Gillian Shephard

Gillian Patricia Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, PC, DL (née Watts; born 22 January 1940), is a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 1987 to 2005.[1] Shephard served as a Cabinet Minister, and is now Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers.

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Shephard
of Northwold
PC
Official portrait, 2018
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions
In office
1 June 1998 – 15 June 1999
LeaderWilliam Hague
Preceded byNorman Fowler
Succeeded byJohn Redwood
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In office
11 June 1997 – 1 June 1998
LeaderWilliam Hague
Preceded byAlastair Goodlad
Succeeded byGeorge Young
Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
11 June 1997 – 1 June 1998
LeaderWilliam Hague
Preceded byMichael Heseltine
Succeeded byGeorge Young
Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment
In office
2 May 1997 – 11 June 1997
LeaderJohn Major
Preceded byDavid Blunkett
Succeeded byStephen Dorrell
Secretary of State for Education and Employment[a]
In office
20 July 1994 – 2 May 1997
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byJohn Patten
Succeeded byDavid Blunkett
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office
27 May 1993 – 20 July 1994
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byJohn Gummer
Succeeded byWilliam Waldegrave
Secretary of State for Employment
In office
10 April 1992 – 27 May 1993
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byMichael Howard
Succeeded byDavid Hunt
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
21 June 2005
Life peerage
Member of Parliament
for South West Norfolk
In office
11 June 1987 – 11 April 2005
Preceded byPaul Hawkins
Succeeded byChristopher Fraser
Personal details
Born
Gillian Patricia Watts

(1940-01-22) 22 January 1940
Cromer, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Thomas Shephard
​
(m. 1975)​
Alma materSt Hilda's College, Oxford
a. ^ Shephard served as Education Secretary from 1994 to 1995. In July 1995, Shephard took over the duties of the former role of Secretary of State for Employment, held by Michael Portillo until the role was abolished. Shephard then became Education and Employment Secretary.

Shephard is currently the chair of the Alumni Association of Oxford University. She was the chair of the Council of the Institute of Education until 2015 and deputy commissioner of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission until 2017.

Early life and career

The daughter of Reginald and Bertha Watts, she was born in Cromer, Norfolk, and spent her early years in Mundesley on Sea, her father being a haulier with a small garage. She was educated at North Walsham Girls' High School and St Hilda's College, Oxford,[2] where she graduated with an MA in Modern Languages.

She became a schoolteacher and then worked as an Education Inspector for Norfolk County Council from 1963 to 1975. From 1975 to 1977 she worked for Anglia Television. She was elected to Parliament in 1987, and became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Peter Lilley in 1988.[1] She was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Social Security in 1989,[3] and then in 1990, Minister of State at HM Treasury.[4] In 1990, she was given the additional role of Deputy Chairman of the Party.[3]

Family

She married Thomas Shephard on 27 December 1975. She has two stepsons, including econometrician Neil Shephard FBA, Professor of Economics and Statistics at Harvard University.

Ministerial career
Official portrait, 1995

After the 1992 general election, she was appointed Secretary of State for Employment,[1] then Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1993.[3] She moved to Secretary of State for Education in 1994, and stayed at the department when the Department for Employment merged into it in 1996.[3] She remained in this position until the 1997 general election.[4]

Shephard was one of two women promoted to John Major's Cabinet in 1992; the other was Virginia Bottomley. The two believed the media was looking for stories of Ministerial "catfights" and made a pact to work together, despite differences in backgrounds and working styles. In an interview, Shephard said, "We said that we would never give anybody the chance to say that we were criticising the other. We would be supportive; end of. And we were."[5]

Shephard provided considerable information regarding her role as Secretary of State for Education in interviews conducted by Brian Sherratt in October 1994 and March 1996 for his book on the agenda for educational reform which the Conservative Party had developed since 1979.[6]

In opposition

After the defeat of the Conservatives, William Hague made her Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and later Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.[4] She returned to the backbenches in 1999[7] and stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election.[4] Her memoirs Shephard's Watch: Illusions of Power in British Politics were published in 2000.[7]

In 2013 following the death of Margaret Thatcher, Shephard published a memoir, The Real Iron Lady, of her time working with the former prime minister.[8]

Life peerage

On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer,[9] and on 21 June 2005 the peerage was created as Baroness Shephard of Northwold, of Northwold in the County of Norfolk.[10]

She is currently Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers.[11] She was Deputy Chair of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission[12] until 2017, when she resigned in frustration with Prime Minister Theresa May's lack of action.[13]

Arms
Coat of arms of Gillian Shephard
Adopted
2006
Coronet
Coronet of a Baroness
Escutcheon
Quarterly Azure and Or three pairs of ears of barley in pale each pair fesswise leaved and with slips inwards and conjoined all counterchanged.
Supporters
On either side a hare Azure gorged with a coronet attached thereto a chain reflexed over the back Or.[14]
Motto
SERVO ERGO SUM
Symbolism
These Armorial Bearings reflect rural Norfolk with blue for the Conservative party.[15]

Honours

References
  1. "Gillian Shephard". BBC News Online. 17 October 2002. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  2. "Shephard's scars". Times Higher Education. 20 September 1996. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  3. "Shephard plans to step down as MP". BBC News Online. 17 September 2004. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  4. "Full list of new life peers". BBC News Online. 13 May 2005. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  5. Reeves, Rachel, 1979- (7 March 2019). Women of Westminster : the MPs who changed politics. London. ISBN 978-1-78831-677-4. OCLC 1084655208.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Radical Educational Policies and Conservative Secretaries of State, Ribbins, P and Sherratt, B, Cassell, 1997, pp. 200-225.
  7. "Hague was wrong to rubbish old guard, says Major loyalist". The Independent. 25 July 2000. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  8. Gillian Shephard (18 March 2013). The Real Iron Lady: Working with Margaret Thatcher. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84954-562-4.
  9. "New peers make Labour giant in Lords". Manchester Evening News. 13 May 2005. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  10. "No. 57684". The London Gazette. 24 June 2005. p. 8245.
  11. "All courtesy titles could go in reform of honours". The Times. 29 December 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  12. "New appointments to the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk.
  13. Harley, Nicola (2 December 2017). "'Little hope of fairer Britain': Theresa May's social mobility tsar quits in frustration as Government focuses on Brexit". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  14. Debrett's Peerage. 2019. p. 4350.
  15. "Arms and the Woman" (PDF). The Heraldry Society. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  16. "Deputy Lieutenant Commissions Lieutenancy of the County of Norfolk". The London Gazette. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  17. "The Rt Hon Baroness Gillian Shephard of Northwold DL - Modern Languages, 1958". St Hilda's College University of Oxford. 29 January 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  18. "Fellows". Queen Mary University of London. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  19. "Honorary degrees to be given to three former cabinet ministers".
  20. "Honorary Graduates of UEA 2018". The University of East Anglia. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
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