Little Shelford's noteable village people
Read about some noteable people in Little Shelford's history here.
Josh Simons, from Little Shelford, became the Labour MP for Makerfield, Wigan in the July 2024 General Election.
He was previously the Director of Labour Together, an influential Labour think-tank. He built a team of experts working with Labour’s leadership and MPs to help develop Labour’s plans to deliver for working people.
Previously, he lived in Bury, Lancashire, with his wife and children. There, he ran for council and served as a Public Governor in the NHS Northern Care Alliance, and helped to create the Civic Power Fund, the first fund to support community organising across the UK.
Josh is also an expert in data, technology, and public services.
His book, Algorithms for the People: Democracy in the Age of AI, was based on his PhD at Harvard University.
Posted July 22 2024
Derek Bishop MBE, who held a number of senior roles in his 37 years in the Army, has died aged 94.
He served in Europe, Asia and Africa.
In the Korean War in 1950 he survived being shot at as one of the 600 strong soldiers of the
Middlesex regiment. 42 of whom died in service,
including the lieutenant who replaced him when Derek was sent home on a language course.
In Greece, Derek was part of a British Infantry brigade supporting the Greek government
during the civil war in 1948
In Paris in 1951, he lived with a Russian family for eight months learning Russian.
Derek was offered the job of Brigade Major of the Parachute regiment in 1959 but a bad parachute accident left his leg in plaster for 8 months so the job was lost.
In 1963 he advised the Brunei Government on its actions to survive a revolt.
In 1968 Derek became a lieutenant-colonel commanding the 5th Battalion the Queen’s Regiment.
In 1970 he was promoted to full colonel and became deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland. This included responsibility for security along the Irish border.
In 1973 Derek was posted to the Ministry of Defence as Head of Defence Intelligence branch 2 responsible for India and the Far East. Derek’s notes written before his death said “I had joined the world of professional spookery which I did not leave until final retirement”. (Not the same as or as exciting as spying).
This role included being Defence and Military Attaché for 3 years in Ankara, Turkey.
Derek’s last army appointment was Head of DI2 and DI3 responsible for intelligence on the ground forces of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc.
Latterly he was part of the Cabinet Office’s intelligence staff.
Altogether, Derek and Brenda lived in 27 different homes before settling into the High Street in Little Shelford.
Brenda has Derek’s full version should anyone be interested.
Ben Orpwood, who grew up in Little Shelford, featured in February 2022 on Great British menu on the BBC.
In May 2023, he opened a London restaurant, 20 Berkeley, with Gordon Ramsay.
Ben’s love of Asian cuisine has seen him spend the most part of his career cooking in Australia and Asia.
He worked at Zuma in London, Istanbul, Dubai, and Toko in Sydney.
He began his career at Queens College, Cambridge under Hans Schwietzer of Cotto. He then joined Zuma as a chef de partie in 2005.
Ben went on to work on the brand’s launches in Dubai and Istanbul then spent five years working across kitchens in Sydney before returning to London to join Sexy Fish. After a stint back at Zuma, he was then hired to open Issho, a Japanese-style concept in Leeds.
The opportunity to work with Gordon Ramsay to develop a restaurant based on Asian cuisine arose for Ben and it has been the greatest milestone in Ben’s career to date. Ben has been Executive Chef at Lucky Cat for the past three years.
Ben would describe his food style as Asian influence, pushing the boundaries of fine dining Asian food.
When he is not cooking, Ben is known to turn out for the Little Shelford cricket team.
Little Shelford resident Professor Andrew Hopper CBE, professor of computer technology in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, was knighted for services to computer technology in the Queen's birthday honours in June 2021.
Being proficient with a soldering iron and having an interest in electronics started Professor Andy Hopper CBE on a career in computer engineering that led to him becoming one of the UK's most successful IT entrepreneurs.
Andy Hopper studied a computer technology degree at Swansea University, which included elements of business studies and accountancy. After completing his studies he moved to Cambridge University to pursue a PhD.
He is probably best known for bridging the boundary between academia and industry and the formation of numerous high-tech businesses. His success in academia led to some of Cambridge's first technology spin-outs. In 1978, Andy Hopper founded Orbis Ltd, to develop networking technologies and during that time he worked with Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry, founders of Acorn Computers. Orbis became a division of Acorn in 1979 and while he was there he designed the chips which led to the creation of the BBC Micro.
The experience of Acorn took Andy Hopper along a path that has seen him establish a dozen or more businesses. In 1986 he and Hermann Hauser established the highly successful Olivetti Cambridge Research Laboratory.
Andy Hopper FREng FRS FIET, who lives in Whittlesford Road in Little Shelford, maintains that research students should become directly involved in the spin-out companies that use their technology. "My fundamental model has not changed in 30 years, which is that a PhD student who works with me is a partner and should become part of the business.
Professor Hopper's next step is to address what computers can do for the environment. He advocates a move towards "energy proportional computing" and computation where every bit of energy is used for a useful purpose or switched off. Although the UK has built up expertise in green computing he emphasises that action needs to be taken soon: "We have got another few years but no more than that.
On a local note Andy has flown round the world in his Cessna 210 departing from and returning to his airstrip at Sainsfoins in Little Shelford.
Caroline Bewes from Little Shelford is a Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire.
A non-Executive Director of Howard Group, a family-owned leading regional property investor and developer founded by her grandfather, Caroline is also a shareholder of the company, and chairs the Family Council.
Caroline takes a keen interest in the local community and is a trustee of a number of charities including the Howard Foundation, Mrs Jane Cart’s Trust, and the Cambridgeshire Police Shrievalty Trust. She is also a Patron of Viva, an arts and community group in Soham.
Recently appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Caroline served as High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire for 2021/22. As High Sheriff, a particular theme for Caroline will be a focus on supporting and enabling young people throughout Cambridgeshire. She will also seek to support the judiciary, the police and the prison services, and looks forward to engaging with the voluntary sector in the county through the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation.
Caroline commented of her appointment: “It’s a real honour to have the opportunity to serve Cambridgeshire in this way. I look forward to supporting and encouraging those involved in crime prevention as well as supporting and enabling young people, especially in these challenging times.”
Updated June 7 2022
Shelford writer Sarah Vaughan's novel, Anatomy of a Scandal, is currently being made into a series for Netflix. It was published in paperback in October 2018. The book appeared in the Sunday Times top 10.
Her most recent novel, Little Disasters, is being published in paperback on March 4 2021. Read Sarah's latest blog about the event.
She saw her first book The Art of Baking Blind published in 2014. The book was published in paperback in August 2015.
Sarah started writing the book in earnest the week her son Jack started school in September 2012 in the same month she turned 40.
She had been mulling ideas over for five months before then. Writing's not in her genes but she did once win a writing comp - Devon Young Writer of the Year - aged ten.
Brenda Bishop helped with this book by lending Sarah old cookbooks from the 1950s and 60s.
One of the character, Kathleen Eaden, is a play on Eden. Sarah took the name with its obvious play from Eaden Lilley in Great Shelford.
Sarah and her family lived in Little Shelford between 2010 and 2021 before moving to Great Shelford in 2021.
She worked at the Guardian from 1997. Her big break was on the weekend Diana died, no one was around and she had to write 2,000 words very quickly. She left the Guardian in November 2008.
She met various celebrities while working in the media. Prime Minister David Cameron signed her mortgage form; she travelled with Tony Blair and interviewed Leonardo di Caprio; Sarah also covered Soham and Sarah Payne and Mirror libel case involving Naomi Campbell and the first Stephen Lawrence hearing.
Sarah's publisher, Hodder is interested in her writing a blog/articles about old family recipes - so if anyone from this era felt like offering her favoured recipes she'd be happy to try them out and perhaps incorporate them. She may even publish some recipes in the back of the book.
* Her fourth novel, Little Disasters, was published in February 2020.
Read how Prime Minister Boris Johnson inspired Sarah
Read Sarah's blog about seeing her first novel on supermarket shelves
Read an exclusive blog by Sarah Vaughan here.
Sarah's personal insight into her thinking behind the book
John Sutherland from High Street, Little Shelford was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2017.
John’s research concerns the origin of life – how did chemistry initiate biology and to what extent did it shape its basic structure and function?
His research to date has focused on establishing prebiotically plausible syntheses of the building blocks of the informational, catalytic and compartment–forming macromolecules crucial to life, and his group is now seeking to establish how these building blocks could have become linked together.
His major contribution has been to show how amino acids, ribonucleotides, lipid precursors and core metabolites are the products of a reaction network based on the reductive homologation of hydrogen cyanide and some of its derivatives. The network does not produce a plethora of other compounds, however, which suggests that biology did not select all of its original building blocks, but was simply presented with a specific set as a consequence of the chem
istry of hydrogen cyanide and that set turned out to work.
His research has been recognised by the award of the Darwin Medal, the Tilden Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and by his being appointed an Investigator of the Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life.
Dr Martin Mansergh is an Irish politician who grew up in Little Shelford who went on to play a vital role in the northern Ireland peace process.
Dr Mansergh is a former Senator and Junior Minister in the Fianna Fail Government as well as being a historian and author.
He was born on 1946 in Surrey and raised in Little Shelford. He was educated and obtained a Doctorate at Oxford University where he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He entered the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs being appointed a third Secretary in 1977.
Mansergh was also a former Diplomat and political advisor to Taoiseach Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern.
As a senior advisor to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Mansergh played a vital role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process and contributed to it greatly in the last 20 years. He was involved in discussions between Nationalist parties and the Irish Government and met regularly with the Redemptory priest, Father Alec Reid. He was a co-winner of the 1994 Tipperary Peace Prize.
In 2008, he was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Minister of State at the Department of Arts and Sports and Tourism. Mansergh was also a member of the Council of State during President Mary McAleese’s second term between 2004 and 2011.
Dr Hugh Pelham, who was the director of the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology who lives in Little Shelford, has been knighted.
Sir Hugh was appointed to head the world renowned Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge in 2006. The cell biologist lives in Manor Road.
After graduating from Cambridge University, Sir Hugh studied for his PhD under Richard Jackson and Tim Hunt, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2001 for “discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle”.
One of the few British female motor racing drivers lives in Little Shelford. Fiona James has worked with horses for many years and her horses have competed nationally and at Olympic level in dressage. Fiona owns a company called Active Equestrian Ltd which she started with Nicola McGivern nine years ago. They specialise in the training, sourcing & breeding of dressage horses, with one of our horses being chosen for the Athens Olympics. www.activeequestrian.com
Fiona's day job is Sports & Remedial Massage for both people & horses. However competing internationally in motor racing at speeds of up to 180mph is her big passion! She started out in 2006 after a driving lesson on a racing track proved she had a talent for driving.
She won her group in the BritSports Championship in her first year. She then achieved several podium finishes in her move up to GT racing in her Ginetta G50 in 2007, 2008 & 2009. Fiona will be making the big step up to GT3 racing in her Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 in the BritCar championship. She will be the only woman in the championships, with races ranging from two to 24 hours long. www.fionajamesracing.com/
Fiona may also being featured in a dedicated TV series on Motors TV. She moved to Little Shelford two years ago. “I had a lucky find with a house in Little Shelford on my first viewing, which was ideal as I have a lot of friends in the area,” said Fiona.
Shaista Tayabali, who lives in Hauxton Road, writes a blog – www.lupusinflight.com – , about her battle with Lupus, which now has followers across the globe. And she also plans to publish a memoir in the future.
She published a book Lupus, You Odd Unnatural Thing in 2021.
Shaista has been helped by immunoglobulin treatment – essentially a dose of good antibodies. She then began lobbying for monoclonal antibody treatment - periodic infusions used to stimulate the immune system.
“I wrote the Primary Care Trust a very emotional letter. This treatment is expensive, but it’s life-changing. I’ve been having it for the last two years. I haven’t had any high fevers, I’ve been able to start my MA. If you added up the cost of my various hospital stays and all the other treatment I was having before, I think it’s well worth it.
“I went to Addenbrooke’s for an infusion this week and I was walking around with a big, stupid grin on my face: this treatment has totally changed my life.”
Paul Leivers has been highlighted as a rising star of the Construction industry after being selected as one of the top 40 to watch over the next decade.
Paul, who lives in High Street, is Managing Director of Planning Manager. He set up the company while still in his 20s. While Planning Manager focuses on large scale construction, which has included Olympics related projects, they have also been involved in the planning and successful delivery of a £50 million yacht.
He has also just set up a construction company called CB1 Build Ltd.