UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
Media release
Honorary degrees awarded at Bristol University today
[July 10]
Bristol University is awarding Honorary degrees to three prominent people at today's degree ceremonies in the Wills Memorial Building.
Ms Jane Campbell, MBE, campaigner for disabled people and Disability Rights Commissioner, will receive her degree of Doctor of Laws at the 11.15 am ceremony. Mr Justice Lip Ping Thean, Bristol graduate and former Judge of Appeal at the Supreme Court in Singapore, and Mr Jay Tidmarsh, MBE, the Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol, will both be honoured with the degrees of Doctor of Laws at the 2.30 pm ceremony.
When Jane Campbell was born in 1959 the doctors predicted a life of about a year at the most - they got it wrong. Over the last 40 years Jane has spent her time working at challenging and changing policies and attitudes to disability in our society. From 1991-95 she was chairperson of the British Council of Disabled People.
Jane and her colleagues began politically lobbying for legislation to allow disabled people to receive direct payments. When the legislation was achieved the Government funded the establishment of the National Centre for Independent Living, to help disabled people in local authorities throughout the country put direct payment schemes into practice nationwide. Jane became its Co-Director.
She has also been a member of the Government's Disability Task Force and, subsequently, a member of the Disability Rights Commission set up to monitor implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Twenty years of campaigning for civil rights for disabled people were finally recognised in the Queen's birthday honours last year when she was awarded an MBE.
Lip Ping Thean's family originated in South China. He was born in 1933 in Kuala Lumpur and educated at the Methodist Boys' School there. In 1952 Lip Ping Thean came to study law at Bristol University, graduating in June 1955.
He was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1956 and obtained his LLM in 1957. He returned to Kuala Lumpur and was admitted to the roll of advocates and solicitors of the Supreme Court of the then Federation of Malaya. Then began an outstanding career in legal practice, spanning some 26 years.
In 1960 Lip Ping Thean joined the law firm of Shook Lin & Bok in Kuala Lumpur. In 1984 he entered the judicial phase of his career. He was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore and was elevated as a Judge of Appeal in 1993. He has served part-time as a Judge Advocate in the Military Courts-Martial and later as a member of the Military Court of Appeal.
In February 2002 Lip Ping Thean retired from the Court of Appeal. In March this year he was appointed Chairman of the Securities Industry Council of Singapore, the equivalent of the Panel on take-overs and mergers in this country.
Jay Tidmarsh went to Taunton School for his secondary education. He made his mark initially as a manufacturer and exporter. After a period in the shoe business in Bristol and in Australia, he became the managing director and driving force of Dycem Ltd. He has been Bristol's Lord Lieutenant since 1996.
He was director, and subsequently chairman, of Radio West Ltd, and in 1985 became a founding director of GWR Radio plc. He was also one of the dozen businesspeople who, immediately after the riots in Toxteth, Liverpool, set up the Bristol Initiative in 1992.
He was elected a member of the Society of Merchant Venturers and was their Master in 1994-95. He has been Vice-Chairman of the National Association of Prison Visitors, Chairman, and later President, of the Avon and Bristol Federation of Boys Clubs, patron of the Avon Youth Association, governor of Colston's Collegiate School, and for a while a member of Bristol University's Council. In 1989 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Honours list.
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Email: public-relations@bristol.ac.uk
Copyright: 2001 The University of Bristol, UK
Updated: Wednesday, 10-Jul-2002 13:11:19 BST