2021 Update of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
January 14, 2021
The January 2021 update of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB) adds new biographies of 241 men and women who died in the year 2017.
Below you’ll find biographies of photographer, designer and campaigner Antony Armstrong Jones, first earl of Snowdon, writer Peter Abrahams, physician and researcher Margaret Turner-Warwick, artist Khadija Saye, veterinary scientist Lawson Soulsby, Baron Soulsby of Swaffham Prior, model and showgirl Christine Keeler, Special Operations Executive agent Yvonne Burney, footballer, football coach, and music entrepreneur Ugo Ehiogu, broadcaster and entertainer Sir Bruce Forsyth, novelist Buchi Emecheta, Irish Republican activist and politician Martin McGuinness, poet James Berry, journalist Clare Hollingworth, businessman Raj Kumar Bagri, Baron Bagri, actor, producer, and charity worker Sir Roger Moore, conductor Sir Jeffrey Tate, journalist and political activist Darcus Howe, folklorist, book collector, and historian Iona Opie, author Michael Bond, headteacher and community activist Betty Campbell, biochemist and geneticist Oliver Smithies, cricketer and hockey player Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, painter and printmaker Sir Howard Hodgkin, and physicist and inventor Sir Peter Mansfield. Discover the full list of entries added this year.
























The Oxford DNB is updated regularly throughout the year, giving you access to the most up-to-date and accurate information available. Nearly all public libraries in England, Scotland, and Wales—and all in Northern Ireland—subscribe to the Oxford DNB. This means you can access tens of thousands of biographies, free, via your local library—anywhere, anytime. Full access to all biographies is also available by individual subscription.
Discover a full list of entries added this year.