GetWiki

|titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;{edih}

factoids
embed	yes| office10 = Member of the House of Lords| status10 = Lord Temporal| term_label10 = Life peerage| term_start10 = 1 February 1993| term_end10 = 11 February 2016| parliament11 = United Kingdom| constituency_MP11 = Crosby| term_start11 = 26 November 1981| term_end11 = 13 May 1983| predecessor11 = Graham Page| successor11 = Malcolm Thornton| constituency_MP12 = Hertford and Stevenage| term_start12 = 28 February 1974| term_end12 = 7 April 1979| predecessor12 = Constituency established| successor12 = Bowen Wells| constituency_MP13 = Hitchin| term_start13 = 15 October 1964| term_end13 = 8 February 1974| predecessor13 = Martin Maddan

}}| birth_name = Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Catlin193027|df=yes}}| birth_place = Chelsea, London, England20211207df=yes}}| death_place = Little Hadham, England

• Labour (before 1981)
• SDP (1981–1988)
• Liberal Democrats (from 1988){edih}

• {{marriage|Bernard Williams|1955|1974|end=div{edih}
• {{marriage|Richard Neustadt|1987|2003|end=died}}}}| children = 1

• Sir George Catlin (father)
• Vera Brittain (mother){edih}

factoids



main_interests

Electoral politics

| workplaces = Harvard Kennedy School{edih}

}}Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|CH|PC}} (née Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from 1974 to 1979. She was one of the “Gang of Four” rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981 and, at the time of her retirement from politics, was a Liberal Democrat.The SDP later merged with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats.Williams was elected to the House of Commons for Hitchin in the 1964 general election. She served as minister for Education and Science from 1967 to 1969 and Minister of State for Home Affairs from 1969 to 1970. She served as Shadow Home Secretary from 1971 and 1973. In 1974, she became Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection in Harold Wilson’s cabinet. When Wilson was succeeded by James Callaghan, she served as Secretary of State for Education and Science and Paymaster General from 1976 to 1979. She lost her seat to the Conservative Party at the 1979 general election.In 1981, dismayed with the Labour Party’s left-ward movement under Michael Foot, she was one of the “Gang of Four“—centrist Labour figures who formed the SDP. Williams won the 1981 Crosby by-election and became the first SDP member elected to Parliament, but she lost the seat in the 1983 general election. She served as President of the SDP from 1982 to 1987 and supported the SDP’s merger with the Liberal Party that formed the Liberal Democrats.Between 2001 and 2004, she served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords and, from 2007 to 2010, as Adviser on Nuclear Proliferation to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. She remained an active member of the House of Lords until announcing her retirement in January 2016, and was a Professor Emerita of Electoral Politics at Harvard Kennedy School at the time of her death at age 90, having been one of the last surviving members of the Labour governments of the 1970s.

Early life and education

Born at 19 Glebe Place{{cn|date=February 2022}} Chelsea, London, Williams was the daughter of the political scientist and philosopher Sir George Catlin and the pacifist writer Vera Brittain. Williams’s grandmother, Brittain’s mother, was born in Aberystwyth, Wales.BOOK, Vera Brittain: A Life, 2016, Little, Brown Book Group, 9780349008547, 15, Mark, Bostridge, Paul, Berry, 16 September 2021,books.google.com/books?id=hyAlCwAAQBAJ&q=Edith+Mary+(Bervon)+Brittain, Google Books snippets, She was educated at various schools, including Mrs Spencer’s School in Brechin Place, South Kensington; Christchurch Elementary School in Chelsea; Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth; and St Paul’s Girls’ School in London. During the Second World War, from 1940 to 1943, she was evacuated to St. Paul, Minnesota, in the United States, where she attended the all-girls’ Summit School.NEWS,www.thecomet.net/news/shirley-williams-dies-aged-90-7892364, Former Hitchin and Stevenage MP Shirley Williams dies aged 90, Maya, Derrick, The Comet, Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock, 12 April 2021, NEWS,www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/12/lady-williams-of-crosby-obituary, Lady Williams of Crosby obituary Labour minister in the 60s and 70s who defected to form the SDP as one of the Gang of Four, Julia, Langdon, The Guardian, 12 April 2021, While she was an undergraduate and an Open Scholar at Somerville College, Oxford, Williams was a member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) and toured the United States playing the role of Cordelia in an OUDS production of Shakespeare’s King Lear directed by a young Tony Richardson. In 1950, she became chair of the Oxford University Labour Club, believing herself to be the first woman to hold the positionNEWS, Langdon, Julia, Julia Langdon, Lady Williams of Crosby obituary,www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/12/lady-williams-of-crosby-obituary, 12 April 2021, The Guardian, 12 April 2021, though it has been shown that Betty Tate had chaired a session in 1934.WEB,www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/apr/01/betty-tate-obituary, Betty Tate obituary, 1 April 2010, The Guardian, Jean Tate, Annie Sedley, Sue Tate, 8 July 2021, After graduating as a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, politics and economics, Williams was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and studied American trade unionism at Columbia University in New York City for a master’s degree, awarded by Oxford in 1954.WEB,www.csmonitor.com/1991/0403/03142.html, Shirley Williams, The Christian Science Monitor, Robert, Marquand, 3 April 1991, 12 April 2021, On returning to Britain, she began her career as a journalist, working firstly for the Daily Mirror and then for the Financial Times. In 1960, she became General Secretary of the Fabian Society, a role she held until 1964.WEB, Williams of Crosby, Baroness, (Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams) (born 27 July 1930),www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-39901, 2021-04-15, WHO’S WHO & WHO WAS WHO, 2007, en, 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u39901, 978-0-19-954088-4,

Parliamentary career

After unsuccessfully contesting the constituency of Harwich at the 1954 by-election and the general election the following year, as well as the constituency of Southampton Test at the 1959 general election, Williams was elected in the 1964 general election as Labour MP for the constituency of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. She retained the seat, renamed Hertford and Stevenage after boundary changes in 1974, until 1979. As Minister for Education and Science (August 1967 – October 1969), Williams launched the first Women in Engineering Year in 1969.WEB,www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_10.html, The Woman Engineer Vol 10, www2.theiet.org, 7 March 2020, Her colleague David Owen recalled: “You’d watch her work a room at a local Labour event and she’d never start by smarming up to a regional leader or a councillor. She’d settle down next to somebody whom she’d have no political reason to talk to – a solid party worker – and you’d watch this person’s face light up. This was always done spontaneously, without any ulterior motives. She just liked people and liked them to like her.“WEB,www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/12/obituaries-2021-shirley-williams-remembered-by-david-owen?CMP=twt_gu, Those we lost in 2021: Shirley Williams remembered by David Owen, TheGuardian.com, 12 December 2021, Between 1971 and 1973, she served as Shadow Home Secretary. In 1974, she became Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection in Harold Wilson’s cabinet. When Wilson announced his resignation in 1976 and was succeeded by James Callaghan, she became Secretary of State for Education and Paymaster General, holding both cabinet positions at the same time. Williams stood for the Labour deputy leadership in October of that year but lost to Michael Foot.

Comprehensive schools

While serving as education secretary between 1976 and 1979, Williams pursued the policy introduced by Anthony Crosland in 1965 to introduce the comprehensive school system in place of grammar schools.NEWS,www.bbc.com/news/uk-10258493, Shirley Williams: Pioneer who tried to reshape politics, BBC News, 12 April 2021, Previously, in 1972, as her daughter Rebecca approached secondary school age, Williams had moved into the catchment area of the voluntary aided school Godolphin and Latymer School allowing her daughter to gain a place there.Shirley Williams Climbing The Bookshelves: Autobiography of Shirley Williams, Virago, 2009, p. 206. However, when Godolphin and Latymer School subsequently voted to go independent in 1977, Rebecca chose to leave that school and instead went to Camden School for Girls because it had chosen to go comprehensive.JOURNAL, Agar, Stephen, 24 April 2021, Rod’s Wrong, The Spectator, 31, {{better source needed|date=April 2021}}

Europeanism

Always a passionately committed supporter of European integration,Hansard, House of Lords, 28 January 2016, c1470-71.NEWS, Kettle, Martin, Martin Kettle, Britain’s pro-Europeans need to find a Shirley Williams,www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/17/pro-eu-campaign-shirley-williams-brexit, 13 April 2021, The Guardian, 17 December 2015, Williams was one of 68 Labour MPs to defy a three-line whip in the 28 October 1971 Commons vote on membership of the European Communities.JOURNAL, Ludlow, N. Piers, Safeguarding British identity or betraying it?: the role of British ‘tradition’ in the parliamentary great debate on EC membership, October 1971, Journal of Common Market Studies, John Wiley & Sons on behalf of UACES, 19 November 2014, 53, 1, 18–34, 0021-9886, 10.1111/jcms.12202, 145092199,eprints.lse.ac.uk/57686/1/Ludlow_Safeguarding%20British%20tradition.pdf, Hansard, European Communities, HC Deb 28 October 1971 vol 823 cc2076-217. Four years later, she was one of the leaders of the Britain in Europe campaign during the 1975 European Communities membership referendum. Labour’s anti-Europeanism during the Michael Foot years was one of the factors that drove her to abandon the party in 1981.In her 2016 valedictory speech to the House of Lords before that year’s second membership referendum, she described the UK’s European Union (EU) membership as “the most central political question that this country has to answer” and said it was the reason for her retirement. In closing, she called on her colleagues to “think very hard before allowing the United Kingdom to withdraw from ... its major duty to the world—the one it will encounter, and then deliver, through the European Union”.NEWS, Shirley Williams makes her final speech to House of Lords (video),www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-35427305, 13 April 2021, BBC News, 28 January 2016,

Social issues

A lifelong Roman Catholic, Williams was a longstanding opponent of the legalisation of abortion.NEWS, Moss, Stephen, 2009-10-18, Shirley Williams: ‘I didn’t think I was good enough to be leader’, en-GB, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/19/shirley-williams-interview, 2023-06-03, 0261-3077, She was one of the two female MPs to vote against the Abortion Act 1967, which legalised abortion.WEB, Flello, Rob, 2017-10-27, Labour’s new intolerance of the pro-life cause,www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-s-new-intolerance-of-the-pro-life-cause/, 2023-06-03, The Spectator, en-US, However, Lord Harries of Pentregarth reported that Williams “refused to sign up for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), and generally kept a low profile on the issue of abortion.“WEB, Shirley Williams R.I.P., Christian and Catholic,www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/23-april/comment/opinion/shirley-williams-rip-christian-and-catholic, 2023-06-03, www.churchtimes.co.uk,

Social Democratic Party

Williams lost her seat (renamed Hertford and Stevenage) when the Labour Party was defeated at the 1979 general election.WEB, BBC Rewind: Shirley Williams loses Hertford and Stevenage. Clip taken from Decision 79, first broadcast 4 May 1979.,www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-29932215, BBC News, 12 April 2021, 17 November 2014, Her defeat came two years after her appearance and arrest on the Grunwick picket lines, for which she had been harshly criticised in the press. When, soon afterward, she was interviewed by Robin Day for the BBC’s Decision 79 television coverage of the election results, both Norman St John-Stevas – the Conservative’s Education Spokesman who had frequently clashed with her at the despatch box – and Merlyn Rees, the outgoing Home Secretary, paid tribute to her.WEB,thecritic.co.uk/free-speech-in-an-uncivil-society/, Free speech in an uncivil society, Simon, Heffer, Simon Heffer, 7 February 2020, The Critic (21st century magazine), The Critic Magazine, 12 April 2021, Following the election, she hosted the BBC1 TV series Shirley Williams in Conversation, interviewing, in turn, a number of political figures, including former West German chancellor Willy Brandt, former Conservative prime minister Edward Heath and her recently deposed colleague James Callaghan.WEB,ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/13367,ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/13367," title="web.archive.org/web/20121017132425ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/13367,">web.archive.org/web/20121017132425ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/13367, dead, 17 October 2012, Bfi | Film & Tv Database | Shirley Williams In Conversation, Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk, 11 June 2010, She later appeared on many television and radio discussion programmes in Britain – in particular, the BBC’s Question Time, where her 58 appearances earned her a “Most Frequent Panellist” award. During this period, Williams remained a member of the National Executive of the Labour Party.WEB, MPs and Lords: Baroness Williams of Crosby,members.parliament.uk/member/740/career, UK Parliament, 13 April 2021, “Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee, 1 July 1970 – 1 March 1981”, From 1980 to 1981, she was Chairman of the Fabian Society.In 1981, unhappy with the influence of the more left-wing members of the Labour Party, she resigned her membership to form – along with fellow Labour resignees Roy Jenkins, David Owen and Bill Rodgers – the Social Democratic Party (SDP). They were joined by 28 other Labour MPs and one Conservative. Later that year, following the death of the Conservative MP Sir Graham Page, she won the Crosby by-election and became the first SDP member elected to Parliament. Two years later, however, having become the SDP’s President, she lost the seat at the 1983 general election. At the 1987 general election, Williams stood for the SDP in Cambridge, but lost to the sitting Conservative candidate Robert Rhodes James. She then supported the SDP’s merger with the Liberal Party that formed the Liberal Democrats.

Harvard University

File:Shirley Williams appearing with Peter Ustinov on After Dark.JPG|thumb|left|Sitting beside Peter Ustinov during an episode of the late-night TV discussion programme After Dark, 1989]]In 1988, Williams moved to the United States to serve as a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, remaining until 2001, and thereafter as Public Service Professor of Electoral Politics, Emerita.WEB,www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/shirley-williams, Shirley Williams (In Memoriam), Harvard Kennedy School, 14 April 2021, Nonetheless, she remained active in politics and public service in Britain, the United States and internationally. During these years, Williams helped draft constitutions in Russia, Ukraine, and South Africa. She also served as director of Harvard’s Project Liberty, an initiative designed to assist the emerging democracies in Central and Eastern Europe; and as a board member and acting director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP). Upon her elevation to the House of Lords in 1993, she returned to the United Kingdom.NEWS, Shirley Williams, Labour Cabinet minister who left her party to help form the SDP – obituary,www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/04/12/shirley-williams-labour-education-secretary-left-party-help/,ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/04/12/shirley-williams-labour-education-secretary-left-party-help/, 12 January 2022, subscription, live, 13 April 2021, The Daily Telegraph, 12 April 2021, {{cbignore}}NEWS, Shirley Williams: One of the UK’s best-loved politicians,www.independent.co.uk/obituaries/shirley-williams-dead-age-cause-b1830194.html, 13 April 2021, The Independent, 12 April 2021,

Life peer

Williams was made a life peer on 1 February 1993, as Baroness Williams of Crosby, of Stevenage in the County of Hertfordshire,{{London Gazette |issue=53207 |date=4 February 1993 |page=2049}} and subsequently served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 2001 to 2004.WEB, Shirley Williams,liberalhistory.org.uk/people/shirley-williams/, Liberal History, 12 April 2021, Among other non-profit boards, Williams was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the EU’s Comité des Sages (Reflection Group) on Social Policy,“Commission Establishes a ‘Comité des Sages’ on Social Policy”, 4 October 1995 Retrieved 11 June 2011 the Twentieth Century Fund, the Ditchley Foundation, the Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. She also served as President of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, as Commissioner of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament and as president of the Cambridge University Liberal Association. Williams was also an attendee of the 2013 and the 2010 Bilderberg conferences in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, and Sitges, Spain, respectively.Bilderberg Meetings official website 2010 attendee list WEB,www.bilderbergmeetings.org/meeting_2010_2.html, Bilderberg Meetings - Home, 17 June 2010, dead,www.bilderbergmeetings.org/meeting_2010_2.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20100617025004www.bilderbergmeetings.org/meeting_2010_2.html,">web.archive.org/web/20100617025004www.bilderbergmeetings.org/meeting_2010_2.html, 17 June 2010, In June 2007, after Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair as Prime Minister, Williams accepted a formal Government position as Advisor on Nuclear Proliferation provided she could serve as an independent advisor; she remained a Liberal Democrat. Her interest and commitment to education continued, and she served as Chair of Judges of the British Teaching Awards. Williams was a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009.NEWS,www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/08/nuclear-disarmament-cross-party-group, London, The Guardian, Nuclear-free world ultimate aim of new cross-party pressure group, Julian, Borger, Julian Borger, 8 September 2009, Williams was originally opposed to the Cameron–Clegg coalition’s Health and Social Care Bill, describing it as “stealth privatisation” during 2011.NEWS,www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/mar/12/shirley-williams-nick-clegg-nhs, Shirley Williams urges Lib Dems to fight Andrew Lansley’s NHS plan, Toby, Helm, Toby Helm, The Guardian, Manchester, 12 March 2011, 19 March 2012, The government made some changes to the Bill, described by Williams as “major concessions”,NEWS,www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/03/nhs-bill-amendments-major-concession, Our NHS bill amendments represent a major concession by the government, Shirley, Williams, The Guardian, Manchester, 3 February 2012, 19 March 2012, but dismissed as “minor” by Guardian commentator Polly Toynbee.WEB,www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/12/sorry-shirley-williams-nail-health-bill-myths, Sorry, Shirley Williams, but I have to nail your health bill myths, The Guardian, Manchester, UK, Polly, Toynbee, Polly Toynbee, 12 March 2012, 14 March 2012, Williams urged Liberal Democrats to support the amended Bill during the conference in March 2012,NEWS,www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/03/party-nhs-bill-lib-social, Could NHS reform be the Lib Dems’ downfall?, Daniel, Trilling, Daniel Trilling, New Statesman, UK, 11 March 2012, 1 April 2012, saying “I would not have stuck with the bill, if I believed for one moment it would undermine the NHS.“NEWS,www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/mar/11/nick-clegg-shirley-williams-nhs-health-bill, How Nick Clegg and Shirley Williams lost the great NHS debate, Patrick, Wintour, Patrick Wintour, The Guardian, Manchester, 11 March 2012, 19 March 2012, Williams spoke against same-sex marriage in the House of Lords, saying that “equality is not the same as sameness. That is the fundamental mistake in this Bill” and that women and men “complement one another”, arguing that marriage between people of the same sex should not be called marriage but should have “different nomenclature”. This was based on her belief that marriage is “a framework for procreation and the raising of children.“JOURNAL, House of Lords 17 June 2013, Hansard,hansard.parliament.uLords/2013-06-17/debates/13061712000472/Marriage(SameSexCouples)Bill#contribution-13061712000105, 17 June 2013, In late 2015, she announced her intention to retire from the House of Lords.WEB, Shirley Williams to retire from Lords after 50 years in politics, https:www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/17/shirley-williams-retire-lords-after-50-years-politics, The Guardian, 18 December 2015, Rowena, Mason, 17 December 2015, On 28 January 2016 she made her valedictory speech in the chamber, and on 11 February she officially retired, in pursuance of Section 1 of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014. In the 2017 New Year Honours, Williams was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour for “services to political and public life”.{{London Gazette |issue=61803 |date=31 December 2016 |page=N27 |supp=y}}

Personal life

Williams married twice. At Oxford she met Peter Parker (the future head of British Rail) and they had a relationship. In her autobiography (Climbing the Bookshelves) Williams said that “...by the spring of 1949 I was in love with him, and he, a little, with me...”. In 1955, she married the moral philosopher Bernard Williams. Bernard left Oxford to accommodate his wife’s rising political ambitions, finding a post first at University College London (1959–64) and then as Professor of Philosophy at Bedford College, London (1964–67), while she worked as a journalist for the Financial Times and as Secretary of the Fabian Society. The marriage was dissolved in 1974;NEWS,news.google.com/newspapers?id=zo5AAAAAIBAJ&pg=1629%2C1102729, Mrs Williams agrees to divorce, The Glasgow Herald, 4 May 1974, 11, 3 January 2017, Bernard Williams subsequently married Patricia Skinner and had two sons with her.Jeffries, Stuart. “The Quest for Truth” The Guardian, 30 November 2002. Shirley said of her marriage to Bernard:... [T]here was something of a strain that comes from two things. One is that we were both too caught up in what we were respectively doing — we didn’t spend all that much time together; the other, to be completely honest, is that I’m fairly unjudgmental and I found Bernard’s capacity for pretty sharp putting-down of people he thought were stupid unacceptable. Patricia has been cleverer than me in that respect. She just rides it. He can be very painful sometimes. He can eviscerate somebody. Those who are left behind are, as it were, dead personalities. Judge not that ye be not judged. I was influenced by Christian thinking, and he would say “That’s frightfully pompous and it’s not really the point.” So we had a certain jarring over that and over Catholicism.Her first marriage was annulled in 1980.WEB, Jeffries, Stuart, The quest for truth,www.theguardian.com/books/2002/nov/30/academicexperts.highereducation, Guardian Books, 12 April 2021, 30 November 2002, “After the divorce in 1974, Bernard married Patricia, but Shirley Williams had to wait for the Catholic church to annul the marriage before she could remarry.”, In 1987 she married the Harvard professor and presidential historian Richard Neustadt, who died in 2003.She had a daughter with Bernard Williams, a stepdaughter, and two grandchildren. Her daughter, Rebecca, became a lawyer.WEB,www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/15/shirley-williams-my-family-values, Shirley Williams: My family values, Tony, Padman, 15 May 2015, The Guardian, She was a longtime resident of Hertfordshire, living in Furneux Pelham after she was elected MP for Hitchin, and moving to Little Hadham later in life.NEWS,www.bishopsstortfordindependent.co.uk/news/gang-of-four-rebel-and-east-herts-villager-shirley-williams-9195196/, Political pioneer and Little Hadham resident Shirley Williams dies aged 90, Corr, Sinead, 12 April 2021, 29 January 2023, Bishop’s Stortford Independent, Williams was a Roman Catholic and, from 2009, attended church every Sunday.BOOK, Williams, Shirley, 2009, Climbing the bookshelves, 1st, 294, Virago, 978-1-84408-476-0, In Who’s Who, she listed her recreations as “music, poetry, hill walking”.She died at her home in the early hours of 12 April 2021, at the age of 90.WEB, Liberal Democrats, In Memory of Shirley Williams,www.libdems.org.uk/in-memory-of-shirley-williams, LibDems.org.uk, 1 June 2022, 12 April 2021, NEWS, 12 April 2021, Baroness Shirley Williams: Former cabinet minister dies aged 90, en-GB, BBC News,www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-56720985, 12 April 2021, NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/world/europe/shirley-williams-dead.html, Shirley Williams, 90, Force Who Altered British Politics And Inspired Lawmakers, 23 April 2021, 29 January 2023, The New York Times, B11, limited, Kwai, Isabella, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called Williams a “Liberal lion and a true trailblazer” and stated that “political life will be poorer without her intellect, her wisdom and her generosity”.

Honours

Williams was made an Honorary Fellow of her alma mater, Somerville College, Oxford, in 1970, and of Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1977. Williams received a number of honorary doctorates:

• Honorary DEd (Doctor of Education), Council for National Academic Awards, 1969
• Honorary DLitt (Doctor of Letters), Heriot-Watt University,1980WEB, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates,www1.hw.ac.uk/graduation/honorary-graduates.htm, 5 April 2016, www1.hw.ac.uk,
• Hon. LLD (Doctor of Laws), University of Sheffield, 1980; University of Southampton, 1981; University of Liverpool, 2008; University of Cambridge, 2009
• Honorary Doctor of Politics and Economics, University of Leuven, 1976; Radcliffe College, Harvard, 1978; University of Leeds, 1980; University of Bath, 1980
• Honorary DSc (Doctor of Science), Aston University, 1981
• Honorary Doctor, Monterey Institute, California, 2006

Works by and about

Shirley Williams wrote several books, including:

• Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams, Virago Press (2009). {{ISBN|9781844084753}}.NEWS, Toynbee, Polly, 3 October 2009, Climbing the Bookshelves by Shirley Williams {{!, Book review|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/oct/03/climbing-bookshelves-autobiography-shirley-williams|work=The Guardian|access-date=13 April 2021}}
• God and Caesar: Personal Reflections on Politics and Religion, University of Notre Dame Press (2003). {{ISBN|9780268010461}}.JOURNAL, Williams, Shirley, September 2003, God & Caesar: Personal Reflections on Politics and Religion,www.icnl.org/resources/research/ijnl/god-caesar-personal-reflections-on-politics-and-religion, The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law, 6, 1, International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law (www.icnl.org), 13 April 2021,
• Ambition and Beyond: Career Paths of American Politicians, with Edward L. Lascher Jr, Institute of Governmental Studies Press, University of California, Berkeley (1993). {{ISBN|9780877723387}}.BOOK, Williams, Shirley, 1 January 1993, Ambition and Beyond: The Career Paths of American Politicians,books.google.com/books?id=MqNGAQAAMAAJ, Institute of Governmental Studies Press, University of California, Berkeley, 9780877723387, Google Books, 13 April 2021,
• New Party – The New Technology Social and Liberal Democrats by Hebden Royd, (1988). {{ISBN|9781851870752}}.BOOK, Williams, Shirley, 1 July 1988, The New Party – the New Technology,books.google.com/books?id=wLbLAAAACAAJ, Liberal Democrat Publications, 9781851870752, Google Books, 13 April 2021,
• Politics is for People Harvard University Press, (1981). {{ISBN|9780140058888}}.WEB,www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674593916, Politics is for People — Shirley Williams, Harvard University Press, 13 April 2021,

Her biography was published in 2013: Shirley Williams: The Biography, Mark Peel (Biteback Publishing)For details of Williams’s early life see:

• Vera Brittain: A Life by Paul Berry and Mark Bostridge (1995).JOURNAL,muse.jhu.edu/article/20146, Vera Brittain: A Life (review), Russell, Gollard, 13 April 1996, Literature and Medicine, 15, 2, 266–270, Project MUSE, 10.1353/lm.1996.0017, 142574197,
• Testament of Experience by Vera Brittain (1957).BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=MLsEtAEACAAJ, Testament of Experience: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1925-50, Vera Brittain, 1979, Virago, 9780860681106,

There is a substantial article on Shirley Williams by Phillip Whitehead in the Dictionary of Labour Biography, edited by Greg Rosen, Politico’s Publishing, 2001, and one by Dick Newby in the Dictionary of Liberal Biography, edited by Duncan Brack, Politico’s Publishing, 1998.See also:

• BOOK, Roy Jenkins, a Well-Rounded Life, John Campbell, John Campbell (biographer), Jonathan Cape, 2014, 978-0-224-08750-6, WEB,www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/23/roy-jenkins-well-rounded-life-review-chris-mullin, Roy Jenkins: A Well Rounded Life review – ‘a magnificent biography’, 23 March 2014, The Guardian, 13 April 2021,

Williams was a main character in Steve Waters’ 2017 play Limehouse, which premiered at the Donmar Warehouse; she was portrayed by Debra Gillett.WEB, David Tennant, Roger Allam and more at Limehouse opening night,www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/photos-limehouse-opening-david-tennant-roger-allam_43079.html, WhatsOnStage.com, 23 February 2023, 9 March 2017,

Arms

factoids

Notes and references

{{reflist|30em}}

External links

{{Commons category|Shirley Williams}}{{UK Peer links | parliament = shirley-williams/26630 | hansard = mrs-shirley-williams | hansardcurr = 740 | guardian = | publicwhip = Baroness_Williams_of_Crosby | theywork = baroness_williams_of_crosby | record = Shirley-Williams/1786 | bbc = 26630.stm | journalisted = shirley-williams }}

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• Baroness Williams of Crosby at the Liberal Democrats
• Faculty profile {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713102558www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/shirley-williams |date=13 July 2011 }} at Harvard Kennedy School
• The NS Interview: Shirley Williams (New Statesman]], 12 May 2010)

state=collapsed|title=Offices and distinctions|list1=Quarry Bank}}}}{{Secretaries of State for Education}}{{Paymaster General}}{{Second Wilson Ministry}}{{Callaghan cabinet}}{{UK Liberal Democrats}}{{Shadow Home Secretaries}}{{Fabian Society}}{{Authority control}}