Lord Mayors of the City of Oxford
1962–today
The official document from the Queen authorising the title of Lord Mayor of Oxford is on display in the Town Hall and reads:
ELIZABETH THE SECOND
BY THE GRACE OF GOD OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND AND
OF OUR OTHE REALMS AND TERRITORIES QUEEN
HEAD OF THE COMMONWEALTH DEFENDER OF THE FAITHTo all to whom these Presents shall come Greeting Know Ye that Our will and pleasure is and We
do hereby declare and ordain that from and after the date of these Presents the Chief Magistrate
now and for the time being of the City of Oxford shall be entitled and called LORD MAYOR
OF OXFORD And We do hereby authorise and empower the Chief Magistrate of the said City
of Oxford now and for the time being henceforth at all times to assume and use and to be called
and to be named by the style title and appellation of Lord Mayor of Oxford and to enjoy and use all
and singular the rights privileges and advantages to the degree of a Lord Mayor in all things duly
and of right belonging In Witness whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent
Witness Ourself at Westminster the nineteenth day of October in the eleventh year of Our Reign
This was signed on 19 October 1962, and on 23 October the title of the current Mayor of Oxford, Evan Owen Roberts,
changed to Lord Mayor. In practice, however, the new title bestowed no additional powers, and Jan Morris in Oxford (1965) wrote:
Since 1963 [Oxford] has boasted a Lord Mayor, instead of a plain Mayor, a distinction which it shares
with 18 other English cities and which means, pomp apart, nothing whatsoever.
Men and women who hold the office are given the title of Lord Mayor. The following photograph shows the new Lord Mayor of Oxford Mary Clarkson with outgoing Lord Mayor Susanna Pressel on her right parading through Queen Street on 25 May 2009. Behind them are the new Deputy Lord Mayor John Goddard (who served as Lord Mayor the following year) and the Sheriff of Oxford Elise Benjamin (Lord Mayor in 2011/12)
Below are three former Labour Lord Mayors of Oxford who attended the Remembrance Day Parade in St Giles on 13 November 2005: Carole Roberts (1998/9), Maureen Christian (2000/1), and Gill Sanders (2002/3)
Below: Bill Buckingham (Lord Mayor 1994/5) at the Remembrance Day Parade in St Giles' in 1994:
List of every Lord Mayor of Oxford from 1963 to the present
Their year of office started in May except for the first, Evan Roberts, who was elected plain Mayor in May 1962, but served as Lord Mayor from 23 October 1962 for the last five months of his year of office. The first person to be elected Lord Mayor from the start was Alec Percivel Parker who served from May 1963.
The following is a list only, and there is no plan to add biographies. Where, however, the Lord Mayor in question happens to have an entry in Wikipedia, a link is provided; and a note is made if they have a full entry in the Oxford Dictionary for National Biography (ODNB).
Prior to 1962 only four women served as Mayor of Oxford, but since that date another 21 women (shown in red below) have served as Lord Mayor.
Year of office |
Name and party |
Birth & death |
Notes |
1962/1963 |
Evan Owen Roberts |
Born 3 Mar 1898 |
|
1963/1964 |
Alec Percival Parker |
Born 10 May 1896 |
A master fishmonger known as “Kipper Parker” |
1964/1965 |
John Leonard Norman Baker |
Born 12 Dec 1893 |
Wikipedia and ODNB entry. Photograph |
1965/1966 |
Mrs Florence Kathleen Lower, OBE |
Born 10 Jul 1905 |
Widow of Marcus Lower |
1966/1967 |
Air-Vice-Marshall William
Foster |
Born 21 Aug 1889 |
Wikipedia entry |
1967/1968 |
Francis (Frank) Vincent Pickstock |
Born 22 Aug 1910 |
|
1968/1969 |
Peter Spencer Spokes |
Born 23 Dec 1893 |
Biography on “Oxford at War 1914–1918” |
1969/1970 |
Percy Dudley Bromley |
Born 25 May 1908 |
|
1970/1971 |
Michael Maclagan |
Born 14 Apr 1914 |
Wikipedia entry |
1971/1972 |
Thomas James Meadows |
Born 25 May 1916 |
|
1972/1973 |
Arthur Bernard Conners [sic] |
Born 25 Aug 1907 |
|
1973/1974 |
Frederick George Ingram |
Born 1912 |
|
1974/1975 |
Mrs
Olive Frances Gibbs, née Cox |
Born 17 Feb 1918 |
See her blue plaque |
1975/1976 |
William George Robert Fagg |
Born 30 Jun 1920 |
Oxford Mail obituary |
1976/1977 |
Miss Ann Hazel Spokes, later |
Born 1925 |
Wikipedia entry Daughter of Peter Spokes, Lord Mayor 1968/9 |
1977/1978 |
Mrs Dora Minnie Carr, née Nipress |
Born 8 Dec 1904 |
|
1978/1979 |
William Eaton (Bill) Simpson |
Born 17 Jun 1919 |
|
1979/1980 |
John Arundell Hamilton |
Born 21 Nov 1912 |
Husband of Queenie Hamilton, Lord Mayor 1990/1 |
1980/1981 |
Gordon Woodward |
Born 11 Sep 1918 |
|
1981/1982 |
Henry
Briskol Nicholson Myers Nimmo
(Labour). Succeeded by Mrs Olive Frances Gibbs(Labour) from Dec 1981 to May 1982 only |
Born 14 Dec 1913 |
|
1982/1983 |
Anthony
William Williamson (Labour) |
Born 2 Sep 1933 |
|
1983/1984 |
Mrs
Janet Gillespie Todd |
Born 9 Dec 1917 |
|
1984/1985 |
Frank Arnold
Garside |
Born 1915 |
Mathematician and teacher
at Magdalen College School. |
1985/1986 |
Roger Alan Dudman |
Born 15 Oct 1925 |
Wikipedia entry |
1986/1987 |
John George William Parker |
Born 22 Apr 1914 |
|
1987/1988 |
Councillor Bertie G. Standingford (Labour) Elizabeth Florence Mary |
Born 28 Aug 1921 |
|
1988/1989 |
Nellie Dorothy (“Queenie”) |
Born 3 Nov 1929 |
Oxford Mail obituary |
1989/1990 |
Patricia Anne Tempest Yardley, |
Born 22 Jul 1933 |
|
1990/1991 |
Queenie Lewingdon Hamilton, |
Born 1918 |
Wife of John Hamilton, Lord Mayor 1979/80 |
1991/1992 |
Alan David Pope |
||
1992/1993 |
Barbara
May Gatehouse, |
Born 21 Aug 1926 |
|
1993/1994 |
John Gordon Power |
||
1994/1995 |
William Walker Buckingham |
Born 1921 |
|
1995/1996 |
Joseph Charles
(Joe) Blewitt |
Born 17 Nov 1919 |
|
1996/1997 |
Beryl Ivy Keen, |
Born 24 Sep 1934 |
Report on retirement Wife of Bryan Keen, Lord Mayor 2004/5 |
1997/1998 |
William John (Bill) Baker |
Born 9 Jul 1935 |
|
1998/1999 |
Carole Roberts |
Born c.1944 |
|
1999/2000 |
Valerie (Val) Smith, née Miles |
Died 15 May 2015 |
|
2000/2001 |
Maureen Christian, née Smith |
Born c.1927 |
|
2001/2002 |
Peter Moss |
Died 1 Apr 2006 |
|
2002/2003 |
Gillian Ann (Gill) Sanders |
Died 2022 |
|
2003/2004 |
Patrick (Pat) Stannard |
Born 6 Oct 1938 |
|
2004/2005 |
Bryan Keen (Labour) |
|
Husband of Beryl Keen, who was |
2005/2006 |
Robert John (Bob) Price |
|
|
2006/2007 |
Jim Campbell |
||
2007/2008 |
John Tanner |
||
2008/2009 |
Susanna Pressel |
||
2009/2010 |
Mary Clarkson |
|
Wikipedia entry |
2010/2011 |
John Goddard (LibDem) |
||
2011/2012 |
Elise Benjamin |
|
Wife of Craig Simmons (Lord Mayor 2019/20) |
2012/2013 |
Alan Edmund Armitage |
Born 1950 |
|
Mohammed Abbasi (Labour) |
|||
2013/2014 |
Dee Sinclair |
||
2014/2015 |
Mohammed Abbasi |
||
2015/2016 |
Rae Humberstone |
||
2016/2017 |
Mohammed Altaf-Khan |
||
2017/2018 |
Jean Fooks (née Scott) |
Born 1939 |
|
2018/2019 |
Colin Cook |
||
May 2019 |
Craig Simmons Term extended to 30 November 2020 |
|
Husband of |
Nov 2020 |
Mark Lygo Start of term postponed to 30 November 2020 because of Covid-19 lockdown |
||
May 2022 |
James Fry |
|
Husband of |
May 2023 |
Lubna Arshad |
|
|
May 2024 |
Mike Rowley |
||
May 2025 |
Louise Upton |
|
|
May 2026 |
Chewe Munkonge |
Above: Bill Fagg, Lord Mayor 1975/6
(and also from 21 May to 6 July 1987)
Right: Queenie Whorley, Lord Mayor 1988/9
Election of Lord Mayor of Oxford
The election of Lord Mayor usually takes place in May each year (immediately after any city council elections). Section 37 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 established the date of local elections throughout the country as the first Thursday in May (but this can be postponed by Statutory Instrument to June if it is necessary that the election coincides with those to the European Parliament).
The Lord Mayor's Parade used to place in Oxford each year on the Bank Holiday Monday at the end of May, soon after the new Lord Mayor starts his or her term of office. Here are some photographs:
