Somerville College is delighted to congratulate Nia Griffith on being made a DBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022, which coincided this year with the Platinum Jubilee.
Nia Griffith MP (1975, Modern Languages) has worked tirelessly to champion the interests of her local community since leaving Somerville, first as a local councillor and more recently as the Member of Parliament for Llanelli. She is widely respected both amongst her colleagues in Wales and on all sides of the House. First elected in 2005, Nia held a number of junior roles within the last Labour government. She was Shadow Secretary of State for Wales in 2015-16 and again in 2020-21, having been Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in 2016-20. Outside of her frontbench commitments, she has always worked to promote issues of human rights, particularly for women and the LGBT community. She is also recognised within the constituency of Llanelli as an effective campaigner, fighting to retain services at her local Prince Philip Hospital, working assiduously to represent the interests of the steel industry, a major employer in her town and as an advocate for her local Women’s Aid organisation, teachers and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers.
We warmly congratulate Nia on her honour and invite any other Somervillian who has been honoured to let us know the good news.
UPDATE: We are delighted also to congratulate Sue Williamson, 1974-78 Modern History and Mod Languages (German) on her receipt of an MBE for services to the Library Sector in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Sue is currently Director, Libraries for Arts Council England.
