Birthdays

TODAY: Mr Larry Adler, mouth organist, 82; Mr Robert Alston, High Commissioner to New Zealand, 58; Mr Michael Apted, film director, 55; Field Marshal Sir Nigel Bagnall, former Chief of the General Staff, 69; Mr Peter Benson, former company chairman, 79; Sir Michael Bishop, chairman, British Midland Airways, and Channel 4 Television, 54; Miss Olwyn Bowey, landscape and portrait painter, 60; Dr Alexander Comfort, physician and novelist, 76; Miss Roberta Flack, singer, 58; Mr James Alexander Gordon, radio announcer and presenter, 60; Professor John Heslop-Harrison, botanist, 76; Mr Keith Mans MP, 50; Field Marshal Lord Milne, 87; Mr Greg Norman, golfer, 41; Lord Orr-Ewing, former MP, 84; Mr Nicholas Owen, television presenter and correspondent, 49; Gp Capt Sir Gordon Pirie, former Mayor of Westminster, 77; Miss Leontyne Price, soprano, 69; Sir Idwal Pugh, former chairman, Chartered Trust, 78; Sir Christopher Rose, a Lord Justice of Appeal, 59; Mr Mark Spitz, swimmer, 46; Mr Robert Wagner, actor, 66.

TOMORROW: Sir John Arbuthnot, former MP, 84; Sir Ronald Arculus, former diplomat, 73; Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Berger, former Bursar, Selwyn College, Cambridge, 71; Mrs Marilyn Butler, Rector, Exeter College, Oxford, 59; Sir Alexander Cairncross, former Master, St Peter's College, Oxford, 85; Mr Bevan Congdon, cricketer, 58; Mr James Couchman MP, 54; Mr Christopher Dearnley, organist, 66; Mr Patrick Leigh Fermor, author, 81; Sir Archibald Forster, former chairman and chief executive, Esso UK, 68; Sir Vivian Fuchs, Antarctic explorer, 88; Mr William Fullerton, ambassador to Morocco, 57; Mr Bryan Gould, Vice-Chancellor, Waikato University, New Zealand, 57; Miss Anne Gregg, broadcaster, 56; Mr Win Griffiths MP, 53; Mr Michael Jackson, Controller, BBC 2, 38; General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, 56; Mr Leslie Nielsen, actor, 70; Miss Mary Quant, fashion designer, 62; Mr Burt Reynolds, actor, 60; Baroness Sharples, former director, TVS, 73; Mr Dennis Skinner MP, 64; Miss Kim Stanley, actress, 71; Mr John Surtees, motor and motor- cycle racing champion, 62; Mr E.W. Swanton, sporting author and BBC commentator, 89; Miss Mary Tregear, art historian, 72; Mr Malcolm Walker, chairman and chief executive, Iceland Group, 50.