Derry’s Prince of Peace John Hume added to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The latest update of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) has been published and adds the biographies of 276 people “who left their mark on the UK, and who died in the year 2020”.

John Hume was born in Derry in 1937 and during his political career, as a Civil Rights leader, peace advocate, SDLP Leader and Foyle MP would go on to shape the course of Irish history.

John won the Nobel peace prize in 1998 jointly with David Trimble for his contributions to the peace process in Northern Ireland. He was also a pioneer of the Credit Union movement and then a founder member of the SDLP and its leader from 1979 to 2001.

He represented his party in the Northern Ireland Parliament, the European Parliament, the UK Parliament, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

It is stated that he “showed great personal courage in confronting extremism and in trying to find a peaceful solution to Northern Ireland’s problems”.

Mr Hume is joined in the new updated dictionary by his long-time deputy, the late Seamus Mallon, who died the same year.

Born in 1936 in Markethill, Co Armagh, Seamus Mallon was a teacher and headmaster who became involved in the Civil Rights movement and eventually became the first deputy first minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2001, serving alongside Trimble.

Other notable inclusions include Belfast-born Betty Williams (1943–2020), who also won the Nobel peace prize, in 1976 jointly with Mairead Corrigan for her role in founding Women for Peace, which called for an end to the violence in Northern Ireland. She was later a founder of the Nobel Women’s Initiative.

Harry Gregg (1932–2020) who was born in Tobermore, Co Derry, is also among the new additions. Harry was the goalkeeper for Northern Ireland from 1954 to 1963, including in a famous 3-2 win against England in 1957) and for Manchester United from 1957 to 1968, making 210 appearances for club and 25 for country.

He was hailed as a hero of the Munich air crash of 1958 when he went back into the burning wreckage to rescue fellow passengers and team-mates, but for years after was traumatised by the event.

Other prominent figures in the new edition include the actor Sir Sean Connery (1930–2020); the writer of spy novels John Le Carré (1931–2020); singer Dame Vera Lynn (1917–2020); racing driver Sir Stirling Moss (1929–2020); Jack Charlton (1935–2020).

The Oxford DNB is the national record of people “who have shaped British history, worldwide, from prehistory to the year 2020”.

From April 2024 the dictionary includes biographies of 65,230 individuals, written by over 14,000 contributors.