Mary Archer

Born in 1944 at Epsom, Surrey, the younger daughter of Harold Norman Weeden and Doreen née Cox, she attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, before reading chemistry at St Anne's College, Oxford. She pursued further studies in physical chemistry at Imperial College London, taking a PhD (Londin): her thesis was titled "Heterogeneous catalysis of inorganic substitution reactions" and was submitted in 1968. ==Career==

Archer was elected a junior research fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford, from 1968 to 1971. She was then a temporary lecturer in chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford for the 1971/72 academic year. From 1984 to 1991, she was a director of the Fitzwilliam Museum Trust and a non-executive director of Mid Anglia Radio plc between 1988 and 1995. Archer joined the Council of Lloyd's in 1988, becoming Chairman of ''Lloyd's Hardship Committee'' the following year, From 1988 to 2000, Archer chaired the National Energy Foundation, which promotes improving the use of energy in buildings, becoming its President then Patron. President of the UK Solar Energy Society (UK-ISES), she is a Companion of the Energy Institute and was awarded its Melchett Medal in 2002. Between 1991 and 1999 she sat on the Council of the Cheltenham Ladies' College. Between 2005 and 2008, she led a pioneer NHS-funded initiative to create patient decision aids for patients with localised prostate cancer (or BPH). In 2007 she was awarded the Eva Philbin Award of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland. and was deputy chair of ACT (Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust) from 1997 to 2015. In 2015, she led a group to create an online PDA and information/advice for bladder cancer patients in Addenbrooke's Hospital, and across the Anglia Cancer Network. A Trustee of the Science Museum Group from 1990 to 2000, then Chairman from 2015, on 24 February 2020, Archer was installed as Chancellor of the University of Buckingham. She serves as Chairman of the Salters' Institute, and in 2024 was appointed Chairman of the Royal Parks Board. ==Honours==

breast star Appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for "services to the National Health Service". Dame Mary Archer Way, the link road between Addenbrooke's and the Rosie extension, was named by Cambridge City Council in 2013 by way of recognising the achievements of its former chairman. Dame Mary Archer is a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Salters. ==Personal life==

She married Jeffrey Archer in July 1966, whom she met at Oxford University when he was studying for a diploma in education. In the summer of 1974, the Archers were struck by a financial crisis when Jeffrey lost over £400,000 in a bad investment. Faced with the threat of bankruptcy, the Archers were forced to move out of their large house in The Boltons. Mary took up a teaching post at Cambridge University which, together with her husband's eventual success as a novelist, saved them from financial ruin. In 2001, when Jeffrey Archer was prosecuted for having committed perjury and for perverting the course of justice in the 1987 trial, she appeared at the Old Bailey as a defence witness. Jeffrey Archer was subsequently convicted and imprisoned for perjury and perverting the course of justice. The trial judge, Mr Justice Potts, questioned the veracity of Lady Archer's evidence, suggesting that she too had perjured herself. In 2003, she sued her former personal assistant, Jane Williams, over her breach of confidentiality. Archer was granted a permanent injunction against Williams plus £2,500 damages, for her claim she misappropriated confidential documents about the Archer family, and had contracted the sale of the personal information to the media which was then published by the Sunday Mirror newspaper. Williams had previously taken Archer to an industrial tribunal on a complaint of unfair dismissal; the complaint was dismissed by the panel in 2002. Lady Archer underwent major surgery for bladder cancer in 2011. Mary and Jeffrey Archer live at the Old Vicarage, Grantchester, near Cambridge. They have two sons. ==Other==

She sings first alto and in 1992 released a CD of Christmas carols, titled A Christmas Carol. ==References==