Nancy Wilkinson

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Nancy Wilkinson (29 September 1919 – 21 November 1999) was the winner of the first BBC TV

Mastermind
quiz series in 1972.

Nancy Wilkinson was born Nancy Barbara Constance Bird[1] in London in 1919. She studied modern languages and music at Cambridge from 1937 to 1941, and during World War II worked for the intelligence service at Bletchley Park.[2] On 13 July 1945 she married John Wilkinson,[1] and after some years in Cornwall they lived in Kingston, Cambridgeshire, for the rest of her life.[3] She taught at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now the Anglia Ruskin University).[3]

She was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England from its inception in 1970 until 1989.[3]

In the 1972 Mastermind series her specialised subjects were French literature, European antiques, and the history of music 1550–1900. In 1975 she went on to win a Supermind contest between the first four Mastermind Champions.

Wilkinson died in 1999 at the age of 80.

References

  1. ^ a b The Times, 27 July 1945, page 1
  2. ^ Cambridge Evening News, 18 April 2000
  3. ^ a b c Diocese of Ely – Ely Ensign January 2000