Derry's John Hume added to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume and Manchester United legend Harry Gregg are among those who have been added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

The latest update of the ODNB has been published and adds biographies of 276 people who left their mark on the UK, and who died in the year 2020.

The Oxford DNB is the national record of people who have shaped British history, worldwide, from prehistory to the year 2020. The dictionary now includes biographies of 65,230 individuals, written by over 14,000 contributors.

Two County Derry entries have been recorded – the late Harry Gregg and John Hume.

Born in Tobermore, Harry Gregg was the goalkeeper for Northern Ireland from 1954 to 1963 (including in a famous 3-2 win against England in 1957) and for Manchester United from 1957 to 1968, making 210 appearances for club and 25 for country.

He was hailed as a hero of the Munich air crash of 1958 when he went back into the burning wreckage to rescue fellow passengers and team-mates, but for years after was traumatised by the event.

Tobermore-born Harry Gregg was a former Manchester United footballer.

He passed away at the age of 87 in February 2020.

John Hume, who died in August 2020, aged 83, was a politician widely credited with crafting the Irish peace process.

He won the Nobel peace prize in 1998 (jointly with David Trimble) for his contributions to the peace process in Northern Ireland. A pioneer of the credit union movement and then a founder member of the SDLP and its leader from 1979 to 2001, he represented his party in the Northern Ireland Parliament, the European Parliament, the UK Parliament, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The Derry man showed great personal courage in confronting extremism and in trying to find a peaceful solution to Northern Ireland’s problems.

Other notable figures who have been added to the dictionary include Brian Hutton, who was Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland from 1989 to 1997, and who, earlier in his career had prosecuted Bernadette Devlin for incitement to violence, and represented the Ministry of Defence at the inquests into the deaths on Bloody Sunday in 1972.

Actor Sir Sean Connery, author John Le Carré and singer Dame Vera Lynn are among some of the other famous names to feature in the dictionary.