Birthdays

TODAY: Miss Ruth Ashton, former General Secretary, Royal College of Midwives, 60; Mr Robert Bauman, chairman, British Aerospace, 68; Professor Alastair Bellingham, haematologist, 61; Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC, Independent Commissioner for the Holding Centres, Northern Ireland, 73; Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, former prime minister, 87; Mr Robert Cohan, choreographer, 74; Miss Maria Ewing, opera singer, 49; Lord Fanshawe of Richmond, former MP, 72; Mr Nick Hawkins MP, 42; Mr Victor Hochhauser, impresario, 76; Lord Lyell, former government minister, 60; Mr Patrick McCabe, novelist, 44; Mr Geoffrey Parker, chairman, Teacher Training Agency, 66; Lord Plumb, MEP, 74; Mr Mstislav Rostropovich, cellist and conductor, 72; Sir Richard Sharp, former senior civil servant, 84; Admiral Sir Jock Slater, former First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, 61; Professor Margaret Stacey, sociologist, 77; Mr Frank Taylor, former Chief Constable, Durham, 66; Miss Daphne Todd, President, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, 52; Mr Cyrus Vance, former US Secretary of State, 82; Mr Michael York, actor, 57.

TOMORROW

Queen Ingrid of Denmark, 89; Mr Gordon Adam, MEP, 65; Lord Allerdice, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, 44; Sir Dirk Bogarde, actor and writer, 78; Professor Lord Butterfield, former Master, Downing College, Cambridge, 79; Sir Robert Clarke, chairman, Thames Water, 70; Sir Richard Eyre, former artistic director, Royal National Theatre, 56; Mr James Hawley, Lord-Lieutenant for Staffordshire, 62; Professor Peter Hennessy, Professor of Contemporary History, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University, 52; Mr Peter Holwell, former Principal, London University, 63; Mr Nasser Hussain, cricketer, 36; Lord Hutchinson of Lullington QC, former Recorder of the Crown Court, 84; Lord Judd, consultant on social and political affairs, 64; Mr Neil Kinnock, former MP, acting Member of the European Commission, 57; Mr Raymond Lister, artist and writer, 80; Mr Michael Parkinson, television and radio presenter, 64; Sir Derek Roberts, Provost of University College London, 67; Professor Merton Sandler, chemical pathologist, 73; Mr Richard Stilgoe, entertainer, lyricist and musician, 56.