Ann Hazel Spokes Symonds (10 November 1925 – 27 December 2019) was a British author and former Lord Mayor of Oxford. [1]
Spokes was born in November 1925, the daughter of Peter Spencer Spokes and Lilla Clayton. Her father founded the Museum of Oxford in 1974. [2] She was a writer on the history of Oxford.
She entered St Anne's College, Oxford in 1944, where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, [3] obtaining her B.A. and Master of Arts. [4] She was a trustee of the Oxford Preservation Trust, having first become a trustee in 1959. [5] She served as Lord Mayor of Oxford in 1976/77 and also as the Chairman of Oxfordshire County Council between 1981 and 1983. [4] [6] Spokes-Symonds chaired Age Concern England from 1983 to 1986. [7] She made a donation towards a statue of Alfred Russel Wallace which has been erected at the Natural History Museum. [8]
In 1980 she married the United Nations official and historian Richard Symonds (1918–2006) [9] [10] and was henceforth known as Ann Spokes Symonds.
She died in December 2019 at the age of 94. [11] [1]
Spokes Symonds' books include: [12]