Williams, Shirley Vivien Teresa Brittain, Baroness Williams of Crosby 1930–, British politician. Daughter of the political scientist and philosopher Sir George Catlin and the novelist Vera Brittain, she entered Parliament in 1964 as a member of the Labour party. She served (1976–79) as education minister in the Labour government, but in 1981 she left the party and became a founder and president (1982–88) of the Social Democratic party (SDP). In Nov., 1981, she was the first SDP member to win election to Parliament; she lost her seat in 1983. Williams was created a life peer in 1993 and served in SDP leadership in the House of Lords, retiring in 2016. She was married to the philosopher Sir Bernard Williams from 1955 to 1974.
See her autobiography (2009).
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