Shirley Williams
Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.[1]
Contents
Early life
Williams is the daughter of the late Professor Sir George Catlin and the late Vera Brittain and was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, London and eight other schools in the UK and US. She was an open scholar at Somerville College Oxford (BA philosophy, politics and economics 1951, MA 1954), where she was elected the first woman Chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club, and a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University New York.[2]
Journalism
Shirley Williams started her career as a journalist with the Daily Mirror (1952-54) and Financial Times (1954-58).[3]
Labour
Williams was General Secretary of the Fabian Society until her election as Labour MP for Hitchin (later Hertford and Stevenage) in 1964. She served in the British Cabinet (1974-79) as Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection, Paymaster General and Secretary of State for Education and Science. She lost the seat in 1979.[4]
SDP
Williams was a co-founder of the Social Democratic Party in 1981 and its first elected MP, winning a by-election in Crosby, Merseyside that year.[5]
Liberal Democrats
Williams became Baroness Williams of Crosby in 1993 and was spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the Lords from 1998 to 2001.[6]
Affiliations
- Project Liberty - Former director
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Board member
- Fourth World Women's Conference - Former member of the Advisory Council to the UN Secretary-General
- Former member of the European Commission's Comite de Sages on social and civil rights
- Chatham House - President 2002 - 2006
- Ditchley Foundation - Governor
- Nuclear Threat Initiative - Board member
- Century Foundation - Trustee
- IPPR - Trustee
- Council on Foreign Relations - International Advisory Committee member
- Moscow School of Political Studies - Board member
- Tackling Terrorism All-Party Parliamentary Group
- International Committee on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament - Board member[7]
External Resources
- guardian.co.uk Shirley Williams
Notes
- ↑ Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
- ↑ Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
- ↑ Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
- ↑ Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
- ↑ Baroness Williams of Crosby, 7 July 2010.
- ↑ Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
- ↑ Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
