Son of Sir William [Geoffrey Shakespeare], 2nd Baronet, and Susan Mary, daughter of A. Douglas Raffel, of Colombo, Sri Lanka,[1] his grandfather, Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare, was made a baronet following long service as a member of Parliament and in various senior government roles. While still a student, Tom was featured in a television documentary by Lord Snowdon connected to his 1976 report "Integrating the Disabled" about his restricted growth, along with his father, a prominent medical practitioner, who was also born with achondroplasia.[2][3][4] His mother was a nurse of Sri Lankan Burgher descent.[5]
Shakespeare then lectured in sociology at the University of Sunderland from 1993 and returned to King's College in 1995 to obtain his PhD degree. His father died in 1996 and Shakespeare inherited his baronetcy, but does not use the title. He is also a campaigner for disability rights, a writer on disability, genetics and bioethics and was the co-author of The Sexual Politics of Disability (1996; ISBN0-304-33329-8).[5]
He studied political science at Cambridge University. As a student, he supported liberation movements such as feminism, anti-racism and lesbian and gay rights. During his MPhil, he wrote a book about the politics of disability. He also wrote the book Disability Rights and Wrongs published by Routledge in 2006 and edited Arguing About Disability published in 2009 by Routledge.
Shakespeare giving a speech at De Montfort University in 2017
Shakespeare is (as of 2021) Professor of Disability Research in the medical faculty at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,[10] and was previously Professor of Disability Research in the medical faculty at the University of East Anglia (UEA).[11] At UEA, he conducted research, including one regarding group singing and its beneficial effects against depression and anxiety; the findings were published in the academic journal Medical Humanities.[12]
In 2002 Shakespeare married dancer and disability rights campaigner Caroline Bowditch.[15] By 2010 he had split from his wife and he lived in Geneva with his partner, Alana. He has two children, both of whom also have achondroplasia; his daughter Ivy is a social worker, and his son Robert is a civil servant. His first grandchild was born in 2020. Owing to a spinal cord injury in 2008, Shakespeare mainly uses a wheelchair, but with physiotherapy had regained the ability to walk with leg splints and cane.[5][16]
In 2016 he featured on the ITV show 500 Questions, winning £14,000 by answering 42 out of 50 questions. He received a standing ovation for his efforts.[17] His father's maternal half-brother was Conservative politician Sir Nigel Fisher.[18]
Shakespeare is a Quaker. He delivered the 2020 Swarthmore Lecture titled "Openings to the Infinite Ocean: A Friendly Offering of Hope".
Arms
Coat of arms of Tom Shakespeare
Crest
In front of a portcullis Sable an eagle rising grasping with the dexter claw a spear Or barbed Argent.[19]
Escutcheon
Or on a bend between in chief a portcullis and in base an anchor Sable a spear of the field.
References
^Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 3578
^Defying Disability: The Lives and Legacies of Nine Disabled Leaders, Mary Wilkinson, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2009, pg 83
^'Tom Shakespeare: Academic', in Mary Wilkinson, Defying Disability: The Lives and Legacies of Nine Disabled Leaders (London: Kingsley, 2009), pp. 79-98 (at p. 83).
^"Appendix V. Candidates who Took the Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Tripos between 1900 and 1999", in Michael Lapidge (ed.), H. M. Chadwick and the Study of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in Cambridge, [Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 69–70] (Aberystwyth: Department of Welsh, Aberystwyth University, 2015), pp. 257–66 (p. 264). ISBN978-0-9557182-9-8.
^World Health Organization and World Bank (2011). World Report on Disability. Geneva: World Health Organization.
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