member of Universities’ Central Council on Admissions Technical Committee, as Chairman of that Committee from 1988-92 and was a member of the Finance and General Purposes Committee, Executive Committee and Council between 1986-93.
Viscount Ashbrook JP DL
Doctor of Business Administration
Michael Flower was born in 1935 and brought up in Arley Hall in Cheshire. He was educated at Eton College and Worcester College Oxford where he read Modern History. After national service as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, he was admitted as a solicitor in 1963 going on to become a Partner in distinguished law firm Farrer and Co.
Aged 40, he took over Arley Estate from his parents which stands on the same site as the first house built by the family in 1469 though altered in 1570. The present house, completed in 1845 is a Victorian country house built in Elizabethan style. It includes a 2,000 acre estate including Stockley, a tenant farm which is open to the public and used as an educational resource for children. The estate gardens, including eight acres of formal gardens have been open to visitors since the 1960s and contain several buildings of international and national significance. Arley is one of only two Cheshire gardens to have opened to the public for the National Garden Scheme in 1927 and remained open one day a year throughout since. This has resulted in substantial sums raised for charity, most notably nursing, and will be marked with a special celebration in this year.
Following the death of his father in 1995, Michael took the title of 11th Viscount Ashbrook and 12th Baron Castle Durrow. He is helped with the estate management by his wife Zoe. His sister Jane Foster and husband Charles are also active with the estate. In 1985, he returned to law part-time.
He has also been Chairman and President of the Cheshire Branch of the Country Landowner’s Association and Chairman of the CLA Taxation Committee. As a member of the Mercian Regional Committee of the National Trust, covering Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire, as well as President of Cheshire Community Council, Lord Ashbrook was in a strong position to develop co-operation between the then Cheshire County Council and the National Trust. He has also been Chair of the North West branch of the Historic Houses Association, and a member of the Tatton Park Management Committee.
From 1983 to 1999 – unusually for a solicitor– he was a Justice of the Peace in Vale Royal, and from 1990 to 2010 he was Vice Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire under the Lord Lieutenancy of Sir William Bromley-Davenport. Lord Ashbrook is a committed supporter and patron of the David Lewis Centre for Epilepsy, a supporter of Leonard Cheshire Disability, particularly The Hill at Sandbach, as well as the Cheshire Branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Judge Derek Halbert
Doctor of Law
Derek Halbert was born in Portsmouth moving with his family to Great Sutton, near Chester, in 1957. He studied at Cambridge and was placed fourth in the 1971 Bar Finals. Derek entered Chambers at 39 White Friars, Chester, as a pupil in July 1971 and remained in the same Chambers (albeit in different buildings) until appointed to the bench.
He became Assistant Recorder in 1987; Head of Chambers in 1990; Recorder in 1991; Circuit Judge in 1995; he was Designated Civil Judge North Wales and Cheshire in 2003 and Designated Civil Judge Cheshire in 2007. The two cases he is particularly proud of are - Sarwar v Allam 2001 and Bennion v North East Wales NHS Trust 2009. In the former, which addressed matters of insurance, consideration was given to the nature of ‘before the event’ and ‘after the event’ insurance claims, and considered whether a passenger could sue the driver of the vehicle in which they were carried. The importance of Judge Halbert’s judgement was raised in appeal where a submission was received to the effect that the judgement had significantly altered the dynamics of the legal expenses insurance industry.
In the case of Bennion v the NHS trust the Judge had to absorb no fewer than 78 scientific research papers in order to reach a judgement in a case regarding medical responses during childbirth to the conditions Erb’s Palsy and shoulder dystocia. A report on the case notes that the ruling “provides further encouragement for defendants that the assumption of an injury itself proving negligence is being consigned to history”. The judgement also raised important matters around the importance of contemporaneous notes and related matters.
The late Professor Christopher Baker
Doctor of Science
Christopher Baker was born on the Isle of Thanet and grew up in Flintshire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Essex. He received his secondary education at Colchester Royal Grammar School where he won the Acland Prize for Physics, the Colonel Harris Prize for Mathematics and the Earl of Roseberry Inkstand for Mathematics, and was awarded a State Scholarship.
He was then elected to an Edwin Jones Scholarship at Jesus College, in the University of Oxford. Here he gained his BA degree in Mathematics in 1961 and he stayed as a postgraduate, supported by a DSIR grant, under the supervision of Dr David Mayers. He obtained his DPhil. from Oxford University in 1964, in which year he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and was appointed to the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley.
He returned to the UK in 1966 to take up appointment as Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Manchester, and was promoted to a Senior Lectureship in 1972 and to a Readership in 1975. He was elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in 1979; he is a member of the London Mathematical Society (LMS). He was made Professor of Mathematics in 1989 and subsequently served for three years as Head of the Department of Mathematics. He was Founding Director of the Centre for Computational Mathematics, which fostered cooperation between groups of mathematicians at the university, UMIST and, later, Chester College, now our University.
During his career, he had three periods of research leave, two of which were in the Computer Science Department at the University of Toronto and one at the Computing Laboratory, University of Oxford. He also collaborated with mathematicians at prestigious centres in Holland and Germany. Within the University of Manchester, Christopher was a member of Senate and served a term of office on the University Court; he also served on the Dean's advisory committee in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
Following partial retirement, Christopher was appointed part-time Research Professor in the University of Manchester for 2001-2004. He was appointed Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Chester in 2009. He served as a member of, and in 1997 he chaired, the committee of Adjudicators for the Fox Prize in Numerical Analysis. He has served on the editorial boards of the IMA (Institute of Mathematics and its Applications) Journal of Numerical Analysis, Journal of Integral Equations, Journal of Integral Equations and Applications, the journal Advances in Computational Mathematics, and Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics and he is an Honorary Editor of Communications on Applied Nonlinear Analysis.
Professor Baker's list of publications include over 100 articles and the four books. Professor Baker was an invited contributor to the two most recent conferences on the state of the art in numerical analysis and he had been part of a Leverhulme International Network based upon the University of Chester. He supervised numerous MSc and PhD students.
Sir Donald Insall CBE FR TIBA
Doctor of Architecture
Donald Insall was born in Bristol in 1926 in to a family of leather, trunk and ‘portmanteau’ manufacturers. He began his studies in 1942 but was enlisted in 1944 into the Coldstream Guards where he chose to stay a foot soldier, so he could remain posted in London, and get out to night school in the evenings to continue to study architecture.
Demobbed in 1948, he returned to Bristol to complete his architectural qualifications, and then moved to London to study civic design at the Royal Academy and later to the School of Planning.
A key influence was his Lethaby Scholarship of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which enabled him to work for six months with specialists and traditional craftsmen such as thatchers and stonemasons. He then studied at Winchester College for the medieval historian, John Harvey.
He then went to work with the London architects, Phillimore and Jenkin and set up practice with co-Lethaby scholar Peter Locke practice in 1958. He was appointed in 1960 as Chester City’s conservation consultant and set out to bring the buildings back to life again. He remained a consultant to the City of Chester until 1978. His book Chester: A Study in Conservation, published in 1968, records the work in Chester and is an international landmark for urban conservation.
Sir Donald and the team spent several years understanding the fabric of our city, visiting over 400 buildings and assessing the importance and quality of each. The survival of Chester as it is known today is due to this pioneering work. In 1999, he was recognised with the award of the city of Chester’s honorary freedom.
Sir Donald’s architectural practice has gathered well over 150 awards while he was awarded the OBE in 1981, and the CBE in 1995, a number of medals, including, most recently, Europa Nostra’s Medal of Honour and his Knighthood in 2010. He and his team were heavily involved in restoring Windsor Castle after the fire around 20 years ago.
Michael Trevor Barnston MBE JP DL
Master of Business Administration
Michael Trevor-Barnston was born in 1943 and comes from a long standing and military Cheshire family from the Barnston Estate, near Crewe Hill by Farndon. Following Wellington College and a course at the Sorbonne he was commissioned into the Cheshire Regiment and served in Northern Ireland and Germany.
Following the army Michael studied agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, before working his way around the world. Michael joined Massey Ferguson Export - probably best known for their tractors - as a graduate trainee. With the firm he visited more than 120 countries ranging from Mauretania, Upper Volta and Chad in Africa, Iraq, Syria and Jordan in the Middle East as well as working in Okinawa, Taiwan, the Philippines and New Zealand.
Returning to Chester in 1983, he worked for a Scandinavian company and, in parallel, set up a commercial vegetables operation and also became a trustee of the family agricultural estate near Farndon. He also set up an oak furniture manufacturing operation. He has a great love for his county and is involved in a multitude of projects in support of the communities of Cheshire. These have included chairing the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children South Cheshire Centenary Appeal, the 1992 National Game Fair and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Visit 2002.
Mr Trevor Barnston was President of Cheshire Community Action and the Cheshire Agricultural Society and Cheshire Show as well as The Chester City Club. He has been a Chester Magistrate since 1987, was High Sheriff of the County in 1998/99 and has been a Deputy Lieutenant since 2000. He is particularly proud of setting up ‘Cheshire Crimebeat’ in 1998 – a charity specifically aimed at young people and enabling them to tackle a multitude of problem areas within the community including drugs, alcohol abuse, vandalism, graffiti and numerous other anti -social activities.
Michael currently holds the following positions: Trustee & Chairman Cheshire Crimebeat, Deputy President Cheshire Agricultural Society (and Show), Deputy President Farndon Brass Band, President Cheshire Landowners Association, Trustee Farndon Memorial Hall and Coddington Village Hall, Patron Cheshire Constitutional Monarchy Association, Chairman and Trustee Drugwatch Trust and Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire. He was awarded the MBE in 2010 for services to the community of Cheshire.
The Late Shirley Hughes CBE
Master of Arts
A former West Kirby Grammar School for Girls pupil, Shirley’s interest in drawing and creating fantasy worlds as a child launched her career in later life as a writer and an illustrator of both her own stories and those of other well-known authors. An interest in the theatre continued with the study of costume design at Liverpool Art School, followed by the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford.
In terms of the influences of her youth, she cites illustrated classics by Arthur Rackham and Will Heath Robinson. As she grew up, she was also fascinated by the paintings in the Walker Art Gallery (which later hosted an exhibition of her work, as did the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Over four decades she has had more than 70 books published and illustrated hundreds more. Overseas distribution covers several continents. Among the household names, whose books have since been graced by Shirley’s drawings are Noel Streatfield, Dorothy Edwards, Alison Uttley and Ian Serraillier.
Shirley has been much decorated by her profession. Being awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal on two separate occasions, in 1977 for Dogger and in 2003 for Ella’s Big Chance, the former has also voted the public’s favourite recipient of that accolade in 2007. She was also presented with the Eleanor Farjeon Award for Services to Children’s Literature in 1984.
Already awarded an OBE in 1998 for Services to Children’s Literature, Shirley was appointed CBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to literature. She has generously shared her knowledge and expertise, delivering lectures to students and speaking both to education professionals at conferences and to pupils in schools and libraries.