Name: Dame Evelyn Redgrave
Age: 44 (Born April 16th 1957)
Gender: Female - 15 points
Ethnicity: White British
Sexuality/Family: Heterosexual, married with 3 children - 0 points
Religion: Church of England - 0 points
Class: Middle Class - 0 points
Avatar: Keeley Hawes
Discord Username: redgrave
Education:
- Willow Fold Junior School (1962-1968) - 0 points
- Surbiton Grammar School (1968-1975) - 5 points
- BA, History and Modern Languages, University of Cambridge (1975-1978) - 5 points
- Secondary Teaching PGCE, University of Durham (1978-1979) - 5 points (MA equivalent)
- Languages Teacher, State School (1979-1989) - 15 points base for state school + 15 points for work with disadvantaged children, applying to all teaching posts
- Headteacher, State School (1989-1996) - 15 points
- Conservative parliamentary candidate, South West Hertfordshire (1996-1997)
Constituency: Hertfordshire South West - elected at 40, 10 points
Faction: No Turning Back
Parliamentary Career:
- MP for South West Hertfordshire (May 1997-present) - 2 points for second term
- Shadow Minister of State for Schools (June 1998-February 2000) - 4 points
- Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (February 2000-present) - 5 points + 1 point for 1 year
- High-level speech on arts funding - 3 points
- Dame Commander of the British Empire - services to education and disadvantaged children - 1995 - A-Team award
Dame Evelyn Redgrave DBE (nee Holman; born April 16th 1957) is a British politician and educator who has served as the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since February 2000. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Member of Parliament for South West Hertfordshire since 1997.
Born in Kingston upon Thames to Nigel and Emmelline Holman, a surveyor and postmistress respectively, Evelyn was raised in the town for the first few years of her life before the family moved to Surbiton in 1961. An only child, Evelyn was a dedicated student at school and keen at sports, the former of which resulting in her scoring well on her 11 plus to attend the local grammar school. Evelyn scored well in her O and A Levels and was encouraged to apply for Oxbridge, which she subsequently did and secured entry.
Evelyn studied History and Modern Languages at Cambridge from 1975 to 1978, subsequently choosing then to study for a further year after graduation for a PGCE so she could become a secondary school teacher. Unable to secure an appointment in a grammar school following her graduation from her PCGE year, Evelyn secured employment as a languages teacher at Widbourne Secondary School in Chichester. She worked at the school from 1979 until 1982 when she moved to Rickmansworth after her marriage.
At Rickmansworth School, Evelyn continued as a languages teacher for four years until she was offered a department headship by the nearby Valley Road School in 1986. At Valley Road, Evelyn continued to teach languages but would later serve as Head of the Languages Department and Deputy Headteacher.
In November 1989, following a poor school inspection, the imposition of special measures and the departure of the incumbent Headteacher, Evelyn applied to become Acting Headteacher and was duly appointed. Faced with the prospect of the school closing within a year unless results improved and a worsening situation of behaviour and standards, Evelyn had her work cut out. She implemented a range of reforms and benefited from the school becoming grant-maintained. Within four years, the school had been rated as Good by inspectors and earned plaudits both locally and nationally for the work undertaken in helping disadvantaged children.
Evelyn remained as Headteacher through a further inspection that designated it as Outstanding and led the school from strength to strength in the mid nineties. For her services to education, Evelyn was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours.
A year later, she resigned as Headteacher upon winning selection by the Conservative Party to be their candidate for South West Hertfordshire, her local seat, at the forthcoming general election. Evelyn’s local connections ensured she won selection, even if her choice was controversial amongst some association members. As the Conservative Party was kicked out of government in 1997, Evelyn was elected in South West Hertfordshire with a reduced majority.
She spent a year on the backbenches in Parliament before being appointed as Shadow Schools Minister in 1998, as part of an initiative by William Hague to put more women into the frontbencher ranks. Just under two years later, in February 2000, Redgrave was named as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in the Shadow Cabinet, a role where she continues to serve as of the 2001 general election.
Her debut in the role was marked by a high profile speech in which she called for greater private sector involvement in arts funding and in bringing the arts to the people. She also attacked the Labour government for wasteful spending in the area, a view that went down controversially in the arts industry.
In her personal life, Evelyn married Philip Redgrave, a chartered accountant, in 1982. The couple have three children, twins Peter and Florence (b. 1983) and Lucy (b. 1987). The Redgrave family live in Berkhamsted where Evelyn’s constituency office is based.
Points Total Summary:
- Gender: Female - 15 points
- Sexuality: Straight, married with >3 children: 0 points
- Age on election: 40 - 10 points
- Education: Grammar School - 5 points
- University: Bachelor’s at Oxbridge - 5 points
- MA / PGCE at Durham - 5 points
- Religion: Protestant Christian - 0 points
- Class: Middle Class - 0 points
- Career: Teacher at State School - 15 points
- Administrator (Head) at State School - 15 points
- Work with disadvantaged students - 15 points
- Parliamentary term: Second - 2 points
- Shadow Minister: - 4 points for 2 year equivalent
- Shadow Secretary of State (Non-GO): 5 points for role + 1 point for a year in service
- Additions: High-level speech - 3 points
