New Honorary Fellows Announced

We are delighted to announce seven new Honorary Fellows from the fields of science, culture, law, defence and finance.

 

Rt Hon the Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE PC LLD FBA

​Lady Hale has just retired as the United Kingdom’s most senior judge. She became the first, and the only, woman ‘Lord of Appeal in Ordinary’ in 2004, after a varied career as an academic lawyer, law reformer and judge. She was educated at Richmond High School for Girls in North Yorkshire and Girton College, Cambridge (where she is now Visitor) and was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1969. She taught Law at Manchester University for 18 years, specialising in family and social welfare law, and also practised for a while at the Manchester Bar.

In 1984 she became the first woman to serve on the Law Commission. There she led the work of the family law team, resulting (among others) in the Children Act 1989 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. She was also a founder member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and chair of its Code of Practice Committee from 1990 to 1994, when she was appointed a Judge of the Family Division of the High Court. She was promoted to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 1999 and in 2004 to the House of Lords. She became Deputy President of the Court in 2013 and its President in 2017.

While at Manchester University she was joint founding editor of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law. She is author and co-author of a number of books, including The Family, Law and Society: Cases and Materials (6th edition 2009) and Mental Health Law (6th edition, 2017). She was a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation from 1987 to 2002 and Chancellor of the University of Bristol from 2004 to 2016 (in which capacity she conferred degrees on thousands of students). She was Treasurer of Gray’s Inn in 2017 . She also helped to establish the United Kingdom Association of Women Judges in 2004 and from 2010 to 2012 served as President of the International Association of Women Judges, a world-wide body of both men and women judges committed to equality and human rights for all.

 

General Sir Chris Deverell KCB MBE

Chris Deverell studied PPE at Mansfield (1979)​

After Oxford, Chris joined the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, stationed on the Inner German Border during the Cold War between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.  Chris spent the first half of his Army service at regimental duty in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Belize, and Germany, interspersed with staff appointments in the Head Office of the Ministry of Defence and education at Staff College and the Royal Military College of Science. This period included serving as a Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence, and as the Commanding Officer of the Joint Nuclear Biological and Chemical Regiment. From 2002 to 2007, Chris served in operational roles in the Permanent Joint Headquarters, in HQ US Central Command in Florida and Qatar, and in command of 4 Armoured Brigade, initially in Iraq and then in Germany.   

From 2007, Chris was employed in a range of capability development and acquisition appointments.  In 2011, he joined the Board of Defence Equipment and Support, initially as Strategy Director, and then, on promotion to Lieutenant General in 2013, as Chief of Materiel (Land). In parallel, he served on the Army Board as the Quartermaster General. 

Promoted General in 2016, Chris became one of the UK Chiefs of Staff, as Commander Joint Forces Command, with responsibility for Special Forces, Intelligence, Cyber, UK Defence use of Space, Information Systems and Services, Operational Command and Control, Education, Medical Services, and the UK’s military operating bases overseas.

Chris was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1990 and appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Bath in 2015. He also has a Diploma from the International Olympic Committee for services to Winter Sports (Bobsleigh and Skeleton).

Since retiring from the Army in September 2019, Sir Chris founded Deverell Innovation Ventures to help complex organisations to innovate. Amongst other things, he is a Venture Partner in a San Francisco Cybersecurity Platform; an Advisor to a real-time event and risk detection business; a Mentor in a seed-stage programme for science-based start-ups at the Saïd Business School; and an External Member of the Council of Oxford University.

 

Sir Ian Blatchford 

Sir Ian studied Jurisprudence at Mansfield (1983)

Sir Ian was Deputy Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Deputy Finance Director at the Arts Council, and Director of Finance at the Royal Academy of Arts. He was later Director and Chief Executive at the Science Museum Group and combined this with the role of Director of the Science Museum.

He was awarded the Pushkin Medal in 2015, and awarded a Knighthood in the 2019 New Year’s Honours for services to Cultural Education. He is currently Chairman of the National Museum Directors’ Council and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

 

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE

Maggie studied at Imperial College, where she obtained her degree in Physics and her PhD in Mechanical Engineering.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a space scientist, science communicator and BAFTA-nominated broadcaster, presenting the BBC’s The Sky at Night among other programmes. She was the lead scientist at Astrium, where she managed observation instruments on a satellite, measuring wind speeds to help the investigation of climate change. She is working on and managing the observation instruments for the Aeolus satellite, which will measure wind speeds to help the investigation of climate change.

She is a pioneering figure in communicating science to the public, specifically school children. She founded and is the managing director of Science Innovation Ltd, a company which engages children and adults all over the world with the wonders of space science.

In 2019 Maggie won Vodafone’s Woman of the Year Innovation Award and sits on the advisory committee for the Young Audience Content Fund at the BFI.

 

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Dingemans

James Dingemans studied Jurisprudence at Mansfield (1983)​

James Dingemans is a serving judge.  He was appointed a High Court judge, receiving a knighthood in the 2014 Special Honours, and assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division. On 21 October 2019, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal as a Lord Justice of Appeal.

Sir James has a longstanding interest in encouraging a strong and diverse entry to the legal profession and was in charge of pupillage in Chambers at 3 Hare Court 1993 to 2002.  He was chairman of the Outreach and Recruitment Committee for Inner Temple from 2009 to 2014. 

Sir James was Chairman of International Committee of the Bar Council of England and Wales (2008-10) and Chairman of the Commonwealth in England Bar Association (CEBA) (2009-11). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association and is now a member of Council of the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association.  He was made a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 2006.

 

Sarah Harkness

Sarah Harkness studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Mansfield (1980)

Sarah Harkness is an experienced finance professional who has worked at the highest level in a range of roles and organisations. She began her executive career in banking and in 1992 was appointed Corporate Finance Director of NatWest Markets. Six years later she moved to Arthur Andersen, where she remained until 2002. Sarah left this role to launch the corporate division of Directorbank Executive Search Ltd, which specialised in non-executive recruitment.

While there, Sarah took on several non-executive roles in the private sector, as Director on the board of Homestyle Group PLC, a retailer with an annual turnover of £400m, as Trustee of Sheffield Theatres Trust and as Chair of McInnes Corporate Finance.

She has been Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit at JRI Orthopaedics Ltd and served as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. She served as a lay member of the Audit Committee of the University of Birmingham and is now a Non-Executive Director of Card Geotechnics Ltd, and a Trustee of Orthopaedic Research UK and of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

Sarah has served as a Non-Executive Director on various boards within the NHS for most of the last twenty years, including NHS North of England Strategic Health Authority, the Trust Development Authority and NHS Improvement . Sarah now chairs the Audit Committee of Oriel College, Oxford.

 

Admiral Sir Philip Jones GCB DL

Philip Jones studied Geography at Mansfield (1978)​

On completion, he saw active service in the South Atlantic in 1982 in the Amphibious Assault Ship HMS FEARLESS, and also served in HM Yacht BRITANNIA. He has commanded the frigates HMS BEAVER (as a Commander) and HMS COVENTRY (as a Captain), the Amphibious Task Group (as a Commodore), UK Maritime Forces (as a Rear Admiral) and the Fleet (as a Vice Admiral). He was Assistant Chief of Naval Staff, in the Ministry of Defence, for the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

On promotion to Vice Admiral in 2011, he served as Deputy Fleet Commander and Chief of Staff Navy Command Headquarters, and then in 2012 he became the Fleet Commander and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff.

Philip was made a Companion of the most honourable Order of the Bath in 2012, promoted to Knight Commander in 2014 and Knight Grand Cross in 2020. In 2016 he became First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, the professional head of the Royal Navy. He retired from the Navy in 2019.

 

 

See our full list of Emeritus and Honorary Fellows.